Well, first of all, I’d like you to remember Trump is not the only democratically elected American president who invaded other countries. In fact, I can’t think of a President in my lifetime who didn’t. Trump isn’t uniquely warmongering, he’s just uniquely blatant about it.
Reading this meme as about Trump specifically, instead of about America’s foreign policy since, oh, the 19th century or so, does not reflect to your credit.
Second, I’d like you to remember that the “Americans” who “voted for this” are not suffering the consequences. Other people are.
Who is Trump hurting? The people in refugee camps and in the world’s poorest countries, where more than half a million people have died of disease and starvation because of Trump’s USAID cuts.
Trump is not unique in his willingness to starve people for American interests, either. He’s just uniquely blatant in his contempt for soft power and black people.
And then there are the immigrant families hiding in their homes, afraid to go to work or send their kids to school, because ICE is patrolling their neighborhoods looking for non-white bodies to fill their quotas. And while you can blame Trump for new and more blatant ICE enforcement, ICE isn’t using any authority it didn’t already have, and it’s enforcing an immigration system that has been blatantly unfair and profoundly broken under both parties for decades.
I mean, Harris promised more aggressive immigration enforcement, too. And the Democrats are, right now, supporting a new budget that gives ICE $10 billion and CBP $20 billion more, instead of trying to rein them in. Yet again, Trump isn’t different from the rest of American politics. He’s just more blatant and uglier.
And let’s not forget the people of Gaza (yeah, don’t think I didn’t see you dismissing Gaza as a distraction) and the people of Venezuela and the people of Greenland and the people of Syria and the people of Yemen and the people of Libya and God I could go on and on and fucking on.
White American citizens? Trump’s going to give them $2,000 in October as a “tariff rebate” to encourage them to vote Republican. So yeah, y’all are doing fine.
In other words, saying Americans got what they deserve is tone deaf, foolish, and ignores the fact that the people suffering from the Trump administration’s policies are overwhelmingly not Americans, and the further fact that those people had also been suffering under Biden policies, and under Obama policies, and most especially under Bush policies, and so on and so forth.
So what do I want you to do? When people vent about America and Americans, don’t jump in and seek reassurance that you’re one of the good ones. Don’t ask people to pat you on the head and praise you because you supported a warmonger in blue over a warmonger in red.
And especially don’t dismiss the suffering and fear and anger of America’s victims by saying Americans are getting what they deserve.
Because Americans might deserve it, but the rest of the world doesn’t.
Well, first of all, I’d like you to remember Trump is not the only democratically elected American president who invaded other countries. In fact, I can’t think of a President in my lifetime who didn’t. Trump isn’t uniquely warmongering, he’s just uniquely blatant about it.
Reading this meme as about Trump specifically, instead of about America’s foreign policy since, oh, the 19th century or so, does not reflect to your credit.
Second, I’d like you to remember that the “Americans” who “voted for this” are not suffering the consequences. Other people are.
Who is Trump hurting? The people in refugee camps and in the world’s poorest countries, where more than half a million people have died of disease and starvation because of Trump’s USAID cuts.
But beyond that, US and EU sanctions - which is to say, economic warfare - have killed 38 million people through starvation and disease since 1970.. In many countries, USAID was necessary because the United States meddled in politics to cause wars, dictatorships, and refugee crises, or because US-based companies made corrupt deals with local governments to extract their resources at the expense of the people.
Trump is not unique in his willingness to starve people for American interests, either. He’s just uniquely blatant in his contempt for soft power and black people.
And then there are the immigrant families hiding in their homes, afraid to go to work or send their kids to school, because ICE is patrolling their neighborhoods looking for non-white bodies to fill their quotas. And while you can blame Trump for new and more blatant ICE enforcement, ICE isn’t using any authority it didn’t already have, and it’s enforcing an immigration system that has been blatantly unfair and profoundly broken under both parties for decades.
I mean, Harris promised more aggressive immigration enforcement, too. And the Democrats are, right now, supporting a new budget that gives ICE $10 billion and CBP $20 billion more, instead of trying to rein them in. Yet again, Trump isn’t different from the rest of American politics. He’s just more blatant and uglier.
And let’s not forget the people of Gaza (yeah, don’t think I didn’t see you dismissing Gaza as a distraction) and the people of Venezuela and the people of Greenland and the people of Syria and the people of Yemen and the people of Libya and God I could go on and on and fucking on.
White American citizens? Trump’s going to give them $2,000 in October as a “tariff rebate” to encourage them to vote Republican. So yeah, y’all are doing fine.
In other words, saying Americans got what they deserve is tone deaf, foolish, and ignores the fact that the people suffering from the Trump administration’s policies are overwhelmingly not Americans, and the further fact that those people had also been suffering under Biden policies, and under Obama policies, and most especially under Bush policies, and so on and so forth.
So what do I want you to do? When people vent about America and Americans, don’t jump in and seek reassurance that you’re one of the good ones. Don’t ask people to pat you on the head and praise you because you supported a warmonger in blue over a warmonger in red.
And especially don’t dismiss the suffering and fear and anger of America’s victims by saying Americans are getting what they deserve.
Because Americans might deserve it, but the rest of the world doesn’t.