There's Always a Beginning
How and when fascist collapse starts.
You don’t just wake up in a dystopian nightmare.
And yet, that’s how it usually happens in fiction. Whether it’s a movie, a book, or a television show, you’re just dropped right into the middle of it. Sometimes, the protagonist literally emerges from a coma.
For a long time, I wondered why.
Today, I figured it out.
First, an anecdote:
Almost ten years ago, during Trump 1.0, a full professor walked up to me after a conference presentation on the rhetoric of resistance. He told me I was worried about nothing. “America can afford to mess around.”
“Your ideas…” He smirked, then giggled.
“Sorry,” he said.
Today, I woke up to our president announcing that he considers an American celebrity “not in the best interests of our Great Country,” and he’s currently “giving serious consideration to taking away her citizenship.” She was born in the U.S., and so was her mom. Regardless of executive orders and court cases, this is what the president has always…