You know what this blog post is about. You are probably surprised that it took me so long to write it. Well for starters I’ve been very sick over the last five weeks which has proven to be rather distracting. Secondly, I was scared shitless to publish this post. Why? Well because I’m a US citizen and this website was hosted on a free service within the United States which was controlled by a tech company that has already shown a willingness to bend over backwards to sate the ever increasingly insane desires of our new Crimson King, Donald J. Trump.
Thankfully both problems are now resolved. I’m about 95% of where I was pre-sickness which is good enough to get me back in the saddle. I have also made new hosting arrangements for this website. I hope the transition was as seamless for you all as it was for me. You should notice no difference.
Over the last few weeks, the situation here in the United States has degraded considerably. The Republic is breaking down and none of the checks and balances the founding fathers put into place are working as intended. I do not anticipate this situation improving anytime soon. That’s because no remaining government official with actual power seems willing or capable of actually stopping Trumps agenda. To make matters worse, the CEOs of Big Tech companies basically lined up to kiss the ring by both contributing to the inaugural parties and attending the actual inauguration.
In the last three weeks the Trump Administration has moved to reshape this nation in a wide variety of ways and with dizzying speed. I knew it was going to be a shitshow, but even in my most pessimistic moment, I did not even come close to predicting how badly this would go. Needless to say to be an American who is not on board with this is a very very scary place to be right now.
But here I am, running my mouth anyway. Truth be told, I can’t help myself. I’m not a solider. I’m not a saboteur. I’m not a patriot. I’m just a person who enjoys expressing themselves via written mediums. My ideas are my battle plan. My words are my weapon. If I stop speaking, then I am effectively letting these sub-human fascist pieces of shit win.
Speaking of that, who are these sub-human fascist pieces of shit? Well they are likely your family members and neighbors. I’m related to quite a few of these people as it turns out. I also live in an area where I am basically surrounded by them. I know that a time will come in which those people will be strongly encouraged to turn the rest of us in for merely reserving the right to quietly disagree with these policies much less actively publishing content that attempts to push back against them. Once this progresses far enough, they will attempt to come for me along with anybody else who dares to speak against this insanity. While I can’t assure you they won’t be successful, I can at least assure you that I’ll make them work for it.
Make no mistake: While the rest of us are staring at the events which are unfolding in wide-eyed horror, the people that voted for this are cheering madly for it. They are loving every minute of it. Now once the actual consequences of the actions of Trump and DOGE begin to permeate I expect that enthusiastic level of approval to drop off a bit. However, it’s going to take a lot more than that to get through this.
That’s because MAGA is a cult. The cult leader, Donald J. Trump, can do no wrong in the eyes of his cult members. So it will take extremely negative circumstances to turn most of these people. The sad fact of the matter is that we are currently nowhere close to that point. It will require us reaching a very dark future in which the wide variety of federal government benefits they rely upon dry up and they are left with nothing to show for it except their tattered MAGA hats and damning bumper stickers.
In the meantime, things are going to get nasty. That statement can be applied both to big tech as well as the general atmosphere within the United States. Make no mistake: Big tech is 100% onboard with this. They are not shying away from or even attempting to decry the fascist tendencies exhibited by this government. A few years ago they were totally onboard with concepts like DEI whereas today they are feverishly working to disband those initiatives and pretend that they never even existed.
So my first recommendation to you is not a new one: Divest yourself of big tech as much as possible. This is a tough ask, I know. Even I cannot fully cut loose of the big tech monster in my personal life. At the very least you need to reconsider your usage scenarios as Big Tech, especially Big Tech that is US based, absolutely cannot be trusted to protect you and your data in any way, shape or form. Be conscious of data you are sharing with them and be aware of what the worst case scenario is around what they can and will do with that data.
Remember, your data which is in possession of any US Big Tech company is only one National Security Letter away from being shared with the likes of Trump, MAGA, Elon and DOGE. In this current climate, I doubt it would even require an NSL to be issued as Big Tech seems only too happy to goose step to the latest rendition of “Springtime for Hitler”. They cannot be trusted. They will sell you up the river if they think it will either preserve or increase their profit margins.
You may be wondering why Big Tech seems so eager to get on board with this fascists and my answer to that question is simple: Big Tech is inherently fascist by it’s very nature. Let’s begin by reviewing what Fascism actually is:
Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ FASH-iz-əm) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy. Opposed to anarchism, democracy, pluralism, egalitarianism, liberalism, socialism, and Marxism, fascism is at the far right of the traditional left–right spectrum.
Read that definition as many times as you need to, but the primary take-away is this: Fascism absolutely resembles the model of ecosystems and lock-in that Big Tech has been pursuing on their own for quite awhile now. These tactics are ones that Google, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon (among many others) have utilized for years. They want to entrap you in hardware, software, systems and services which they totally control. They have been quite successful in this venture. Try imagining how much of the internet still functions if Azure and AWS go down hard. Spoiler: Not much.
In any event I want to apologize. This has not been an optimistic post. I will not be ending on a happy note. That’s because reality in the United States is really shitty at the moment and that’s only after three weeks of this asshole being president. I have no idea what is going to happen in the coming months, but short of the rise of a vocal, principled and effective opposition the smart money is on things getting way worse. As of right now, there is no sign of that opposition. The so-called opposing political party hasn’t shown a single ounce of backbone and seems content to just wait around for “opportunities”. I don’t know what that means, but it’s almost certainly bullshit.
That being said, I wish you all well. To those of you outside of the United States, please accept my deepest and most sincere apologies for the horrors that we are surely going to try and unleash upon the world. I and many others did not vote for this. We were overruled by the plurality of fools that decided to take us down this path because the price of eggs was too damn high.
Sadly, the price of eggs has only continued to go up. Herr Trump does not seem to have a plan for addressing that. Unsurprisingly the cult of MAGA does not seem to care.
sigh