This IS VERY America; those who say it's not are lying to themselves or to you (probably both)

I'm tired of people pretending America is what we want it to be. That will take hard work and a clear-eyed understanding of our past and present, and a strong plan for the future of America.

Every time DJT does something crazy, like threaten a war with Norway or a Greenland invasion, or the regime deploys ICE to act like a Gestapo, slave patrol mashup stealing people from their cars and homes, and shooting unarmed people in broad daylight, there’s a raft of people who scream “This is not who we are!”

But that’s not true. It’s exactly who we have been over the course of our history. Nothing that is happening now is new…it’s just more visible to White people. The proliferation of cameras, social media, and citizen journalists means that the regime’s forces, masked and camo-d up, are stealing people and their lives in front of our collective faces.

Even the idea that we are so sharply divided is not new. These times are precedented. We went to war in 1860 because half of our country wanted to preserve Southern Whites’ freedom to own other people. And that word “own” is doing a lot of work here. Packed into it is serial and pervasive rape, torture, starvation, family separation, extreme humiliation and much more.

These times, while not unprecedented, are frightening, heinous, unsettled, and explosive. This regime and its movement are implementing a plan of White Christian conquest over a vast, multi-cultural area. Couched in terms of punishing criminal elements in the country illegally, the regime is rounding up anyone with a Spanish-sounding accent, brown skin, people with white skin who truly ally themselves with people who have darker skin or heavier accents. This immigration-hating regime is even rounding up native people, whose ancestors lived on this continent long before Europeans came and killed 95% of the indigenous population while gobbling up the land from coast to coast.

At the same time, the regime that had castigated universities for not combatting anti-Semitism has demanded lists of every Jew at the University of Pennsylvania, which we can assume is just the first of many. The regime is also supporting violence and hate against Muslims, prohibiting many of the world’s Muslims from even entering the country.

So, no, when we say “This is Not America,” that is a lie. It’s a deliberate misrepresentation of the past. It’s a forgetting of centuries of violence, killing, rape, torture, genocide and more.

So, let’s be clear here. This regime and it’s followers (yes, I recognize that group is growing smaller, but is still 30% of the population, more or less), is perpetuating behaviors that have been part of this country’s inheritance, from the first colonies, to chattel slavery, to manifest destiny, to blackballing suspected “communists,” to turning away desperate immigrants who face certain death, and on and on and on.

As a country, we have never held White folks accountable for any of the crimes against humanity that accompanied the conquest of the continent. We never held the southern traitors accountable for the Civil War, we never held white supremacists who killed their way across the continent accountable for genocide, we never held the robber barons of the “Gilded Age,” accountable for vast wealth inequality that made way for a worldwide depression. We’ve never held Southern Whites accountable for the violence and death that accompanied Jim Crow. We never held American Nazis accountable for siding with Hitler, we never held McCarthy adherents accountable for ruining countless peoples’ lives. We’ve never held accountable power hungry presidents like Richard Nixon and war-hungry administrations like George W. Bush for the Iraq war.

All of this history of letting haters and extremists and administrations continue without accountability leads us straight to this moment. People aren’t worse in these times than in any other, we just don’t know our history well enough to see the bright glowing through-lines that has led to this catastrophe.

If we’re ever going to Free America, and that’s going to have to come when ordinary Americans unite against the billionaires and their power mad puppets, we will need to undergo some sort of national reckoning. Whether it looks like Nuremberg trials in Germany, or Truth and Reconciliation processes like in South Africa after apartheid, we’ll never become the America we believe ourselves to be if we continue to let White Christian Conquerors get away without accountability.

One of the things I try to do at Freedom Over Fascism is to place current events into context, illuminate the truth of the present day without sugar coating what it will take, and how long it will take, to chart a new course for the future of this country and all the people who live here.

I will continue to do this, hold deep conversations about the meaning of these times and what some folks are doing to Free America, rather than breaking news and providing up-to-the-minute coverage. There are very good people who do that. I might actually talk to them about the importance of independent journalism and standing strong against the regime, but I won’t be the news breaker (probably, you never know).

What this means is that you folks out there support the news-breakers (as you should), and the celebrities, and the people who interview other famous people. I’m asking here for your support as well. Because I intend to stick around to provide historical and cultural context. But I can’t do it without more paid support. I know a lot of you reading this already support me, and I thank you for that. I’m looking into ways that this work can pay me enough to contribute to the support of my household.

My ask: please choose a paid subscription if you can, please DM me if you have ideas about sponsoring a series, be in touch if you need my graphic design or coaching (leadership, career, chronic illness) services. And stick around to read and listen if you appreciate the conversations I have on Freedom Over Fascism, and as part of the Chronically Chilling Out group with Sick of this Shit Publications and the Anti-Fascist Book Club with Banner & Backbone Media.

Here’s the schedule for this week, Jan 19-23. All live and available later as video and audio podcasts.

Monday, 11:00 AM ET: Chronically Illing Out with Nick Paro Soso's World Beth Cruz
Tuesday, 1:00 PM ET: Freedom Over Fascism w/ Amanda Litman, of Run for Smthg
Wednesday, 1:00 PM ET: FOF with William A. Finnegan, Defense and systems expert
Friday, 12:30 PM ET: Anti-Fascist Book Club with Nick Paro Kristofer Goldsmith Tara of Political Voices Network and others.

Thanks for being part of my community,

Stephanie