American Values in the Trump Era

I saw a Facebook post over the weekend, containing the line "What the fuck happened, America?" The post's author didn't specifically state what it was written in response to, but it's not hard to guess.  Over the weekend, the story broke that the Trump administration had directed Customs and Border Patrol to specifically begin splitting up families that cross into America's southern border.  The children are housed in Spartan detention camps, while the parents are presumably deported.

Read that again.  The Trump administration ordered CBP to split up families who cross into the United States from the south.  CBP went right along with it, without hesitation.  And many of his followers rationalized what the administration was doing.  Some even cheered.

"What the fuck happened," indeed.

This policy (it is absolutely NOT a law, and don't believe otherwise) is intentionally cruel and appalling; and if you're not shocked by it, you need to recalibrate your moral compass.  But the truth is, it didn't just come out of nowhere - in more ways than one.  First, the United States government has been party to other inhumane practices, both large and small throughout its history.  You probably know of some of the bigger ones: slavery, the Tuskeegee Experiments, interning Japanese-American citizens in WWII, and the Trail of Tears, to name a few.  As for the smaller ones, the ones that immediately come to mind tend to be more recent.  Camp X-Ray, rendition, and "enhanced interrogation" (AKA torture) desensitized us to the government treating non-Americans cruelly.  The TSA enacted increasingly invasive and unnecessary security measures while providing no mechanisms for recourse or accountability for abuses of authority, and many people shrugged their shoulders and accepted its infringements on all of our rights.  Ditto with the NSA and its bulk data collection.  We largely ignored the Pentagon's 1033 Program, which supplied surplus military hardware to police forces across the nation; and just as the old saying about "when all you have is a hammer..." goes, those police units began adopting more aggressive attitudes and tactics.

The CBP's separation of families is a convergence of all the things I just described: the TSA's lack of accountability, police forces' aggressive posture, and Camp X-Ray's barbaric treatment of non-Americans.  And we - American citizens - kind of let it happen by abandoning our civic responsibilities.  The more often we turned a blind eye, or halfheartedly protested, the more these practices became entrenched.  Acceptable.  Widespread.

But that's only part of it.  Another huge factor, as I'm sure you can guess, is President Trump.  The Trump administration's policy of separating families should not be a surprise, if you paid attention to what Trump said and who he surrounded himself with on the campaign trail.  Remember when Trump referred to Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists? That was almost three years ago to the day.  Trump has never bothered to hide his hatred for Latino immigrants or his racism, and now he's pushing policy in line with his attitudes.


As much as Trump is at the center of this, it's not just about him, though.  The family separation policy may have been in the planning for a while, but it was only rolled out recently.  Did you notice how quickly CBP fell in line, though? I don't see many people talking about that, except tangentially.  I've seen a few articles about how indifferent, even cruel, the CBP officers have acted toward the detained children, but AFAIK nobody has asked how they got that way.  Institutional cultures don't shift so radically in such a short time, which means that the CBP behavior we're seeing has been there for a while, just below the surface.  Trump's policies may have drawn that cruelty out, but it didn't create it from scratch.  Regardless, curbing the CBP excesses will be one of many problems this country faces after Trump leaves office.

I often claim that Trump unleashed this country's ugly side.  All the racism, the misogyny, the anti-intellectualism, the corruption and the lying, the obnoxious boasting, and the "burn it all down" style of governing - it didn't originate with Trump.  Like the CBP agents, there were a lot of shitbags who Trump has emboldened.  They will still be here after Trump is gone, and they won't go quietly. The fallout from the Trump administration will shape politics for decades.

Because this is about a lot more than the family separation policy.  It's about Trump's entire worldview, something that informs everything he thinks, says, and does.  Think back to Trump's comments about immigrants being criminals and rapists, and how those comments relate to this current family separation policy.  Now think about other things Trump said during his campaign.  Remember all of his racist and misogynist dog whistles? Remember when he said he'd only acknowledge the election results if he won? Or how he popularized a slogan calling for a political rival to be jailed - and still uses it at rallies and speeches?

Does this mean I think we're on the march toward genocide or a dictatorship? That Trump's going to seize control of the government and declare himself emperor or something, or that we'll be herding immigrants, Muslims, and who knows who else into camps? I honestly don't know, but I'm giving both non-zero possibilities at this point.  I may very well be overreacting, and there's certainly a significant chance I'm wrong.  However, there have been a lot of indicators that Trump wants to do so.  He's installed family members in key posts, centralized the decision-making process, made targeting minorities and other protected classes a common theme of his policies, and fawned over more than one totalitarian despot.  At the same time, the institutional checks meant to keep a president from seizing power are weakened.  The GOP-controlled congress won't stand up to him, because of either cowardice or opportunism - I can't figure out which; and the Democrats suck as an opposition party, because they won't come up with a coherent platform.

They need to, quickly; and they need to fight to win with everything they've got. (Everything legal, of course.) Because if the Trump administration is separating immigrant families today, what will it be doing tomorrow? Will it move on to some other group next after it's done with immigrants, Muslims, or transgender people? As I already said, I don't know.  Nobody can predict the future.  But that's why it's important to smack down any authoritarian policies early, because by the time people are getting marched to the gas chambers, it's too late.

This isn't a debate about policy any more, it's about morality.  Right and wrong.  Trump, the members of his administration, his Republican enablers in Congress, and his supporters - they're all embracing a very immoral and un-American set of values.  History will someday judge them as villains - IF the rest of us do something about it.  Vote, protest, call your elected reps.  Do what you can to render the Party of Trump ineffective as a political movement.  There should be no place for their ideas and policies in American society.

Because history will judge you too.

The "Ugly American" in the White House

You know what an "Ugly American" is, right? Here's a quick primer, just in case.  Want to guess who acted like an "Ugly American" this week?

President Trump's boorish behavior made headlines again this week.  This time, it was for "allegedly" characterizing most of the rest of the world as "shitholes."  Having spent various amounts of time in a handful of those so-called "shithole countries", I feel somewhat qualified to add my $.02 to the discussion.  I've lived downwind from power plants that burned dirty coal, and the waste products vented into the atmosphere gave me headaches almost every single day.  I've drank only bottled water, sometimes for several months, because the tap water wasn't fit to drink.  I've seen sidewalk and roadside vendors selling fruit that looked like it had sat in the back of the fridge for weeks.  So yes, some countries have areas with sub-par living conditions, such as polluted air and water, or inadequate power grids, or massive poverty/disease/malnutrition, or some form of civil strife such as war or insurgency.  Most likely, a combination of these things.  But while those countries have areas that are not-so-well-off (maybe even large areas), those regions do not represent the entire country.  The countries Trump labeled as "shitholes" have produced their share of top-notch athletes, scientists, scholars, activists, and artists, and the countries themselves have much to contribute in terms of culture, history, trade, and natural beauty.  In short, they may have have some derelict parts - like any other country - but they are not shitholes.

It takes an incredibly spoiled and privileged person to call those places "shitholes." Like, say, someone who was born into wealth and likes to flaunt it in ostentatious ways (such as gold-plated sink handles on a private jet), and who has never experienced anything less than a 5-star existence.  It would be inappropriate even if Trump were still a private citizen; and it is absolutely beneath the dignity of the office to say something like that when he's the leader of the free world.  As president, Trump will likely have to interact with the heads of state of many of those countries, so it's pretty damn bad when word gets out about how Trump really views those nations.  And before you go trying to tell me that the "shithole countries" remark was taken out of context - that it was a momentary lapse in judgment brought on by frustration or anger - go do some research on Trump's past.  He has a pattern of racially-charged statements and actions, so him labeling African and Latin American countries as "shitholes" isn't out-of-character for him; it IS his character. 

In case it's not clear: the President of the United States is a racist.

Here's something else to think about: if President Trump looks down on those countries and their citizens, how do you think he views the people of this country who aren't doing so well? There are parts of the United States that suffer from the same societal ills as the so-called "shithole countries" do.  Parts of major metropolises like Detroit, Denver and Baltimore, as well as medium-sized cities and countless small towns.  There's even one just a few miles from the White House and the US Capitol Building, a section of the DC Metro area called Anacostia.  Do you think a president who looks down on entire populations is going to give a single rat's ass about fixing any of this country's problems? Homelessness, crumbling infrastructure, failing schools, the opioid epidemic? Or do you think it's more likely he treats the people suffering under the weight of those burdens with utter contempt?

Once again, Trump has shown he's completely unfit to serve as President.  This may be one of the most glaring examples of his unfitness, in fact.  In one statement, he has revealed his undisguised disgust, not only for the rest of the world, but by extension, a significant portion of the population he presides over.  He's embarrassed the United States yet again, while his policies inch the United States closer to the dystopia he imagines many non-European countries to be: rolling back environmental regulations, chipping away at minority rights, exacerbating economic inequality, dividing the country, and gaming the government to enrich himself, his family, and his cronies.

Don't let Trump get away with his latest racist dog-whistle, and don't let him dismantle the things that make the United States great.  You've seen his self-serving agenda, so push back against it.

Charlottesville: Hate, Fear, and Ignorance in America

This is going to be a different blog post than the ones I've done so far.  It doesn't fit into any of the major themes I had intended to write about when I started this blog, but I'm writing it to get a few things off of my chest.  It will also have a different style to it - less like an academic research paper and more like an opinion piece.  So here goes. . .

Everyone knows what happened in Charlottesville on Friday night and yesterday afternoon, so I won't spend much time on those events.  I want to talk about some people's reactions to it and how those reactions pave the way for the Friday/Saturday race riot (I'm calling it a race riot because that's what it was; tough shit if you don't like it).  The reaction in question is a shrug of the shoulders and a casual endorsement for the Nazis and the white supremacists.  The way I remember it - I'm fuzzy on the details, but I recall the gist of it - was an implication that minorities brought this on themselves because of the various protests over the past several years.  Movements like BLM, Gay Pride, Women's Rights, and so on were just "whining" and the minority protesters should just "suck it up and get over it".  It's this attitude I want to talk about.  The way I see it, it develops when someone possesses these three traits: a lack of knowledge, no sense of intellectual curiosity, and an inability to empathize.

Let's use a real-world example to explain my hypothesis.  The Black Lives Matter movement is as good as any.  Someone with the aforementioned attitude probably doesn't know about the racial disparities when it comes to sentencing and incarceration for comparable crimes, or about practices like "DWB", or how the GOP routinely makes it difficult for minorities to participate in the electoral process.  Maybe this person has never heard of Philando Castile or Eric Garner.  That doesn't make someone a bad person in and of itself - maybe this person doesn't watch much news.  That's pretty implausible with the 24-hour news networks and the internet news saturation, but I suppose it's possible.  It's the other two traits that really create this attitude, though.

First, the absence of intellectual curiosity.  A lot of people go through life accepting what they're told without questioning it or applying any critical thought.  That's just human nature.  The vast majority of people don't have the time, the knowledge, the desire, or the mental bandwidth to critically evaluate every piece of knowledge that gets thrown at them.  People are also psychologically predisposed to screen and reject information that doesn't fit with our core beliefs or opinions.  So we're all guilty of intellectual laziness to some degree.  But like any sampling distribution, some data points fall on the high end of the spectrum, meaning that a certain percentage of people are indifferent when it comes to critical thinking.  Here's how this plays out in the real-world example.  Suppose a person got most of their news from the Fox network, which is hardly a friend to minorities.  How would that person view BLM, which has some very real and very serious grievances? They're going to downplay it, of course.  Here's the curious part, though.  This person is almost certainly aware of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.  Maybe they only read about in a history textbook, so they only see it as an abstract concept, devoid of the emotional resonance; but maybe they lived during that time, and saw the real-life images on TV and in the newspapers.  The protesters getting sprayed with fire hoses.  The balcony where MLK was standing when he was assassinated.  The burning crosses and bombed-out churches.  The Civil Rights struggle probably had more of an impression to people who were alive when it happened, but either way, how does someone reconcile that movement with everything that happened since then? With what's going on now? Aren't they able to make the connection?

That last one is the one that drives me bonkers.  They don't have the intellectual capacity to conceive that racism hasn't ended.  To them, the Civil Rights movement ended things, like it was a sporting event where time ran out, the ref blew the whistle, and that was that.  They're surely aware that racists still exist, but the fact that those racists actively seek to undo the Civil Rights era reforms, and that those racists comprise an appallingly influential political bloc, evidently escapes them.  That's the kind of shallow thinking that leads to some deeply contradictory behaviors and beliefs, such as flying an American flag and going to church every week while condoning a movement that represents the opposite of the ideals their religion and their nation embody.  People like this don't realize that the Confederacy's secession was by definition a treasonous act, or that slavery has had a legacy that still resonates today.  "What's the big deal?", they say when someone points these things out.  "That was a long time ago, why does it still matter?" Unbelievable.  This sort of lazy thinking manifests itself in many, many other ways, but those are outside the scope of this post.

Now, let's look at the third and final component: the lack of empathy.  These people can't relate to minorities, because they've never experienced the myriad forms of discrimination.  Nor do they know many people who have.  They'll never have to worry about police assuming they're guilty by default or politicians disenfranchising them.  Their resumes won't go straight into the trash because of their name.  They won't be denied various legal protections and privileges simply because of who they are, so they take those things for granted.  And because they don't have any frame of reference, they dismiss the complaints of people who do experience these problems.  More than that, they make statements that imply minorities don't deserve these things, often without fully understanding what they're saying.  Things like "Why do they have to push their agenda on us?" or "Aren't they happy with what they have now?" There's a sub-context that the victim's grievances are just whiny complaints or overblown exaggerations.

By now, you might have noticed that I'm a bit worked up and angry.  Yep.  This stuff is a "button pusher" topic, and here's why.  I have a low tolerance for people who live in intellectual bubbles.  It's hard to stay informed, I get that.  And it's harder to see past your own mental blind spots.  That's partly human nature, and I'm as guilty as anyone.  When I'm faced with contradictory information, my natural reaction is to dig in my heels.  But at some point, a person crosses over from a normal confirmation bias to burying their head in the sand.  That infuriates me.  The sky isn't neon green no matter how much you believe it is.  On top of that, I have a default tendency to side with the underdog.  Maybe it's because I disagreed with the aforementioned attitude so strongly that I moved pretty far to the opposite end of the spectrum - I dunno, that's a question for the psychoanalysts.  However it came about, I'm kinda like Tyrion Lannister; we both have a soft spot for "cripples, bastards, and broken things." Automatically siding with the marginalized is one of my mental blind spots.  So maybe I'm getting too dramatic about Charlottesville, but I don't think anyone can deny America has a racism problem now.

Typically, the actual racists are only a small portion of any population.  It's the mentally shallow people are the ones who allow racism to flourish.  They are the ones who turn a blind eye to the insidious spread of racist groups/movements or invent rationalizations to dismiss it.  The ones I spent most of this blog post describing.  They are indifferent to the reality of the situation, and indifferent people usually comprise the vast majority of a given population.  They need to be pulled down off the fence and be made to understand the reality of the situation, because staying in their bubble allows the problem to grow.