We Thought We Were Free

Collective awakening is happening too slowly to confront the takeover

I find it amazing how muted the reaction is in the US to the rapid-fire Fascistic deconstruction of the US Government by Trump, Thiel, Musk and the DOGE boys, along with the shredding of the Constitutional system of checks and balances and the dismantling of agencies meant to regulate financial services, banks, private companies, and so on (including all of the watchdogs pursuing Musk’s businesses). Of course, there are some protests happening. But if this was happening in a Western European country, people would be out in the streets in massive force, screaming their heads off.

When I speak to various random people and even friends here in New York City about what’s underway, I find most are amazingly uninformed and ignorant. They don’t pay attention. Many remain seduced by the entrepreneurial aura surrounding Elon Musk, who marketed himself successfully over the last decades as the great “Savior” of techno-Capitalism. Many people still see DOGE, vaguely, as a noble enterprise instead of what it is: A naked power grab. Some of them are investors in cryptocurrency, some work in tech, some are musicians, some guide psychedelic sessions. Most of them still consider AI to be a thrilling and largely beneficial technology, without assessing its utility for technocratic totalitarianism. They don’t seem to realize that this radical social transformation will impact their lives also. They are largely checked out. By the time enough of us realize the full extent of what is happening, it may be too late to do much.

Actually I just “vibe checked” my neighbors working quietly on their laptops next to me at my local cafe, and what I found was a sense of inevitability and capitulation (one of them is a freelance recruiter for Palantir). They tend to think that protests wouldn’t change anything and it is already too late to interrupt the fast slide into technocratic control. They are young people in their twenties and thirties: I can’t believe they are ready to foreclose their futures like this.

I believe that belief creates reality: With this dispirited capitulation, without a fight, we set ourselves up for the worst possible outcome.

I found this entry from Reddit (below) to be bracing and clarifying. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Before going into this, I want to explain why I think it is useful. The mainstream media is still equivocating, as in the NY Times today where Nicholas Kristof muddies the issue by writing:

𝐼 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 1930𝑠 𝐺𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑑 𝑅𝑒𝑖𝑐ℎ; 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑 “𝑓𝑎𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑚” 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑑𝑑𝑦 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑓𝑦. 𝐻𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠, 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡.

𝐷𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑛-𝑜f𝑓 𝑠𝑤𝑖𝑡𝑐ℎ 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎 𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑙. 𝑊𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑁𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ 𝐾𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑎, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑤𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑉𝑖𝑘𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑂𝑟𝑏𝑎𝑛’𝑠 𝐻𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑦. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑠: 𝐿𝑒𝑓𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑉𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑧𝑢𝑒𝑙𝑎 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑁𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑢𝑎, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑠𝑜 𝑖𝑛 𝐻𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑦, 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑎 𝑎𝑛𝑑 (𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒) 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑈.𝑆. 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑒.

It is almost as if the role of the MSM at this point is to “soft sell” the rapid slide into Fascism. We are all frogs in hot water but the temperature is rising quickly now.

When we realize the situation, it presents us more starkly with our options: We can leave the country, we can resist, we can cooperate. At least we know.

Also, we can recognize that those who continue to support the regime are Fascists, however else they may care to define themselves, even if they are Day-Glo-sporting Burning Man MAHA hipsters or eloquent cryptocurrency idealists. We can also consider the lifecycle of Fascist regimes from examples around the world: They can be stopped by an awakened populace, as happened in Poland. I believe it requires 3.5% of the people to get into the streets.

I found the long compilation of sources and links to be helpful. Perhaps, cumulatively, this list can help convince Americans who still seem detached and uncertain about what is happening. Please forward it to the unfocused and let me know what they say. More accurate than Kristoff is this:

𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 Reddit 𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙘𝙚𝙨:

Fascism in the US is inevitable at this point, for simple reasons presented below. There is a list of sources & evidence for these claims further down.

The current administration is eliminating all of their internal opponents, removing any and all checks-and-balances to their power, and committing blatantly criminal acts with no consequences. With this precedent, the leaders of the US government now essentially have free reign to do whatever they want while legally removing any opposition. A precedent like that can't be easily taken back. This means that if a different group were to gain control of the government then they would in theory also gain these powers, and they might use them to prosecute the last government for what they've done or otherwise dismantle their plans.

Once you get in a position of unlimited power you can't let your enemies have it or else they might use it against you. So, the current administration and its allies now have the most extreme incentive possible — their very survival — pushing them to remain in control. There is no coming back from law breaking of this magnitude. 𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚, 𝙞𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙣𝙤𝙬, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜. A choice like that is no choice at all.