I just donated to the Haitian Community Help and Support Center

I just donated to the Haitian Community Help and Support Center. I believe it is of the utmost importance to recognize and confront what is happening. A sitting U.S. Senator, currently running for Vice President, spends his time spreading lies about his own constituents in order to advance an agenda of mass deportation. He seeks to empower the most energetic, militant, and ignorantly cruel portions of his base. A former President amplifies the same untruths through memes and speeches while pledging full use of the security apparatus of the United States to attack American citizens and residents of a different ethnicity.

This is a very telling moment in the life of the republic. The idea of mass deportation is so toxic that merely even talking about it beyond the usual cranks tears apart society. Society does not actually depend on the loud guy at the council meeting saying he pays taxes, no one else does, therefore no one else should get anything but him. That guy, if you haven't figured it out yet, is a leech. People who are struggling to get by have experienced society and government fail them at multiple levels. Sure, some may have to do better in certain situations. But I notice that they receive a disproportionate amount of criticism compared to billionaires using tax breaks to buy all the real estate they can during a housing shortage.

Society depends on people being able to give to each other and build serious institutions for the sake of earning trust. When large segments of a major political party flirt with ideas like "ethnic cleansing," not only are violent and terroristic behaviors unleashed, but the ability of the rest of us to give and build trust is compromised. Ignorant people who would rather spread rumors than love their neighbors will call the notion of giving into question. --Doesn't it just empower those who take? People who will steal everything?– They'll let this idiocy fester into attacks on children, and sure enough, schools and hospitals have been closed in Springfield thanks to terrorists calling in threats. Trust is work–a real society has to be able to let people who do wrong back in–but if we're busy accusing everyone of everything, there's no space for trust.

One thing that's especially been bugging me as I think about this issue (as well as the immense cruelty of America's approach abroad, which is not unrelated). Vance has a problem related to cats; Trump needs to humiliate the debate moderation which more than likely ended his political career; the hate, fear, and anger used to frame every right-wing concern is the primary means of action. Combine those three elements and you get the current situation: they've projected the most awful actions to a group already besieged by Nazis because the dehumanization is complete in their mind. "I'm struggling because I called everyone a childless cat lady? Well, I'll just say others are eating pets." "I got called out for saying that I watch TV, that's how I know things are going on? Well, I'll make such a big stink that it'll be on TV." We talk about the nature of tyranny being repressive, but repression is a means to an end. What I'm seeing is a lot of projection. Make your problems someone else entirely–make someone else answerable for your missteps and crimes–and you've done more than take away their freedom. You're on the way to erasing everyone in the country and making them nothing but an aspect of yourself. You get all the power one could possibly have and can do nothing with it but panic.