This is a frightening situation. But no matter how many times the regime may claim otherwise: Most Americans are not ready to give up the Republic to a bunch of violent goons in masks terrorizing the streets. They are not ready to give up on democracy just yet.

But it is simply not true that the majority of Americans is clamoring for more state violence against anyone who “deviates.”

The murder of Nicole Good is much more likely to galvanize the opposition against this regime.

We have ample evidence, of course, that a lot of people are willing to support or tolerate a cruel immigration policy if it is framed as “getting the bad guys out” – they are willing to look away if they have the impression that whatever happens is being done in “orderly” fashion.

But on the other, because they are perceiving the world almost exclusively through the prism of a hermetically sealed rightwing information environment, they are vastly overestimating how much support they have for their cruel spectacle.

This is a regime driven by the desire to create social media content for their hardcore fans on the extreme Right.

On the one hand, this is an immensely dangerous situation: A government spurred on by the most deranged far-right online corners.

The Trumpists want to project strength and dominance. But as much as they are causing – and will continue to cause! – horrible harm, I do not believe the spectacle of cruelty they are producing is helping them consolidate authoritarian rule.

They don’t think of themselves as federal officers serving the people – they act like an occupation force, treating an American city as hostile territory and everyone in it as the enemy.

Weaponized MAGA in masks. There will be more victims of state terrorism in the streets.

A government actively demanding escalation and a mass influx of bottom-of-the-barrel recruits: Things will only get worse. A terrorizing force of goons who are both drunken on the power the regime has given them, but also perpetually insecure, frustrated, and aggrieved.

These are exactly the people the regime is now actively recruiting for ICE and Border Patrol, in an effort to create a quasi-paramilitary force to serve as the regime’s violent enforcers in the streets.

The Right is defined by a political and social culture of white grievance, ethno-religious nationalism, gun fundamentalism, desire for male domination, glorified militancy, and paranoid conspiratorialism. It is bound to produce people who believe it is their patriotic duty to use violence.

Manly men with guns who dominate and conquer and take what they want! But also: Fearful victims, persecuted and oppressed, suffering under the yoke of evil “wokeism,” scared to death by an unarmed woman in a family SUV. Wounded masculinity and delusions of superhero dominance.

The Right’s reactions also offer a window into MAGA’s psyche: What stands out is the combination of pathetic self-victimization and faux bravado. MAGA is simultaneously obsessed with their own strength and their own weakness.

Such a clear crystallization of Trumpism as a political project: Redraw the lines of who belongs, who is legitimate, who is part of the “Volk.” And if you are not, you have forfeited not only your rights and protections as a citizen, but also your humanity, your very right to live.

They don’t regret what happened in Minneapolis because they don’t regard people like Nicole Good and anyone who dares to object to their idea of “real America” as fellow citizens. They are enemies, their humanity is discounted.

What really stands out about the regime’s response and the way the MAGA Right has reacted to the killing of Nicole Good is the complete lack of empathy. They are not even pretending. They simply don’t think Nicole Good’s life was worth all that much.

When the State Terrorizes the People

The killing of Renee Good reveals, yet again, Trumpism’s violent, authoritarian essence. MAGA is at war with the reality of American society.

My new piece:

https://steady.page/en/democracyamericana/posts/4b2f8d7a-55ba-4a6b-a523-1a1ee780fd69

Sunday reading:

America is no longer a democracy. That doesn’t mean authoritarianism has won. There is reason to feel more optimistic now than last spring.

But the country needs a democratic transformation rather than merely a restoration of the pre-Trump status quo.

This week’s piece:

https://steady.page/en/democracyamericana/posts/b8cd6881-e3c4-49b1-996c-cb25f6ec18bf