The Hallmark of a Conquering Nation: Obedience

Feb 1, 2025 | Uncategorized

Our would-be dictator rode into office on a wave of rebellion, backed by millions of fanatical fellow rebels. It’s not surprising that so many were fooled by such a consummate con artist. But even the MAGA hardcore may wake up sooner or later to the magnitude of the scam. The future of our Republic may ride on the hope that when Trump’s loyal followers realize he is loyal only to himself and his fellow billionaires, our all-American heritage of rank disobedience will spur a counter-rebellion.

Are you as excited as I am about the prospect of American troops storming the volcanic beaches of Greenland and parachuting into Mexico City in a blitzkrieg of traditional American values? In this bold new America where anything could happen, it could happen. All it would take is that single heroic quality that defined every nation that ever set out to conquer the world . . . obedience.

Paradoxically, what gave Hitler’s “master race” the ruthless discipline and efficiency to overpower its neighbors was the long Prussian tradition of obedience to authority. Fortunately, this has never been a traditional American value. Both before and after the Revolution, through slave revolts, Indian uprisings, the War of Secession, Wobblies and Suffragettes, Black Panthers, hippies and Yippies, down to Occupy Wall Street and Standing Rock, Proud Boys and Oathkeepers, our history has been a colorful cavalcade of defiance and rebellion.

Except for World War II, the U.S. has never goaded its people into a major foreign war without a sophisticated campaign of “fake news,” from “Remember the Maine!” to the Gulf of Tonkin to “weapons of mass destruction.” Despite the propaganda, each of those wars spawned a fierce resistance, climaxing with the broad-based citizen opposition that brought the troops home from Vietnam. Even WWII had its naysayers: American Nazis on the right, conscientious Quakers on the left.

After the embarrassment of “Vietnam syndrome,” the military-industrial state and its corporate media did their best to bring the American people to heel. But in 1999 the American empire was embarrassed once again when thousands of protesters shut down the World Trade Organization in Seattle.

Even after the collective trauma of 9/11, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were challenged by the largest anti-war mobilization yet. According to polls, only a slim majority were dazzled enough by the flags, the embedded reporters, the TV pyrotechnics – and of course the lies – to cheer for Bush and Cheney’s war. The revelation that Saddam had no WMDs, coupled with the administration’s corruption and incompetence, steadily ate away at popular support as the War on Terror ground on. But the media blackout of ongoing weekly protests around the country helped to sideline mass resistance.

Still, the deep-pocketed investment in cultivating obedience in the unruly Americans has paid off. Constant exposure to advertising – in the classroom, at the gas pump, on our phones – has turned us into a nation of obedient consumers. In the newest iteration of mass media, the social-media universe, we eagerly swallow any customized click-bait the algorithm serves us, based on our personal history of whims and obsessions.

Obedience, American Style

So if our new Commander in Chief decides to follow Putin’s lead and ship U.S. troops off to conquer whatever real estate he covets, will the American people back him? Exactly how obedient are we?

Such an order would certainly spark a rebellion from the left, and for that Mr. Trump is well prepared. A protest movement today would face a very different legal landscape than the Vietnam protesters, or even Black Lives Matter, far closer to the chilly climate of Putin’s Russia. In many states, peaceful protest can now be legally classed as “domestic terrorism.” A presidential edict can deploy the military to crush whatever Trump decides is “un-American activity.” The ICE raids so far have targeted mainly cities with Democratic majorities, and Trump has threatened legal action – “lawfare,” when it’s directed at him – against state and local officials who stand up for immigrants.

Trump has persuaded his MAGA loyalists that he will not send our soldiers into any more foreign quagmires. But now that they have given him what he wanted – absolute power – he has no reason to keep that promise. Besides, as Bibi Netanyahu knows, going to war is a well-honed strategy to distract the voters from unpopular policies, financial misconduct, a failing economy . . . and we Americans love nothing better than an entertaining distraction.

In the event of war, the world will be holding its breath, wondering if that ornery, rebellious, independence-minded America will get up off the couch and swarm into the streets – or if the America that has been yearning for a “strongman” will happily follow orders and fall into step.

No doubt it will be both. The objections of a peaceful majority will have even less effect this time around. The military will be racked with conflict between right-wing sympathizers and traditionalists, though a full-scale mutiny is unlikely. But the wild card in the deck is the unpeaceful minority: the Proud Boys, Oathkeepers, and other well-armed right-wing rebels who backed Donald Trump when he too was a rebel outsider.

It’s frightening to realize that the fate of our democracy may depend on which way all those AR-15s are pointing. Most likely, of course, they will be aimed at Trump’s lengthy list of “enemies within.” One obvious reason for pardoning the January 6 insurrectionists was to free them for duty as bona fide domestic terrorists. Extremist to begin with, radicalized even further in prison like so many jihadists, they are poised to become Trump’s Brownshirts, a private militia exempt from military regulations, congressional oversight, and the Geneva Convention.

But now that Trump is no longer a rebel but the head of state, anyone outside the right-wing bubble knows he will inevitably begin to betray his promises. What happens when grocery prices go up instead of down? When Trump’s policies prove to benefit only the wealthy? When he flexes his muscle as “leader of the free world” to lead us into some irresistible foreign war? Will the “America First” patriots, evangelical Christians, and white-supremacist militias stand up and rebel? Or will they enthusiastically obey, as they did on January 6 and throughout his years of exile?

Commandeering the Narrative

Fascism works not by oppressing an entire society, but by splitting it in two unequal halves, then enlisting the majority in the patriotic mission of oppressing the minority. If you are a member of the majority, you might not even notice the change. Like a typical white American, you can live blissfully unaware of your unearned privilege. If you recognize the injustices meted out to the minority, one of your privileges is to look the other way. But speak out in defense of society’s scapegoats, and you may suddenly find yourself one of them.

The key to maintaining such a schizoid state is control of information: the propaganda of dehumanization and demonization must be relentless. The U.S.S.R. collapsed largely because its people gradually realized they couldn’t trust the state-owned media and began circulating the truth by word-of-mouth. The Vietnam war effort failed largely because the commercial media did tell the truth, as the Founding Fathers intended, exposing the government’s lies.

The oligarchies of both Russia and the U.S. have learned the lessons of those debacles well, but Russia under Putin is farther along the road to fascism. Hampered by the protocols of democracy and the avarice of capitalism, America’s corporate press has lamely ceded its dominance to the silos of crowd-sourced “news.” Meanwhile, Russia has not only successfully commandeered the narrative within its borders but has cast its propaganda net around the entire globe. Russian trolls and bots infiltrated the U.S. political debate with fake commercials for Kamala Harris, among other tactics, playing a more decisive role in Donald Trump’s victory than all of Musk’s millions.

Trump is clearly aware that his divide-and-conquer bait-and-switch requires a similar propaganda blitz. He has taken immediate steps to stem the flow of factual information: muzzling federal health authorities, silencing the agencies that track climate change, deleting all Jan. 6 trial records from the internet, even corralling Mark Zuckerberg’s incalculable clout. Watch for him to crack down on independent media and expand our already pervasive surveillance regime. Meanwhile, the new “official sources” will offer a constant stream of “alternative facts,” along with prominent examples of what happens to the disobedient.

But will Donald Trump succeed in eradicating the rebellious streak that once defined America? Exactly how obedient are we?

Dorothy Thompson, a journalist who reported extensively from pre-war Germany, wrote about her intuitive sense of which of her German acquaintances would become Nazis and which would not. She applied the same scrutiny to the Americans she knew, writing at a time when American Nazism was a growing phenomenon and the nation teetered on the edge of the anti-semitic rabbithole of the original “America First” movement. In the Trump era, we’ll soon find out who is who.

Almost half of American voters rejected Trump’s bid to become their dictator. Millions actively work for indigenous, women’s and LGBTQ rights, racial reconciliation, sanctuary for immigrants, environmental justice, ecological sanity, regenerative agriculture, the abolition of hunger, poverty and nuclear weapons, and a multitude of other causes that further the evolution of humankind. Trump’s “Project 2025” is explicitly aimed at causes like these. Millions will suffer; many will look the other way. But millions more will refuse to “go Nazi,” including some, I’m sure, who are already reconsidering their votes for Trump.

Human evolution will continue. Count on it.

Note: These are my personal opinions and do not represent any organization I’m involved in. If my words resonate for you, please share widely. You can subscribe (or unsubscribe) at StephenWing.com. Read previous installments of “Wingtips” here.

 

 

 

 

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1 Comment

  1. Joe Ashenbrucker

    Thank you Stephen. My joke about control is ‘you would all help me with my control issues if you just did like I asked’

    Reply

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