Politics in a Digital World

The newly elected president of the United States is almost 80 years old, a convicted felon, paints his face with bronzer, has the world's worst comb-over, has his mugshot framed in the Oval Office, and constantly brags about how he has unlimited power and is a King. He openly mocks allies and undermines global stability.

This administration has entrusted a megalomaniac billionaire with cancelling billions of congressional-appointed funding, led by a team of people including a 19-year-old who goes by the name Big Balls, who allegedly leaked corporate secrets at his one and only other job/internship. He is now in control of everyone’s social security accounts.

In the not-so-distant past, let’s say 2008, 99% of the world would have thought you were crazy for saying this would happen. Obama used to get accused of not being worthy enough to be the president because he used dijon mustard and wore a tan suit. Less than 20 years later, an uncomfortably large number of people are not only tolerating this insanity but actively cheering it on.

We’ve reached a point where human suffering isn’t just ignored—it’s turned into entertainment. Take, for example, the ASMR-style video of immigrants being shackled and deported from Seattle, posted online like some kind of fun, quirky content. It’s a grotesque display of power, reducing real people—people with families, fears, and futures—to props in a government-sponsored PR stunt. But this is just a symptom of something bigger: the normalization of cruelty. This isn’t just about one video. It’s about how desensitized people have become to dehumanization. How easy it is to convince the masses that suffering is deserved, that policies rooted in oppression are just part of keeping “order.” And before anyone throws out the “they broke the law” argument—spare me. There’s a difference between enforcing policy and turning misery into a spectacle.

The scariest part? The more we normalize inhumanity, the harder it becomes to undo. We’ve seen where this road leads. History might not perfectly repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. Mass deportations, forced removals, scapegoating vulnerable populations—these aren’t new tactics, but they are always dangerous ones. When the average person starts wishing for mass deportations and systemic oppression, when they celebrate suffering instead of questioning it, we are walking straight into darkness.

What’s even more disturbing is how casual it all is. This is just the new normal. We’re supposed to be fine with a government flexing its power by treating people like this—and worse, broadcasting it for applause? If people are comfortable with this happening in the open, what the hell is happening behind closed doors? I’m honestly ashamed. Ashamed that this is what humanity has become. Ashamed that there are people who not only defend this but probably enjoy it. The lack of empathy in society disgusts and terrifies me. We’re living in a world disconnected from basic humanity, surrounded by screen zombies who can no longer think critically. And it’s not just the U.S. The internet has made propaganda so easy to perpetuate that people will see a single meme on Facebook and let it dictate their entire worldview. The algorithms are designed to reinforce biases, feeding people content that confirms their worst fears and prejudices, turning rational discussion into an endless cycle of outrage and misinformation.

It’s heartbreaking that we can’t even talk to each other anymore. Families are being torn apart, parents abandoning their kids, lifelong friendships ending—all because people refuse to see things from another perspective. Every time I try to have a real conversation, if someone doesn’t like my opinion or the information I present, they don’t engage—they shut down, resorting to calling me ignorant and uneducated. It’s insulting, especially because I make a conscious effort to inform myself beyond my own biases. I research and I challenge my own views. I read about Technofeudalism, I study political science, and try to understand human behaviour through likes of Orwell, Atwood and Kafka. But none of that matters to people who have already decided that anything outside their echo chamber is an attack. We are drowning in misinformation, and no one seems to want to be saved.

As a Canadian, I’ve watched the American political landscape devolve into something that should concern the entire world. The current administration makes jokes and threats about annexing or conquering my country, and it’s ignited a patriotism in me I didn’t even know existed. But not everyone in my country feels the same. I know an uncomfortable amount of people who at best, think Trump is a better leader than our own Prime Minister and at worst, would happily hand over our sovereignty just because they believe the lies about lower taxes or because they hate brown people.

I am so fucking tired of how ignorant people are. How do you fight fascism in a society where people have no empathy? Where anti-intellectualism has taken hold. Where critical thinking has been replaced with mindless consumption of propaganda. Where suffering is now entertainment. I wrote an article about the global rise of fascism 6 years ago, and people called me a doomer. Look where we are now.

So what do we do? The only way forward is education. Not just in schools, but everywhere—in conversations, in media literacy, in pushing back against the oversimplified narratives that get spread online like wildfire. People need to understand why they believe what they believe, to question their sources, to read beyond the headline, to recognize when they are being manipulated. It is terrifying to think that so many people form their entire worldview from a meme they scrolled past on Facebook. We need to teach people how to think, not what to think.

If we don’t fight back against the normalization of dehumanization, if we don’t teach people how to recognize propaganda when they see it, we will continue marching down this path. And history has already shown us where that leads.

Right-wing propaganda is real, and it's fucking terrifying.