#authoritarianism

On the official WhiteHouse.gov website.

Not a campaign page.

Not an RNC graphic.

The government’s actual website.

They’re listing reporters by name.

They’re accusing news outlets of “offenses.”

They’re stamping “EXPOSED” over every independent newsroom.

They built a leaderboard for “repeat offenders.”

Like journalism is some sort of crime and sport.

This is not “messaging.”

This is not “spin.”

This is state-run media targeting,

and we have never seen anything like it in the United States.

Ever.

They’re calling Mark Kelly’s PSA “follow the law” sedition.

They’re calling journalists who report it criminals.

They’re building narrative infrastructure for repressing dissent

All while a former TV host is being accused of unlawful killings.

You don’t put reporters on a government enemies list unless you’re planning to do something with the list.

This is authoritarian architecture.

I’m hoping that this is as “angry” as I’ll get with a comic, but given how the world is shaping up politically at the moment, I fear that might not be the case.

It’s been incredibly eye opening to witness the degree to which some people I know are willing to bury their heads in the sand in order to avoid the reality of the awful things that are happening around them.  Awful things that they were told were going to happen.

In America, people are being black bagged and shipped off to El Salvador without due process to be held indefinitely in prisons, with the current administration now making social media posts cruelly boasting that they’ll never return. 

Make no mistake, if people are being kidnapped by the government, given no due process, and are shipped to a foreign nation to be held in prison with no intention to give them any legal recourse, we need to call these prisons what they are:

They are death camps.

The United States of America is rounding up “undesirables” and sending them to death camps. 

There are people in this country that voted for this.  No matter how nice they otherwise seem or claim to be, these people are evil to the core. 

There are also people who didn’t vote for this, but do provide social validation and acceptance to those who did.

If you are someone who thinks you’re against fascism, but you also accept fascists in your life, you are a fascist. 

There can be no acceptance of intolerance.  In the comic, the person I’m lampooning is the “Fake Trans Ally”, but you can swap out “trans” for any other group of marginalized people.  Frankly, just call this person “The Fake Ally.”

If you’re someone reading this and feel attacked because I’m calling you a fake ally, it’s time to do some soul searching.  When the history books are written about this period of American history, are you going to be someone who was unambiguously against hatred, or were you someone that treated hate as acceptable? 

Were you someone that invited hatred into your home?

Were you someone that shared a meal with hatred?

Were you someone that allowed hatred a safe haven?

If you’re someone that does that, you yourself are hateful. 

When you accept hate, you do so at the expense of those who are the target of that hatred.

Rachel Hurley 

I’ve watched all of the videos dozens of times - here’s what happened.

A 37-year-old ICU nurse named Alex Pretti helped a woman that federal agents had shoved. For this crime - helping someone - several agents sprayed pepper spray into his face - then they beat him until he collapsed. They pistol whipped him while he was on his knees. Both hands on the ground. Not resisting. Just existing.

They took his gun from his back waistband - he never touched it - but he had a legal permit to carry. The Second Amendment one. The constitutional right one.

And then they shot him.

After he was already down, already gone, they shot him nine more times. Nine. I want you to picture that. A man on the ground, motionless, and nine more bullets.

This is the same government that told us he was a “criminal illegal alien with a string of violent offenses.” He was an American citizen. He was a nurse who worked in the ICU at the VA - the guy who takes care of your grandfather who served in Vietnam, your uncle who came back from Iraq. His criminal record was traffic tickets.

They lied. They executed him in broad daylight on an American street. And then they lied about who he was to make you feel okay about it.

This is the third shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis in three weeks. Three weeks. Three people. One was a woman named Renée Good. One was a Venezuelan man shot in the leg. And now Alex Pretti, American citizen, legal gun owner, VA nurse who spent his days caring for veterans, dead on the pavement at 26th and Nicollet because he tried to help someone.

The same government that wraps itself in “support our troops” shot the guy who actually supported our troops. Nine times. While he was on the ground.