Why Aren't We Responding?
I can't speak to the horrors that Maduro has enacted on his people. From my understanding, he was a cruel leader and the fact that he calls himself a socialist can't change that.
But I can speak a little bit to American imperialism. We're after their oil. That's not all, though. We're thumping our chest, making sure everyone knows that we're the dominant primate in the forest. Trump is an egotistical and demented puppet being jerked around by his administration on military campaigns for things like revenge (Rubio), perceived valor (Hegseth), and white supremacy (the whole lot, but let's go with Miller on that one).
We're not talking about it enough as a collective, from what I can tell. There are protests, but they're not of the scale they should be. Americans as a whole aren't taking a hard stand even as we acknowledge that history is repeating. At least not yet. That doesn't mean we won't. But every day it's more perplexing how most people haven't hit their limit. I've been asking for years: What will it take? At what point will we all stand together?
It's strange knowing that hoping for an answer means hoping for greater and greater catastrophes. I don't WANT bad things to keep happening, but I know they will, and every time I think...
It's hard not to throw my hands up and shout at everyone, all the time. "WHY ARE WE LETTING THIS HAPPEN?! DO SOMETHING!!" But I did that in 2020 and it did no good, whatsoever. Nobody who didn't already want to listen would hear me. Really, it just made people hate me; which is fine, but it doesn't exactly grow my sphere of influence. So I try to be more tactful; more informative, diplomatic. It doesn't seem to be working, but at least I'm not being ousted. I'm not being heard, but they haven't kicked me out of the room, yet. There's still a chance that I can open their eyes.
I wonder if there's a sense of isolationism in each calamity. Do most Americans not feel the weight compounding with each military strike, or trounced freedom? Maybe they're just taking each attack on the chin, turning to look back into the sparkling, malicious eyes of our abuser with a deeper connection to the pain.
That may well be the case for some. But I think more likely, the majority of people who aren't moved to action by now simply can't be bothered. Their lives are busy. They have jobs to work, and mouths to feed, shows to binge, things to buy. Their kids have homework, their parents need a ride to the bank. And when they get a chance to breathe, they don't want to deal with this mess. They want to maintain their way of life, unaware and unbothered. To their credit, I think this is by design; it's a level of mass-manipulation that's hard to comprehend, built up over decades with stronger and stronger technologies. Still, their fault or not, they don't care if we're the bad guys, as long as they can find some joy in their lives.
But, some of us do care. Some of us are doing everything we can, dedicating our whole lives to a rejection of the evils the US executes, domestic and abroad. We won't be discouraged by those addled with Stockholm Syndrome, or wrapped up in an individualist rat race. Some of us are screaming. Some of us are clinging to our friends, family, and anyone who will listen; negotiating with reality, pleading with them to see things for what they are and do something. Anything.