If it were, there’d be a reason to fight. Instead, what we have is a passive-aggressive nanny state.
That's the plan - lull us into non-action until they can finally overcome that pesky Constitutional right to bear arms. If that ever occurs, you can expect the widespread, out-in-the-open, tactics to begin.
>>> Instead, what we have is a passive-aggressive nanny state.<<<
This is what I see, too.
I’ve written about this in other places, but I’m going to repeat myself here. I think that the cultural Marxists had one thing correct - the culture of a place determines the appearance of socialism (or lack of it) in certain places. Yes, the author is correct that the machinery of totalitarianism are in place and waiting for the right person or party to implement it. But I don’t think that we’re going down the route of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, or Hitler. We’re Americans.
I like your term “passive-aggressive nanny state.” It fits what I’ve been thinking about our culture.
I think we’ll preserve all of the trappings of a republic with limited government. School boards will meet and city councils will convene. Everything will be done according to law and precedent. However, the laws and accompanying regulations and administrative rules will become so dense and so personal that we will be living in a totalitarian state anyway. I’ve seen this in everything from land use planners ruling about the size of my garage to health officials telling me where I can smoke a cigarette to school administrators telling teachers how to greet children on Christmas. It’ll all have the veneer of republican virtue - public comments, open meetings, thick reports, a chance for appeal. However, it will have the actual effect of putting each person under the thumb of the state.
And it’s actually quite brilliant. Under national socialism, you might think that killing Hitler would end the madness. In the evolving American system, who are you going to shoot? The guy in a cubicle writing a letter based on a ruling from another guy in a cubicle based on administrative decisions found in the federal register created by a 4,000-page law? No one has responsibility; everyone has responsibility.
In fact, keep your guns. Go to church. Listen to Rush and Levin and Savage. Write that letter to the editor. Some bored-looking bureaucrat will listen kindly and convene a hearing. Maybe you’ll change a little here and little there. The structure will remain.
There’s no need for mass terror, either. Malcontents will be quietly called into the office and told to attend a weekend retreat to “re-educate” themselves about proper conduct, in the same way that we currently treat sexual harassment and diversity training. It’ll be at a swank hotel with a continental breakfast. You’ll sign a promise not to do it again. The presenters will smile. Your boss will put you on a plan of improvement. That should be enough for everyone else to notice.
What about those who really fight? A well-publicized show trial should do the trick, perhaps a few each decade, enough to make it known that the state has the power to quell discontent. Why kick in every 100 doors one night in the tradition of Stalin when you can broadcast a show trial to 10 million?
And don’t get the idea that we’ll be dealing with grim ideologues. We’re Americans. I saw this with my greenhouse project, supplied by the USDA last summer. A whole platoon of agriculture experts descended on my property, studied this and that, gave me “recommendations” that are really directives, and did it will politeness and a smile. Your health care bureaucrats will be that way, too. Like your kid’s teacher. If someone is rude, they’ll be reprimanded. They’re here to help.
And slowly, slowly, slowly, like cancer, the memory of a truly free United States will fade away as the old die and the young grow up. Eventually, I guess the whole thing will look like Byzantine Rome, with folks going through the actions while the elite try to direct every movement. The Byzantines survived for a thousand years, too.
I hope that this is a tin-foil hat fantasy. God help us.
Yet the Nanny State reaches its tentacles into the entire totality of your life - that’s what totalitarianism means (as I’m sure you know, since your handle is of a philosophical bent). But seriously, a lot of it seems ridiculous, but they control so much and do nothing but grasp for more and more and more.