Easy is Over

So three months after the rise of fascism, the majority of the population is…doing just about nothing. First and foremost, they are whining on social media about either voter’s remorse or voting on the right side of history. Second, people are protesting in the streets about leaders who have already shown that they could care less about the opinions of the public. Most importantly, people are harassing people of color, especially Black women, hoping to earn our…what? Forgiveness? Credit? Inclusion? NONE of these things are actually helping anyone, and none of these things are doing anything other than showing how industrialized an empire we are, that no one is capable of competent, independent thought.

Whining about how the Democrats need to get into power is pointless at this point, because what happens every single time a Democrat has gotten into the White House, or there has been a Democrat majority in Congress? Those same leaders who were elected to do something powerful spent all their time trying to “reach across the aisle” to people who have demonstrated open contempt of them. Yes, the Republicans do whatever, but clowns are clowns; my question is if Democrats are supposed to be some shining beacon of morality, why do they never do anything to demonstrate why anyone should trust them? Why do people deserve power if they refuse to do anything or take accountability?

When asked what these “beacons” could do, there is always some nonsense about how within the confines of the law/the budget/concrete legislation, nothing can be done. When several old friends were dealing with domestic violence, we all formed our own networks. There were no specific meetings other than logistics, and there was no budget other than the funds we all had. How is it possible that millionaire Congressional members with housing portfolios are incapable of saying, “Alright, all the unhoused people can go into this empty apartment complex I was planning on renovating”? Why is everyone doing calculus to avoid giving green cards to all the migrants who worked in the United States for the past five year, since they kept the food industry functional? Clinging to institutions with set guidelines is emotionally immature during the fall of an empire. None of the rules of the past apply.

Despite all the campaign promises and the nonprofits stating otherwise, the real premise of the dominant narrative is power without accountability. All these people want to get into power, boast about everything they can do, and then run away when consequences happen instead of actually fixing anything. Furthermore, the power machines–public relations, political strategists, underlings, voters–want to become part of those glorious power machines, but never want to think about how they themselves could be contributing to the problems and/or solutions. People are so quick to enable the machine that they fail to recognize how their unwillingness to do something is tantamount to consenting to violence.

From 2020 to 2021, there was a lot of posting that the first sign of what people would do during a political crisis is what they were doing at the moment. Since then, a lot of voices have popped up on social media, but not nearly enough people have put real skin in the game. The problem is that so many comfortable people with money are used to wringing their hands at the problems of the world while staying comfortable. They might donate a pittance while livestreaming, but they never do anything that actually causes any change. What people are starting to see is that in the attention economy, people think that attention is the ONLY thing that matters, and have demonstrated their understanding with their behavior.

Well, here are a bunch of things that comfortable people with money can do, and yes, money is involved. Maybe next time, stop participating and cosigning on ostensibly unequal societies, and giving money could have been avoided. Start paying the rents of strangers. Start offering TRULY remote jobs so that people can go to the part of the world these terrible salaries can support. Live in and own ONE property, and divest yourself from the rest. Pay off the debts of strangers, especially since there are predatory interest rates keeping people from jobs. Help Black people and other people of color leave if we want to leave, and invest in our success in new locations. STOP demanding that people be nice to you when you were fine watching them be oppressed, or ignoring that it was happening.

DO NOT give ANY money to large non-profit organizations, including wealthy churches and universities (especially those bragging about endowments in the billions). Laundering money is all they stand for under fascism, and they ARE institutions. CUT OUT the middle man. STOP bragging about what party you voted because you are declaring that you would rather prop up corruption and hope it changes while you maintain your comfort. If you have a spine, work on dismantling and disengaging from the dominant narrative. Stop using algorithms to hire people and stop going on social media looking for easy solutions. Meet your neighbors and ask who needs help in person and online.

This game where the majority population within the empire stays comfortable while seeking attention is old, like, centuries old. Any cowards who want to stay safe while pretending to be part of the solution are socially worthless at this point in time. Those sycophants spent their lives defending psychopaths and narcissists, while the people who dealt with the brunt of the problem had to deal with no support and very limited resources. Nobody asked for any of this, but comfortable, immature, lazy people made it happen, and are still flapping their arms and looking for “easy.” All the easy answers are irrelevant now; those same people paid attention too late. Now is the time to prove that there are better examples than people doing publicity stunts while hoarding resources.