This essay sheds the pretense of the Church and speaks directly to the people of the United States, and anywhere else that far-right populism is rising. But mostly the United States.
Watching in bemused disbelief is not enough. Name-calling is not enough. Waiting for the system for magically fix itself is not enough. Late-night talk show barbs are not enough. Calm, centrist pontificating is not enough.
The time to act is now.
It doesn’t matter if he’s trolling. It doesn’t matter if he’s incompetant and may not be able to fulfill his agenda. It doesn’t matter than there’s in-fighting and fragmentation in MAGA-land. They will fall in line. They will see our tolerance as weakness and seize upon it. This is not a time for compassion.
News organizations are complicit. Social media is complicit. Corporations are complicit. The corporatist left is complicit. We are at a point where it is nearly impossible to list all the avenues of attack on our freedom, our rights, and our basic human decency.
This is not a drill. It is not alarmist overreaction. It is not 2017, with an unprepared buffoon fumbling around. It is 2025, and the ultra-rich psychopaths are tired of maintaing any facade of humanity. They have closed ranks and pledged fealty to a madman and his puppeteers, if only to watch the world burn because they are bored and they think they are immune to the consequences. We are frogs in the pot, and we have very little time left before the flames are cranked up.
It is time to sacrifice. Sacrifice your comfort. Sacrifice what little safety you may have. Sacifice your job. Stand up for what is right.
Organize now and get in the streets. And don’t get out of the streets until things change.
Shut it down. Tear it down. Become ungovernable. Become threats. We have very little left to lose, and everything to gain.
They cannot be immune.
