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America In 2030: The Hateful Ones

Date:

So here's something a bit different: a political post. I made this blog to primarily talk about technology related topics, but the state of the world is quite the mess and I'm long overdue for a good rant, so here we are.

However, this time I won't attempt to substantiate what I say with links or sources. I won't try to claim that what I say is true: as far as you're concerned, read everything below the following line as fiction. If you want, have a look at how much of it coincides with the reality that we live in, but that's on you.

Where we are in 2025

As a European, the state of the USA and the recent political movements in Europe is concerning, to say the least. America is not in a good state and I reckon that it will get worse, I think it wouldn't be out of place to say that the American democracy is somewhere between being in the process of dying or already being dead and that fact just needing acknowledgement.

Trump claimed no relation to Project 2025 and now it's coming true and they're implementing all of it, step by step. The American political system is supposed to be a democracy but there's also been more or less a full power grab by the political right: they have the majority in the Supreme Court, the Congress and they have the president. Even among the republicans, anyone who doesn't follow the party line most likely will be ousted, nobody is going to vote on laws on a per-issue basis. They have control.

There was some right winger from the Heritage Foundation that said that there's a revolution in progress and that it will be bloodless, if the political left lets it be. It seems that the left did nothing of consequence and that it happened.

Now, blatantly illegal things will follow. What if the blue states will refuse to follow undemocratic orders by the government, or refuse to spread their rhetoric? Attempts to cut their federal funding will be made. You think that the Democrats can fight back with obstructionism and trying to draw out hearings when laws are made for as long as possible? I'd say that it's only a matter of time until such attempts lead to the people in question being escorted out.

The idea of following procedure and any notion of decorum will probably only be for show and taken into account when it benefits them. "Us vs them" rhetoric will prosper and they won't even attempt to reach across the aisle and work together, or whatever the now-dead phrase was supposed to be. They have no need to do that. It's far easier to abuse their power and even lower themselves to using slurs against people that they don't like, because while they were supposed to represent their constituents, it seems that a large amount of them would be cheering them on.

Once they've grabbed the power, it's unlikely that they'll exactly want to give it up. I would say that it's not out of the question that Trump might try for a third term, in a way that also excludes relatively well liked politicians like Obama from running again. So many changes will be made to the structure of the government and its agencies, that even if the democrats ever regain control of it, they'll be paralyzed and won't be able to do anything, leading to the public opinion of them falling lower.

This administration will be blatantly two faced: they and their followers were against things such as student debt forgiveness ("I had to pay my full share of student debt, why would these kids be free of it? That's unfair to me!"), but now will throw around the idea of abolishing property tax or anything else that would benefit them, after their sponsors no doubt profiting greatly from acquiring as much real estate and resources as possible.

The modern day America will most likely end up somewhere between being a dictatorship and kleptocracy, or maybe just an oligarchy.

The economy and corruption

Largely, the population of the country will be robbed under the pretense of cost cutting, their social services will be gutted, not that the people in charge care about any of those.

An uneducated populace is easier to manipulate and they're more likely to be hateful, so Department of Education will be ruined. Workers' rights and regulations hurt their bottom line, so the likes of OSHA will be dismantled. They will even attempt to fire a lot of people in the Federal Aviation Administration, even if it causes more aviation accidents to happen. Once that crisis arises, they'll attempt to blame it on the former administration's practices and will replace the former federal employees with those of their own, as an expensive private sector contract.

You wanted tax cuts? They will cut taxes for the rich. They won't care about your healthcare or any benefits that you might eventually need, but probably will increase the funding for the military and the police, attempting to build even more of a police state. The right wants a small government and they will succeed at that - the government getting so small that you will either end up with a King, or all of the power just being in the hands of a few oligarchs.

What's worse, they can make you thank them for it. They are in control of the media and anyone attempting to truthfully report on news, or even not bend a knee to whatever agenda they are pushing, will be swiftly barred from reporting on them. Just look at Associated Press and what happened to them. The oligarchs also own a lot of the tech companies and Big Tech as a whole, so they will manipulate the public opinion freely. They are crafting terms of service that specifically permit hate speech against certain groups of people that they don't like, but not vice versa.

We live in a time where the line between opinion and fact has been more or less destroyed. Channels like Fox will spew propaganda all the time and people will listen to it as much as the citizens of Russia do. They will praise the government that's stomping all over the values that the country was founded upon and they will celebrate it. And what about the courts? What has happened so far shows that they will either do nothing, Trump being a convicted criminal that is seeing no punishment, or that attempts to do anything will be completely ineffectual.

What do you think happens when the administration gets a court order to follow the law... and they choose not to? There is no integrity or respect at play here. It's blatant to the point where Trump launched his own crypto coin and scammed people out of billions of dollars (though it wouldn't be surprising if it was a thinly veiled bribe) and yet there is no outcry about this. There is no liability.

The rise of authoritarianism and demise of democracy

There are also no checks and balances in place anymore. You have the likes of Musk, an unelected non-government employee digging around the personal data of millions of Americans. That's illegal, you say? Well, it will be made legal, first with claims that it is, then with procuring whatever documents are needed to keep up the theater of the rule of law.

Even if it means having a bunch of college kids with no oversight digging around systems that sometimes contain classified information. Even if it means them being unqualified enough to inadvertently leak it on social media, when attempting to make an unrelated point. There are no laws, if there is no enforcement of them. There are no laws, if the people who should enforce them choose not to. At that point, they're just words on a piece of paper, a historical record of some intent. Nothing more.

They will also freely remove any information that might contradict them. Decades of research will be removed and even if not, then just outright disregarded. Bad science will be praised, whenever it backs up whatever points they want to make, be it something like the Cass Review, or something that tells them that clearly they should use more fossil fuels. They don't care for the nerds who respect the scientific method. Science is just a tool to take advantage of the Appeal to Authority fallacy, nothing more.

When people resign from their offices in protest, normally this would be a warning sign - if qualified specialists with a track record of years of good discourse are leaving, that means that something is severely wrong. Yet, that is exactly what they want. To them, it is a political win, to be shouted from the rooftops, that they have gotten rid of the old administration and will replace everyone with "yes men".

It's also not just the "us vs them" rhetoric and the claims about an enemy within, which draws historical parallels. They will also blatantly forge documents and change numbers around to say whatever they want, there are no watchdogs in place and any fact checking is also being quickly dismantled. That's how you get claims made by the likes of DOGE, that they're saving money on an 8 billion USD contract that they've gotten rid of, even when the actual sum is 8 million USD instead, because they just added a few zeroes in their information systems and called it a day.

There are also blatant claims that soon there "won't be blue states", as well as bragging about how they "know the voting machines" and that soon people "won't have to vote". That's about as clear of a signal that you can get, that they'll both try to destabilize any of the states that don't share their political affiliations, nor that whatever elections might happen in the future will be remotely fair.

Attacks on women's rights, the theocracy

All of this started a while before the current election, as their compatriots were installed in high government seats, such as the Supreme Court, where the justices have lifetime tenure.

That's how you the likes of Dobbs v. Jackson - meaning that states in the country can restrict the rights of the people to access abortion, already done in great deal in the deeply religious and conservative states. To date, dozens of states have shamelessly done that and celebrate it as some sort of a victory, even in the cases where it is necessary to save the life of the mother. It shouldn't be surprising that many people on the political right have a disdain for women and their rights.

It's not the party of "pro choice", it's the party of pro birth. They don't care what happens to the kids afterwards, something as simple as looking at how many voted against free school lunches should be telling. They pretend to not understand or just don't care that if abortions are forbidden, then children will be brought into this world in relationships where the parents cannot properly start a family due to financial issues and weren't planning or doing so, or in cases that are much worse. This ruling will ruin lives, if not outright end many, just because the religious people believe that a human being in the making should be prioritized over the people that are living now.

I wouldn't be surprised if the logical reaction is something like the 4B movement in Korea, where women choose not to associate with the men who hold such beliefs - no dating them and no marriage, presenting a more extremist feminist view, but in this case one where plenty of women would be pushed in that direction by these rulings, since they need to stay safe themselves.

The thing is, that the government shouldn't have a say in a woman's bodily autonomy. That is none of their business and it definitely shouldn't be the business of some religious extremists that don't even view women as equals. I'm not sure whether Americans were too misogynist to vote for a woman and had too much internalized misogyny for that ("I don't think a woman could do the job.") but the end result is that it hurts countless women across the country.

All of this is happening, while they are suggesting that there should be religious classes in school and while many states are staunchly against science, like wanting to teach Intelligent Design instead of the Theory of Evolution, while they don't want to teach sex-ed which also talks about things like contraception and the idea of consent, but want to leave people unprepared for the realities of adulthood.

Freedom of religion should also mean freedom from religion, to whoever wants that. In their minds, instead, everyone should follow their teachings, not atheism, not agnosticism, not even other religions. Not even their own religion, not reading the overall intent of books like the Bible, but instead praising a selective interpretation that lets them be more hateful and manipulate people to their heart's content.

Don't you think that it might be within their sights to target women's voting rights soon after? Or even something like no-fault divorce? The Republican party cares so much about women and children that they replaced a "DEI hire" with a "DUI hire" and support a president that's received sexual misconduct allegations.

Attacks on diversity and LGBTQ+

It doesn't end there, there's also an attack for numerous programs of diversity, equity and inclusion. It's curious that the right wingers seldom say the full thing out loud, but usually just prefer to shorten it to DEI, because that's easier to rally against without even giving what you're standing against some thought. I believe that equality of opportunity is more important than equality of outcome, but it seems that these people just use the concept as some thinly veiled excuse for racism and bigotry, which they now celebrate.

They will try to remove anyone who doesn't look or act like them from any position they can, claiming that they were a "DEI hire", which was there in the first place to compensate for the biases in the hiring processes due to the status quo. It's quite absurd, how direct they are being. Honestly, nowadays you can't even enjoy a video game, a movie or a show, because these right wing grifters also attempt to wage their culture war and attempt to belittle a work of art, just because the creators fit any number of social groups that they don't like.

Of course, it's much more serious than that. Not only do they spread their hateful rhetoric which might translate into the violence, but the likes of Tate, Peterson and Rogan corrupt the minds for the generations to come. Peterson and Rogan don't seem to have started out this way, but shifted their views to the right when it became profitable to do so, very much having no ethics themselves. It's the same as Trump posing with a rainbow flag that one time, but dropping support for any LGBTQ+ groups when he decided that hate earns more attention and support.

Social programs will be cut. Attempts to rewrite history will be made, like the history of the Stonewall riots. Science which contradicts the right wing culture war claims will be censored and replaced with faux science that does, such as studies that show that the trans people who receive gender affirming care have low regret rates and experience increased quality of life. Out of the ones that don't, the majority of bad outcomes are due to social pressures - probably these very same conservative people not having it in their hearts to respect others and be nice to them. They will even claim that surgery is done on minors, when it plainly isn't. They will exaggerate the effects of puberty blockers, when the people that take them for other medical reasons don't seem to have horrible complications.

They are going to use words like "mutilation" and force trans people to get passports which don't match who they are. They don't care about the difference between sex and gender. They will claim that an Olympic boxer was trans, when in actuality she was just a cis woman, to support their own arguments. There is no regard for truth here. The cruelty is the point. I'd be surprised if they didn't try to prosecute LGBTQ+ people more, like is already done against people of color due to institutionalized racism. I'd be surprised if they didn't crack down on the groups, much like China has also done in the past, as well as Russia describing something as simple as gender identity as "radical extremism".

It's the same as with the "groomer rhetoric" or trying to claim that drag shows or whatever are somehow an affront, all while the majority of the crimes committed against other people are due to those right wingers (including priests and religious figures, even). It's odd to see the gay community figuratively throwing trans people under a bus, when they themselves would have been the target of similar rhetoric a few decades ago. Come to think of it, don't you think that gay marriage will also be under attack now?

It's hard to listen to the inauguration speech and the newly elected president speaking about how they will have a golden age and that they will build great things together... all while tossing so many people aside. Since when are the LGBTQ+ people not Americans? Do they not deserve your golden age? Sounds like hypocrisy and doublespeak to me, or rather just ignorant populism.

Attacks on the climate and nature

It doesn't end there either. How about eco terrorism against his own countrymen? Deploying the military to California to release water from dams, from their water reserves. Close to 10 billion liters of water released downstream, with it being wasted in the winter season, and because it would have never made its way down to Los Angeles in the first place. Claiming that it would have helped with extinguishing wildfires, while the Southern California already has historically high water levels and it wouldn't have helped at all.

Water, which, mind you, was there in the first place as a reserve due to the risk of having a hot and dry summer, now actually putting farmers in California at risk. They are either stupid or malicious beyond belief. Neither option looks good, their actions are exactly the kind of thing that makes you think about the Aral sea.

This is the same sort of ignorance that lead to them dropping out of the Paris Agreement and without a doubt they'll do whatever they can to extract as much natural resources from their land as possible, the environment and even things like the quality of drinking water be damned. They couldn't care less about that, about biodiversity, about sustainability, anything.

Do you not think that climate science will more or less either cease to be a thing, or will get lots of falsified records that say that everything is okay, leaving the coming generations to deal with the consequences?

Israel and Gaza

What about the people who voted against Harris due to spite over the situation in Gaza? The new administration is even more militant and intent on giving Israel whatever they need to do whatever they want.

The situation in the Middle East isn't inconceivably difficult. Let me break it down:

The people suffering in any conflict the most are the civilians, both on the side of Israel and Palestine. You don't get to crash a musical concert and commit untold atrocities. You don't get to take hostages or build bases under hospitals. You don't get to call groups of people "animals". You don't get to starve people. You don't get to level city blocks where civilians live.

Defend yourself, but if you claim that you've done no war crimes, then clearly you should stand in front of ICC with no worries. If you ask me who are the "good guys" in that conflict, I will simply say: "Israel is clearly culturally closer to the West, but right now neither of the military forces in the area are good in an absolute sense, not even close."

Yet, the voters think that choosing the more warmongering candidate as a protest against less-than-ideal handling of the situation was a good choice. A candidate that says that the conflict would have never happened with him in power, a claim that's also clearly impossible to prove or disprove, but sounds nice to his supporters. Do you think that the current administration will try to get Israel to show restraint, or will they try to instead profiteer from the conflict and its consequences as much as possible?

Ukraine and Russia

Speaking of badly handled situations: Ukraine.

Russia occupied a part of the country in 2014. Then, in 2022 they attempted to take the whole country. Russia is the aggressor in the conflict, that much is clear. Ukraine deserves to defend its borders, that much is obvious. The way they have treated the conflict and those captured in it, even Israel could learn from them. If the US wanted to support countries that need to buy a lot of military equipment, then selling arms to Ukraine would earn them a lot of good will with Europe. Even if it was just donating the Cold War equipment that would need to be decommissioned anyways.

I'm not saying that Ukraine is perfect, of course it isn't, but when they signed the Budapest Memorandum and gave up their nuclear arms, imagine how they must feel when one of the countries that were supposed to "assure" their safety (the specific wording actually being quite useless if you read into it) ends up starting an invasion of them, all while refusing to even call it a war, which is what it is.

I will say that I don't hate the Russian people, or someone with Russian heritage. They have a rich history and art. At the same time, it would be delusional to listen to a single word coming from their government in the past decades sincerely, the same government that is stealing their future and suppressing anyone who wants to live in a democratic country. Demagogues like Lavrov should be evidence enough.

And now, when Trump is asking Ukraine to give up hundreds of billions in natural resources, all just to have the privilege of giving up parts of their country to the aggressor, while not being allowed to join NATO, knowing that the captured territories and those resources would also be stolen... am I the only one that can't help but to think of Molotov and Ribbentrop? It's so obvious that they're even threatening to shut off Starlink if Ukraine doesn't cave to the American demands.

The list of Russia's red lines that have been crossed is long, lines that they draw in blood on soil that they have no business on being, yet somehow we're not all living in a nuclear winter right now. So clearly America now thinks that the correct option is to blame Poland, excuse me, Ukraine for being invaded and to chop it up and give a significant part of the country to the aggressor... while not even intending to let European powers to participate in these fake peace talks.

It's actually quite clear that Trump views Putin as more of an ally than those who are in charge of actual democratic powers, perhaps because he finds Putin closer to how he himself wants to govern. If birds of a feather flock together, then I guess that must also apply to dictators. Imagine selling out an independent nation that is aligning itself with Europe to a dictatorial regime that your country spent the entire Cold War preparing to defend against.

At this point you might as well say that the "MAGA" movement is patently un-American because it stands for Russia, with such statements as "I'd rather be Russian than Democrat." Or worse yet, maybe that's exactly what America stands for nowadays. They are selling Ukraine out. They will lie however they want, claim that the Ukrainian government doesn't have the support of its people and how much of a tragedy all of the people dying is, without confronting the fact that nobody asked Russia to invade the country. They will blame Biden for the actions of Putin, the blame will never be put where it should be.

Fear mongering about WW3 will soon follow. Someone will probably ask whether you would be willing to end the world if your neighboring country just took one of your towns. How about a city? A region? What these people are missing is that placating dictators by giving them more land didn't exactly work out great the last time.

Other foreign policy

His poor treatment doesn't extend to just Ukraine or Europe as a whole, but just look at their neighbors - Canada and Mexico. How much good will can you ruin in a few weeks, how many tariffs can you threaten, which will just end up hurting the people and businesses in your own country, because they will pay them? How much can you vilify those countries and make fake claims about drugs, or trade deficit, claims in which you are the harmless party that everyone else tries to exploit, the victim?

It's not even the tariffs or petty things like renaming the Gulf of Mexico (and promptly banning the journalists who dare mention the old name), but there's also plans of mass camps and deportations. Sold to the public as a measure against illegal immigration and that it'd extend to violent criminals, bolstered by false claims of entire prisons being emptied into the country, later extended as a form of racism, eventually tearing families apart.

Even if you don't have a modicum of human decency, who do you think will do all of the jobs that your own citizens don't want to do? Who is going to harvest your crops? How do you think your food supply will be impacted by attempting to do this so rapidly, even to the point where you will grab some of your own citizens in those raids, military veterans, no less. Do you think that the powers that be wouldn't enjoy the idea of also deporting any of the people that they find undesirable or that speak out against them? What about building camps that aren't on American soil, where large concentrations of people will be crammed into a small area? If only there was a term for camps like that.

How we got here

None of it looks good. The Republicans lied about not being related to Project 2025 and now are dismantling whatever they can from the former democratic government. If anyone is wondering how things got so wrong in the last century, here is a pretty good replay of all of it in real time.

Historically, authoritarian regimes like that have been toppled by copious amounts of violence, like the French Revolution. My argument isn't that violence is necessary in such a situation, because it would likely result in instability not seen before and more or less end the country then and there. Rather, in the modern day world there won't and cannot be violence, it's also possibly already too late for any sort of action, even proper and ethical law enforcement.

If Trump didn't go to jail after the events of January 6th, then the law enforcement failed. If he was convicted of crimes but not punished, how could you expect anything but that the rioters would be freed and a coup attempt dismissed? If all of the institutions that were supposed to prevent an actual coup like Project 2025 taking place did nothing, then how can you be surprised that America is no longer a democracy? Curiously, sending Napoleon off to a vacation home on some island didn't exactly do much historically either.

There are two options: the election was stolen or the election was chosen. Neither is good.

If it was stolen, then nothing has been done to set the record straight, even if there are communities online that are gathering around the observation that the voting behavior was quite irregular and different from the past elections, as well as if there were bomb threats, attempts to purge voter records and make many ineligible to vote, primarily against the left leaning communities. Even if none of that is true and plenty of people just didn't turn up for the election, what's up with that?

Do they not care about their civic duty, especially after hearing about the risks posed by Project 2025? After the election, there was plentiful critique of the campaigning done by Harris. It might not have been a perfect campaign, but in a world where people would use their common sense and wouldn't be plain evil, she did nothing wrong. The choice between a criminal and a prosecutor for a president should be clear to everyone, it's not even a question worthy of that much consideration and no amount of criticism to cope will make it not so.

If the election was chosen, then it doesn't get much better either. It's as if one third of the country is okay with standing idly by and watching another third of the country ruin things for everyone. Maybe people indeed did choose the extremist candidate. No doubt, lots of angry men as well, historically that's been quite the issue - liking charlatans that promise you the world while feeling disfranchised by the status quo. In many cases, they also won't be the ones getting oppressed either, so it works out for them.

It's enough to go on any Republican community and you'll see sentiments like "I'm not getting tired of winning." which only fits the definition when you personally like all of the above happening, in which case you are a horrible human being. But there's something greater at play here as well: a democratic system ending, because enough people wanted it to. They chose this, even if it harms others in the process.

I don't even think you need enough electoral college votes in practice, or over 50% of the votes in places where that is the system at play. All you need is sufficient support where you can project power, even if your actual numbers might be lower. If you have enough power and you cheat in the elections, nobody will be able or willing to properly challenge you. Imagine the case of 25-30% of the country voting for you, with plenty of radical extremists in their midst, that's millions of people. Who's going to go against that?

From where I stand, it seems that nobody will. There very much is the paradox of tolerance at play here: you believe that when others are being ethically bankrupt you still need to treat them with respect and hear them out, the "when they go low, we go high" rhetoric and then are suddenly surprised when they use a plethora of dirty tactics to win, that suddenly the public discourse is being horrible to each other and that extremist viewpoints are getting normalized.

It didn't always used to be this. The other day, I looked at a recording of a political debate between Obama and Romney. They still had opposing views from each other back then, but they were more respectful. There was less polarization going on, less hatred and no calling each other wholly incompetent. Nowadays, looking at America, it looks like they're at each other's throats, however the Democrats have no teeth. So what's to blame for all that?

Where the problem lies

Human nature.

Let me get a bit more abstract for a moment. I'd argue that these behaviors and outcomes are independent of any given political party, national identity, or any other number of factors. You'll see the same sorts of behaviors in the past century, as well as this century, all across the world, in different cultures that speak different languages. You can't ban or outlaw it and oppressive tendencies will almost inevitably fester.

Why do I need to point this out? Because on paper, there's a lot of political and economical systems that could work, yet they don't when put in practice. Communism could work, but never really has. Capitalism could work, but almost always goes wrong (late stage capitalism). Socialism could work and generally does work in Europe, though with caveats. Democracy also seems to work, though it can end up being short lived. Even authoritarian forms of government can work, yet usually end up being quite oppressive instead. Nationalism could be done in ways that are beneficial to lots of people... but it just isn't.

Consider this example of what nationalism could look like:

It might sound a bit silly, because every nationalist government in the history of the world is not that. Instead, they sow hateful rhetoric and mobilize people to hate each other so that they can solidify their power and rob people blind, just look at what happened to Russia and its oligarchs or what's happening to America right now.

It's the same with attempts at having communism, they never work because you inevitably end up having an inner circle of the Party that are "more equal" than everyone else who is supposed to be equal and if you speak out against them, you'll get taken out in a black KGB car to the Corner House where you'll be forced to sign a paper saying you've done crimes against the Party and deserve punishment. Even if not that, you'll still live in poverty while the Party officials have separate stores where they lead a lavish lifestyle, all things considered.

Sometimes people also get too caught up in ideology and what they should do, instead of what's the reality that they live in. Look at the Great Leap Forward, which lead to one of the greatest famines in the history of humanity. Or, on a smaller scale, countries welcoming in immigrants, yet not being able to make them integrate within the populace and then suffering because on one hand you have groups of people that are incompatible with your culture and on the other you have voters that are going to parties that promise radical solutions.

I guess you could make an attempt at grouping people in how much they care about their own success vs that of the people around them, as well as how much they actually believe in what they're saying. Have a look at the following sketch:

collectivism-individualism-sincerity-insincerity

On the axes you have:

For example, Sanders has a history of political activism on the side of human rights and regularly is on the side of the citizens, the workers, all of the people who deserve fair treatment, whereas Harris often takes a more moderate stance while still holding somewhat similar views.

On the other hand, the likes of Trump and Musk say whatever wins them favor - Trump taking pictures with the rainbow flag that had "LGBTs for Trump" written on it, before doing a 180 when it was convenient to do so. Musk having a somewhat left leaning persona before it became more profitable to lean to the far right. The same goes for podcasters such as Rogan, who might have been more neutral in the past but became more extremist in their views.

That's not to say that extremes are good either: someone who is 100% sincere in their collectivist beliefs will probably listen to propaganda and might rat you out to KGB or your oppressive communist agency of choice for trying to make ends meet, while at the same time the Party will probably be in the insincere group and enjoy their separate stores. Someone on the far side of individualism will most likely have radical and hateful beliefs, or will be a bit of a sociopath and say whatever leads to more personal success.

In truth, I'm quite sure that the good people are those who care about good outcomes for most people sincerely, yet don't lose track of reality and don't give in to slogans and such. I know for a fact that I'm not the best person in the world and that I have shortcomings of my own, but when you see those genuinely good people out there, help them succeed. I've had the pleasure of meeting some really kind and nice people and they do give me hope in the world, even if right now it feels like the hateful ones are winning.

So now what?

I hold a few truths self evident: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be a starting point, human beings deserve respect and to pursue happiness and self-fulfillment, to express themselves and live their best lives, as long as it doesn't cause others harm. At the same time, you shouldn't try to be tolerant of those who are mean spirited or just evil.

Democracy doesn't really work when people are uneducated or increasingly angry and both of those have been brought on by powers that try to subvert democracies all over the world, especially when they can fault to their political enemies and blame them for everything, no matter how much they need to lie to do that. We don't live in a world of facts anymore, but rather one of opinions.

You can't really separate the concept of a political (or financial) system from its implementations: you can't claim that communism is good or the best system and we just haven't had the right nation implement it, when what's keeping it from being made a reality is human nature itself. A system of governing human beings that doesn't work with human nature is no system at all. Ergo, most of our current systems are at least somewhat dysfunctional, that does also apply to late stage capitalism which ends up exploitative and democracies that can't help but to devolve in authoritarianism of some description.

This also means that systems need people upholding them, to prevent them from being corrupted. Americans like to believe that freedom of speech is some inalienable right that's granted to them by God, whereas more realistically it ends the moment you're forcibly picked up from a protest and thrown in the back of a police van. Ask the people of Russia their experiences with protesting and OMON.

The same goes for systems that seem to follow the rule of law, except the laws aren't made to benefit you: what are you going to do when you need to buy insulin to continue living, but every vendor in the market is doing price fixing and also lobbying to the point where it costs way more to buy than it does to produce, yet literally nobody cares about challenging the status quo?

I can't help but to wonder whether America will even have a different administration by the time 2030 has arrived. If it would have changed by then, then at least I'd hope it's with people like AOC at the forefront. America could have also been great to all people, with someone like Sanders in a position of power as well, or even just okay with someone like Harris, certainly better than the circus that is happening right now.

Personally, I don't mind conservative values on a surface level (e.g. traditional family structure, believing in God and attending church) and haven't once been bothered by them, as long as it's not built around the idea of restricting the freedoms of others to live life the way they want, the same way how you choose how to live your own. Then again, what is conservative in the EU and what is conservative in the US is worlds apart in many cases, so perhaps I'm not quite as sure about that anymore.

The reality is that you just can't please everyone and in trying to reach across the aisle, you can also lose sight of what you were supposed to protect, especially when the other side doesn't want to show you the same respect and instead wants to tear down your entire world. And it's quite messed up that from where we stand, that sentence holds true both from the subjective POV of the Democrats and the Republicans, regardless of how accurate their perceptions are. Of course, with the Republicans already being in the process of tearing down a lot of social progress, or at the very least being complicit in the process.

I don't necessarily believe that America is ruined beyond belief, at least not yet, but I also don't see a clear path for them to become a proper democracy, or to have a social cooling effect of sorts, where cooler heads prevail. Plus, with the rise of extremist political parties in Europe and how things went down in the Middle East, and with how Ukraine isn't getting the support it should be getting to defend its borders, things are looking quite grim.

Obviously, I won't do any calls to action since all of this is supposed to be fiction anyways (I'm not the biggest fan of falling out of any windows), but the best you can probably do is support those around you who are good people, and live one day at a time. If nothing else, then this was a pretty good way to rant about the state of the world.

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