Being an American, at the moment, feels like a continuing nightmare. Whatever beliefs or rules we have for going about our lives are being shredded simply for the sake of doing so. International relationships and rights, these fundamental principles the United States dictated to the world, have been destroyed. All is uncertain. Two questions I struggle with are… How did we get here? When did things go so wrong? One moment recently reminded me of a truth that has persisted for the past 10 years, a small comment that showcased the core of what’s gone wrong.
Modern McCarthyism
It was a winter’s morning in the Hudson Valley. It’s an area covered with trees, mountains, and snow, just two hours away from New York City. Brought along for daily chores, I was treated to McDonald’s before we got started. I opened the order bag and started handing out food, when I heard beside me, conveyed in a great sigh of relief, “Thank God! The plastic straws are back. Communism is truly over.” I took a moment to let that little remark soak in before continuing with our day.
Is the political ideology and theory of Karl Marx, Lenin, and Mao truly defeated by this simple replacement of paper straws? No, certainly not. But does it matter in that little moment to this person? Not at all.
The weight of this word, ‘communism’ was not tied to the class struggles, the many revolutions, nor the integration of state-owned systems controlled for the collective whole. It’s not that these other meanings are unknown to this person, but it does not, and has not, mattered. All it meant, in that moment, was that those who tried to create a less wasteful means of slurping a drink had been displaced, and the true king, plastic, was back to stay via an executive order. All hail.
Sharpened down
It might sound trivial, perhaps even misplaced, to use such a weighty term like communism to describe this issue. But, for those that benefit from people thinking that way, that’s entirely the point. All language is power, and if you seek to undermine the power of another type of thinking, you ensure it’s made light of.
Democracy only thrives when language is wielded with care, precision, and tact. If it is used carelessly, thrown about in situations entirely smaller than their true meaning, you trivialise it. You make it manageable. But more importantly, you allow those who give weight to your words to never understand its true spirit.
If you use a term as a weapon against your enemy, especially if done so inaccurately, you dull the blade. Subjects that have nothing to do with that term become synonymous with a cultural battle, and before you know it, every single thing in your life is part of the war. A term like ‘woke’ is another good example. It might have meant something at one point, but now it’s been so overused it doesn’t refer to anything really. These tactics are exhausting, they’re debilitating, but all the more importantly, they’re an erosion of meaning meant to empower the worst of humankind.
The Left’s influence
The Right didn’t learn how to do this on their own however. In fact, the liberal movement in the United States would often analyse situations, big and small, in order to suggest a greater cultural issue.
The main difference between the two uses, however, is the intention. In the earlier examples of these cultural battles, accountability and justice were the focus. People who were too powerful to face the traditional consequences were brought to the court of public opinion to force them to.
This resulted in such things as the “Me Too” movement, and for a time it seemed all could be finally held accountable. However, the Right took these attempts to punish those in power and learned to subvert them.
With Trump, for example, he was confronted with those same accusations and attacks about his well documented behaviour. Instead of caving, however, he simply ignored or attacked them in return, eroding his assailant’s points by implying they were either corrupt themselves or lying. His entire current administration, it seems, is full of the very kinds of people that were cancelled back then.
Erosion of law
This accountability culture, then the subversion of it, has been part of the American experience for over a decade now. Culture wars have been fought on every front, and all of these tiny, singular battles add up to complete erosion of the law and, on a personal note, a sense of reality with those on the other side of the aisle. Many, including my own family, have grown to distrust credentialled authority, trusting some of it and completely dismissing others. Institutions that do not serve personal liberty or have a perceived agenda (it genuinely does not matter if there is one) are simply things to be gutted and destroyed.
Education cheapened
It wasn’t always this way. These are the very same people who pushed me to get an education myself. There was a time when they valued education as a means of improving our lives. Then, when education no longer guaranteed employment, they listened to the wrong people and found all institutions, school, science, and otherwise, worthy of blame. Single words created connotations that would not be reconcilable, and these rips and tears into our language have created the country we inhabit today. Steve Bannon, a part of the first Trump administration, once said “The Democrats don’t matter, it’s the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood them with s*t”. This mission succeeded; the right-wing media system evolved and is now destroying the very institutions that previously held them accountable. It does not matter what is customary or what routines are established. This type of chaos will viciously and violently tear your world apart if unchecked. For the past 10 years, change has torn through mine. I pray it doesn’t tear through yours.
More in society.
