Time to take it easy?
Some will say it is best to simply dial it down. Live your life. Enjoy the fruits of your labor. And be at peace with the fact that we now live in a country where persecution of individuals without due process is a real thing.
Mind you, there’s always been a little bit of this. Some people will try to throw false equivalencies at you, comparing apples and oranges or sharing one-offs of things that happened in the past with what’s become systemic and prevalent. I get it. In the past you worked for a company that provided for your livelihood, and you may have really disliked certain aspects of how it functioned. Yet you wouldn’t go online blasting its products or badmouthing its CEO. Or you live in a community where publicly expressing a different opinion from the majority opinion would sideline or ghost you in certain circles. We all make personal decisions regarding the extent to which we want to share our opinions, we all make decisions to the extent that we want to engage in collective action. And we all have to calculate the risks – mental and physical – of our actions.
But in today’s USA things are different. This Administration has masterfully identified every potential fault line – every seemingly weak point in the US Constitution, legal system, and established protocols – that has held this country together through the good will of most elected officials and people of wealth. They are determined to tear down the system and rebuild it in their own image without consideration of or empathy for those unlike them. Therefore:
- If you are an aspiring academician you think twice before authoring that paper criticizing the policies of this administration or even mentioning certain words like diversity, equity and inclusion lest you jeopardize your funding potential.
- If you are a business person, you think twice before you flat out tell your customers that the prices of your products are increasing due to these administration tariffs lest your government contracts may be in peril.
- If you are an aspiring professional, you think twice before indicating in your resume you’ve worked at certain nonprofits lest folks will know your political opinions are different than the administration and it impacts your marketability.
- If you are a young person, you may think twice before posting on social media your disgust, dislike or disdain of what’s going on in Gaza lest you be the target of this administration’s thought police.
And if you are a naturalized citizen, for the first time in your life you are genuinely concerned about the possibility that your citizenship will be yanked from you because of this administration’s draconian actions on immigration.
Time to take it easy? I. Don’t. Think. So!