I think they must have spent years hiding their true nature, and now they feel free to show the venom they have long kept hidden.
Of course, being responsible for unleashing it will put Trump and his buddies into Dante’s literature. But what sickens me is the huge number of regular type individuals who have been released from societal constraint.
And they are everywhere, aren’t they, demonstrating the hatred which is their true nature?
They are employees of ICE (U. S. Custom and Immigration Enforcement), for example. They seem to have no trouble physically hurting people as they snatch them from schools or streets or pretty much anywhere they want. They wear masks as they violate rights so we will not know who they are because they fear someone might come and violate their rights.
They’re certainly not the only ones whose ugliness has been unleashed. How many neo-Nazi groups have you heard about lately? Twenty years ago they would have been a rarity and universally condemned. Now they proudly wave their flag and celebrate the free speech amendment they would deny to others.
Many express their venom on social media, modern ubiquitous platforms ready made for hate mongering.
Some serving in the National Guard unleash tear gas on protesters.
The list could go on and on. The book banners and others determined to ruin our education system from preschool to graduate studies. The religious fanatics whose goal is installing a national religion that is not even close to being religious. The men who want to return women to the kitchen.
Remember, these purveyors of hatred I’m talking about are not in the seats of power. They are among us. Our neighbors? Our fellow employees? Our friends?
How do these people sleep at night? Do they feel sick about the way they treated fellow humans that day? Or are they proud and pleased with their control over others and the freedom to exercise it?
I hope I’m wrong, but they seem content with their actions and look forward to continuing them.
And where did they come from? Have they always had this tendency for cruelty and now feel free to let it flow?
Are there even more now given permission to emerge and participate in the ugliness that is part of their nature but have held it dormant because of past fears of censure?
When I speak with people I come across, are any of them in that hidden category that could emerge at a moment’s notice and threaten me?
How far would they go? Would they report me for expressing my views? I heard someone in the Trump camp, in a tribute to dictatorship, say people should report any statement of opposition to Trump’s leadership. Think Nazi Germany or modern Russia and China.
It’s a sad assessment of our national character.