Americans Are Now Experiencing the Everyday Reality of Authoritarian Collapse
Take the Worst Abuses of Power in Each State. Imagine Them Nationwide. That’s the Fascist Dystopia the GOP Wants America to Be
by umair haque
I just arrived back, after a bumpy flight, From America to Europe. And here, almost immediately, my European friends all asked me, more than a little baffled: “But are the things you’ve been writing about America…true?” What they meant: the litany of horrors the GOP’s been condemning Americans to. If you think I exaggerate, let’s review. Genital inspections for kids. Forced births. Travel bans for women and kids. And of course the now familiar book bans, can’t say gay, not to mention the endless mass shootings.
I say to them: “Yes, of course. They’re true.” To which they’re left speechless, mostly. “But what…what is…” They’re used to America being a dysfunctional society — even a nonfunctional one, in European terms, just think of healthcare or transport. But now? To them, America appears to have crossed a new threshold, into something darker. They’re right.
I won’t mince words with you. Americans are now experiencing the grim reality of authoritarian collapse.
But do they really understand it? I mean that as a real question — not as an insult. Let me explain — on both counts, the collapse, and the question.
You see, what is happening in America really is the crossing of a new threshold. The GOP’s given up on any last pretense of being interested not just in democracy, but also in modernity, or any of their values — consent, peace, justice, truth, equality. It’s now mounting a blitzkrieg on what’s left of American democracy, and its attempts to even aspire to be a modern society. A series of attacks, each one more disturbing, destructive, and catastrophic than the last. As these attacks mount, America’s beginning to experience the reality of authoritarian collapse.
Let me put that in context. When I say “experience the reality,” that’s the crossing of a threshold. Many figures like me have long predicted American collapse. And we’ve pointed out various forms of it. Economic collapse — the decline of the middle and working class, the rise of an indebted underclass. Social collapse — the failure to build any form of modern social systems, from healthcare to retirement. Intergenerational collapse — four to five generations and counting plummeting into downward mobility.
But this is different. This is the culmination of all those prior forms of collapse. And for a long time — too long — many Americans thought this would never happen. They’d look at those other forms of collapse, and if they were thoughtful and sane people, sympathize, perhaps — but these forms of collapse didn’t always hit home. Many remained insulated from them. If you were a Boomer living the Dream — sure, you might see these forms of collapse, but you weren’t really living them.
These forms of collapse “came for,” as we say, society’s most powerless groups first. Immigrants, refugees. It was bad if Trump was demonizing Mexicans — but hey, did it really affect me? Not that much, perhaps. But now? Americans are being affected en masse, for the first time, by authoritarian collapse. Now, it’s everyday Americans who never thought it would get this bad — squarely in the crosshairs of a lunatic, out-of-control GOP.
That GOP is taking away their rights. The ones that most Americans thought could never disappear. Basic constitutional rights, a point we’ll come back to. If I asked you a decade ago, “So…do you think that Americans won’t be able to travel freely between states in ten years? Wait, how about forcing genital inspections on kids?” You’d have laughed at me, and painted me with the brush of a Rush Limbaugh. And yet here we are. But not because of the “woke mob” or the “globalists” — because of the GOP.
This is different. That point should be clearly noted and understood, as a beginning. It’s not something to minimize, erase, or deny anymore. What you see before your eyes, what you’re experiencing as an everyday American…it’s really happening.
I want to emphasize that, because we are still beating around the bush. Pundits call all this “minority rule.” That’s like calling Jesus someone’s son. An understatement of historic proportions. It isn’t “minority rule.” They say that for decorum’s sake. And what have we learned about decorum, thanks to the brave Justins from Tennessee, who courageously broke its rules, after kids were massacred? It doesn’t do to be too polite when they’re coming for you and yours.
Minority rule? Give me a break. This is the kind of thing that makes American discourse and media a laughingstock the world over. It’s foolish, ignorant, uneducated. It’s not a term you’ll find in textbooks. It’s one of political expediency. The new CNN plays games like this. But average Americans are the losers. The correct term is authoritarianism.
That matters a very, very great deal. It’s left to a brave handful of emerging young politicians — the Justins, Maxwell Frost — to call this what it is. And the very first rule of modern politics? If you can’t call a thing what it is, you can’t fight it, either. We know that the hard way. Thanks to Orwell and Arendt and Wiesenthal. The slope is slippery, and made of Big Lies and doublespeak. The truth is what the bad guys fear and despise, for a reason. Because it sets a society free.
That isn’t some kind of abstract, idealistic, Platonic point that I’m making. I’m not making the point. Orwell and Arendt and the finest minds of the 20th century — shall I go on? Camus, Sartre, Brecht — are. All of them.
So. Point one. Americans are now experiencing the bitter, brutal reality of authoritarian collapse. Point two, that needs to called what it is, or else, Big Lies win, and self-deceit pervades a society, which is how collapse hardens and curdles.
The first two points can also be thought of as Big Lies. Big Lie number one: both sides are equal, and so this is just politics as usual. Sorry, do you see our side trying to…inspect anyone’s genitals? Take anyone’s rights away? Didn’t think so. Big Lie number two: it’s just something innocuous, temporary, over-your-head, like “minority rule.” Not the very thing we read about in great books, which not coincidentally, are what they’re trying to ban — authoritarianism.
That brings me to Big Lie number three. “America’s a divided country.” LOL. Are you kidding me? The vast, vast majority of Americans agree. On every single issue the GOP is now trying to push down their throats, and suffocate them with the antithesis of. Supermajorities of Americans agree on all the following things. Guns are out of control, and they need to be far better regulated, especially any crackpot being able to collect weapons of war. Women should have access to reproductive healthcare. Kids should be able to read books. Everyone should have healthcare. Taxes should be higher, especially on the wealthy and ultra-wealthy. Nobody’s asked, but I’d bet they’d also agree that there’s something very wrong with inspecting kids genitals, too.
This is remarkable, in obvious and not-so-obvious ways. Societies don’t usually agree with such supermajorities on much of anything that isn’t settled, status-quo level stuff. If something’s new, if a society’s never had it before — like healthcare for everyone in America, or gun control, or so on — societies are often bitterly divided about it.