Americans are suffering from all sorts of serious problems. They don’t earn enough, and their expenses are too high. They can’t afford to send their children to college or pay for healthcare. America is also responsible for problems overseas. For example, it is currently enabling genocide in Gaza. Democrats don’t have anything to say about any of these issues. However, when Texas Republicans unveil a sleazy scheme to abuse redistricting in order to gerrymander Congress in their favor by a few seats, leading Democrats like Gavin Newsom leap into action and declare war. Priorities.
Deportation Industrial Complex
The current wave of mass deportations builds on the opposite of a virtuous cycle, in which the government and big business monetize and exploit people from overseas who are simply trying to get by. In many cases, they come from countries that were destabilized by U.S. foreign policy. Now they’re being returned to their home countries or to third countries, where they are bound to be motivated to help build the kind of societies disliked by American imperialists.
Feeling Safer?
President Trump says he federalized the Washington police department and deployed the National Guard on the city’s streets in order to fight street crime and make people safer. However, it looks far more likely that he is trying to normalize the ubiquitous presence of military troops in civilian life.
Pay For Your Sins, Real and Imagined
The Trump Administration has used baseless accusations of anti-Semitism to shake hundreds of millions of dollars out of colleges and universities, just as it’s extracting protection money out of law firms, media companies and, now big banks. Because they’ve paid out, however, the public believes these schools tolerated anti-Semitic hate crimes from pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Ironically, there were no credible, well-sourced incidents at those protests.
Happy to Help
Whether it’s a long-running horror like Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians or a public health menace like smoking, humans tend not to act to put an end to it before a certain tipping point. It comes as small comfort to the victims, of course, that their sacrifice is simply a matter of timing and psychological consciousness.
Avoid Premature Compassion
After more than a year of Israel’s relentless genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, establishment and mainstream people and institutions finally feel it is safe to criticize the Jewish state. This is the latest instance of a dispiriting aspect of social behavior. Most people can identify wrongdoing when they see it, but they will not call it out until it feels safe to do so. This is especially true when the perpetrator is rich or powerful. However, that can take a long time—so long that it is often too late for the victims.