Imperial propaganda has obfuscated an inevitable truth: empires fall. In this great republic of ours, we are conditioned to believe in our exceptionalism. We are trained from birth to think that, frankly, everything will be okay in the end.
Sure, we get depressed about the future, but the root of white people’s depression isn’t usually disbelief in the system. Rather, white people’s depression, at least in my experience, is the body’s reaction to the subconscious realization that the system will keep churning and that the status quo is deeply inhumane, isolating and monotonous.
I specify white people because I expect many will rightfully take issue with that analysis if applied to them uncritically. Certainly, many people of marginalized identities have also been consumed by the propaganda, just not as many and not as much because of the empire’s deeply bigoted and economically segregated nature.
If you are not white and still feel swallowed by the propaganda, I am absolutely talking to you as well. Still, white Americans are always of interest as a group due to having immense power within this system and being vulnerable to state and billionaire propaganda. Thus it gives me pleasure to say that, for the first time that I can identify, we are waking up en masse. Slowly, yes, but it is happening, and I see it every single day.
With that said, even though I see that many people are waking up, you or people you know may still be having trouble deciphering all the propaganda out there to determine what the hell is even going on. What I am about to say is a viewpoint with a blatant agenda, but I will at least tell you that agenda upfront.
My views are always changing, but right now I look at reality through the lenses of Marxism and, to a certain extent, determinism. I believe that every human being on Earth is entitled to a dignified life and that our ecosystem is entitled to protection from our interference. I also believe that every human being is shaped almost entirely by circumstances beyond their control, and that even the most despicable people do what they do for reasons that seem perfectly logical to them. As such, I believe compassion and rehabilitation are the best ways to change people; however, when bad people’s thought processes are insulated by power to the point that compassion has no effect, their power must be forcefully seized and redistributed to the community.
If universal human dignity and communal power sound good, here is my thesis regarding the truth of the American system as I see it. The United States is the most powerful empire in human history due to a combination of military might and soft power — that is, economic and cultural dominance over the rest of the world due to vast resource reserves and the global hegemony of the U.S. dollar in international trade. The empire’s governance is practically solely controlled by the wealth-hoarding, parasitic, pedophilic, child-murdering ruling class, who are so shielded from the human consequences of their actions that they completely lack empathy.
The U.S. maintains its empire by having absolutely no morals and destroying any lives it deems as even a potential threat, only halting if political or economic pressure against the empire is too high. In the past, that sort of destruction has mainly been true for marginalized people, especially those outside U.S. borders, but white people are now beginning to feel it as well. Take Renée Good and Alex Pretti, for example.
What is different right now, compared to the past several decades, is that the police state is becoming more indiscriminate and expansive because there is an authoritarian takeover in the federal government. Even though the U.S. government is controlled by the ruling class, I would be remiss to note that the entire ruling class is not the same.
As I see it, the Trump movement is primarily bolstered by some of the richest members of the ruling class — including names like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Jeff Bezos — and is legitimately rupturing the ruling class and threatening other marginally less powerful interests to basically rob the American empire as it collapses. Still, the entire ruling class, whether or not its individual representatives like Trump or not, still has vast authority over our day-to-day lives through corporate dominance of industry and commerce.
If you want to ascertain my credibility, you can take my Trinity political science degree for what you will. I am simply telling the truth that I see after having spent several years now decoding the propaganda I was fed throughout my life. I would have seen all of this eventually, degree or no degree. Further, I felt this way before I saw any Epstein files, which I think counts for something. At the moment, these fundamental truths about the empire sum up the human condition across the world. So what is to be done?
I cannot pretend to have all the answers for you, but at this point one thing is abundantly clear: our dreams, those of college students intending to use their degrees to make a better life for themselves as part of the system in one way or another, seem to be dead. The trajectory of the system is clear, and it points to only one thing: all-out class war followed by collapse.
If you want to fight the system and have no idea how, I have been in your exact position. The empire has atomized us and made community action feel utterly ineffective. You are not a bad person for being afraid, being reluctant, having false hope for the system, being totally hopeless about anything or even feeling like the organizations and people on the ground aren’t doing enough for you to bother with anyway. I tell you candidly, I completely understand.
With that said, my best advice is to swallow these emotions and save them. You will have time and support to truly address them soon, once you find your way, but suppress them just for a little while. Suppress them only long enough to pick a direction and start moving. There are many ways to help, but I will tell you for sure what nearly all of them involve: going out into the working-class community, often in the parts of town you usually avoid, and making connections.
This kind of action is substantially easier than you think. Here are things that have worked for me over the past several months: search for and attend a church that aligns with your values, even if you aren’t religious; search for a community organization that is doing good work helping people, even if you feel they are largely ineffective against the system; go to a protest even if you think it won’t do any good; join a volunteer group that goes directly to the masses, even if the group is not political in nature.
The truth is, regarding these types of actions, your immediate doubts may be correct. The action itself may come to nothing that will harm the system. However, what will almost certainly bear fruit the likes of which you cannot imagine is being connected to people on the ground who are earnestly trying day after day to make a difference. At the very least, these connections will repair your soul, and, more quickly than you think, you will realize what the revolution really is.
These chaotic days may produce a revolt of bombs and guns in the future. With that said, far more goes into reshaping an entire society than insurgency, and the root of most revolutionary action is human kindness and care for community. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, “You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”
Fight the empire.
