This is Not Normal. This Is Not Acceptable.
On Day 1 of the first Trump administration, I watched, mouth open, as his press secretary lied about something so seemingly unimportant that it boggled my mind: the size of the crowd at the inauguration. It was—we could all see with our own eyes—not the biggest crowd ever, and yet the President’s mouthpiece insisted we disbelieve our own eyes and instead listen to him.
I laughed out loud when Kelly Anne Conway used the term ‘alternative facts’
What can you do about people who live in an alternate reality, I thought.
Wait them out?
Since then, I’ve learned a few things. This is exactly how authoritarian, fascist regimes seek to gain power: They use tales of a mythic past, drill messages(not truth) into our heads via propaganda, promote anti-intellectualism (because they cannot control the real truth), create a sense of unreality, venerate hierarchy, create a sense of victimhood in traditional majorities, appeal to ‘return to law and order’ at any cost, stoke sexual anxiety (about gender roles and moral ‘corruption’), appeal to some imagined ‘heartland’, and work to dismantle any sense of a common public good…all to centralize power and money in their own hands1.
For those of us who watch, slack-jawed, it’s hard to comprehend why someone would go to all this trouble, because we were listening in kindergarten when our teachers told us life was better if we all shared, and got along.
It’s hard to accept that some people simply weren’t listening or cannot see the world in the way the average five-year old can comprehend.
That doesn’t make us childish. It makes us strong. We know we are better, stronger, and more interesting together.
They are scared, all the time.
What Do We Do?
Look at history.
The risk of the strongman is sort of built into democracy. That’s why it’s the worst system…except for all the others.
Democracy works…just about. But keeping it (as Ben Franklin pointed out) is not inevitable. Every democratic system consists of a bunch of people tapdancing on a bubble that could pop at any moment.
But we have to keep dancing.
How Do I Fight Back?
It’s normal to feel overwhelmed (that’s the point). But there is one thing we can all do, every day, to start to fight back.
The most important thing we can do, as individuals, is continue to repeat, “This is not normal. This is not acceptable.”
Normalizing outrageous behaviour is the aim of the strongman and his enablers.
So say it out loud every day. Say it to yourself in the mirror, say it to your friends and neighbors, say it on social media, write it in letters to your politicians, newspaper editors, and in the commets of your favorite Substacks.
THIS IS NOT NORMAL AND IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE
Remind people who are sitting alone, thinking, “Am I crazy, or is this is not normal?’ that they are not wrong and they are not alone.
It doesn’t sound like much.
There is more to be done.
But this much takes no particular talent or special knowledge, or time commitment, and is some thing we all can—MUST—do every day.
Say it out loud:
- Deporting people without due process IS NOT NORMAL AND IS NOT ACCEPTABLE
- Sending children who are US citizens and who have cancer out of the country with those mothers who didn’t get due process, and without consulting their fathers or doctors IS NOT NORMAL AND IS NOT ACCEPTABLE
- Threatening to defund university research on ideological grounds IS NOT NORMAL AND IS NOT ACCEPTABLE
- Telling government departments to stop celebrating the achievements of employees who are not white men IS NOT NORMAL AND IS NOT ACCEPTABLE
- Saying you are going to ‘take Gaza’—a sovereign territory—IS NOT NORMAL AND IS NOT ACCEPTABLE
- ‘Grabbing pussies’ IS NOT NORMAL AND IS NOT ACCEPTABLE
- White Supremacy IS NOT NORMAL AND IS NOT ACCEPTABLE
- Defining gender roles (‘women have a special role as wives and mothers’, ‘men are providers’, bleurgh! Check your history, dudes!) IS NOT NORMAL AND IS NOT ACCEPTABLE
- Mass incarceration and concentration camps ARE NOT NORMAL AND ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE
- Selling the idea that ‘we’ are hardworking and righteous while ‘they’ are sneaky and unworthy IS NOT NORMAL AND IS NOT ACCEPTABLE
It goes on and on.
Whenever you despair, get thee to a mirror and look at yourself and say ‘This is not normal and it is not acceptable’.
It’s not the only thing, but it’s the first thing.
You Are In the Majority
More than half of people polled2 recently (55%) said they disapproved of Trump’s policies, with only 39% actually appproving.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
73% (almost 3/4) said the economy is in bad shape, with 53% (over half) saying it has got worse under Trump
YOU ARE NOT IN THE MINORITY
On all his policies related to presidental power, immigration, managing the government, looking out for the welfare of the American people, tariffs, foreign policy and the stock market, 53-67% (just over half to 2/3rds of people polled) DISAPPROVE of his actions.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
THIS IS NOT NORMAL.
THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Keep saying it. Deny the lies. Remember you are part of a society that is not ‘us and them’ but rather, ‘thee and me…and him and her and them.’
Chin up. Keep the faith. Say it out loud.
- List taken from Jason Stanley’s “How Fascism Works”, Random House, 2018 ↩︎
- https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-lowest-100-day-approval-rating-80-years/story?id=121165473 ↩︎