April 2026

Summer 1996

It’s hotter than the devil’s armpit in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I’m at the local swimming pool’s annual 4th of July party. My whole neighborhood comes out to join in the festivities. There are contests - three judges sit by the diving tank and determine who can make the biggest splash or the best belly flop. At one point the pool is cleared out so the master of ceremonies can smear Vaseline all over a giant watermelon. He throws it in the pool. That’s the signal! A crowd of kids jump in and a mad melee ensues. Winner is whoever can throw the greasy watermelon into a basket. A big teen boy is always the winner, I’m a small-for-my-age 10 year old. I know I have no chance to win but it’s fun anyway.

Of course there’s a barbecue with hotdogs and hamburgers but the potluck is my favorite. Southern staples like cornbread and potato salad can’t be missed. But for me the highlight is desserts - every conceivable form of cake and cookie. Someone always brings a sheet cake with white frosting, lovingly topped by berries in the form of the American flag.

I am living in the greatest country in the world. The movie “Independence Day,” starring Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum, has just been released in theaters and life is good.

Movies of the 90s were better and that’s not just nostalgia. Disney animation was firing on all cylinders. “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” and “The Lion King” were all released within three years of each other!

And the summer blockbusters! Oh my goodness! That art form reached its peak in 1996 and I will not be convinced otherwise. Remember when movies used to be filmed on actual physical sets, or even on location, with human actors and lighting? Sure the actors were mostly conventionally attractive (less so for men) but they still looked unique and real and you could even see them sweating when a scene called for it. Think about it, when was the last time you have seen sweat in a movie?

That same summer, my family hosted an exchange student from France named Philippe. He thought “Independence Day” was ridiculous, particularly how it portrayed the President. “The President, he is all,” Philippe said. “He can fight, he can fly airplane, why?” The question itself confused me. Obviously the President of the United States is a devilishly handsome combat pilot who leads the world in the fight against aliens. Nothing could be more natural than that.

A KGB spy and a CIA agent meet up in a bar for a friendly drink. "I have to admit, I'm always so impressed by Soviet propaganda. You really know how to get people worked up," the CIA agent says. "Thank you," the KGB says. "We do our best but truly, it's nothing compared to American propaganda. Your people believe everything your state media tells them." The CIA agent drops his drink in shock and disgust. "Thank you friend, but you must be confused... There's no propaganda in America.”

Summer 2008

Peak Empire

I’m standing in a gas station parking lot. In my hands is a clipboard. I’ve graduated from university with a degree in mechanical engineering. Have a great job lined up to start in a few months. So for now I can take it easy and use some time to volunteer for causes I care about. Whenever a car pulls in I shout, “Are you registered to vote?” Most people are happy to see me. I don’t talk about any candidates but we all know why I’m there. Barack Obama is running for President of the United States.

That year would be the high point of my belief in the American Dream. It felt like the world was full of possibilities. Growing up in the South, of course I was aware that our country had an ugly past. My high school history teacher was unusually woke for a white man in the early 2000s, he even had us read from Howard Zinn’s radical book, “A People’s History of the United States.” But that history was all behind us. Today a black man could be President! We could build a new future together.

I attended a campaign rally and the vibes were electric. The crowd was enormous, black and white people together, cheering uproariously when Obama finally appeared. I was so far back I could hardly see Obama as he gave a brief speech, periodically pausing for us to chant, “YES WE CAN!”

I still love that slogan.

Autumn 2016

I’m living in Germany now. After working a few years for the government, I take my savings to do a Masters degree in a foreign land. I want to travel around Europe and learn a new language and meet interesting people. The election back home has occupied my mind but I’m not worried. I don’t even stay up all night to hear the results.

On Wednesday morning my roommate pounds on my bedroom door and says, “Did you hear? Trump won the election!”

The 2016 election shocked me to my core. How could my country do this? Elect such an obviously horrible man? For the first time ever, my unshakeable faith in the rightness and goodness of America, was shaken. A crack had appeared.

Late 2010s Youtube was a golden age of video essays. I started watching media critique channels like Lindsay Ellis, which led to more explicitly political content like ContraPoints and Philosophy Tube, eventually landing in far left territory of Thought Slime and FD Signifier.

These creators collectively came to be known as “Breadtube,” a tongue in cheek reference to The Conquest of Bread, an early 20th century book by anarchist philosopher Peter Kropotkin. Channels like those led me to question capitalism, also for the first time ever.

Whitewashing 101: How To Rewrite Black History

I also began to re-educate myself about US history. Starting by revisiting “A People’s History of the United States,” which is an eye opening book, highly recommended for anyone who wants to find out all the ways your education lied to you.

Turns out, many venerated figures of our past, especially those who fought for equality, were communists actually. But somehow this always gets left out of the narrative. A famously egregious example is the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

But there are many more. Langston Hughes, great poet of the Harlem Renaissance, was a devoted communist who wrote poetry explicitly praising Lenin and the Soviet Union. In English literature class we read his poems about the struggles of black people. But never one where he described what he saw as the solution:

The more you read, the more you find that it was always like this. The communists and socialists have always been on the right side.

Helen Keller, deaf and blind following a childhood illness, is often taught as an inspirational figure who learned to communicate using tactile sign language. Her story abruptly ends there, sometimes mentioning that she advocated for the blind later in life. Grown-up Helen Keller was a revolutionary socialist who joined the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), a mega labor union, read the works of Karl Marx, and fought her whole life for the rights of working people.

From an interview with the
New York Tribune:

Why did so many people who we regard as freedom fighters support socialism?

Luna Oi, a YouTuber from the north of Vietnam, did several videos about the Vietnam War from her perspective and how it affected her family. I was already well along the path leftwards when I found her channel, but these videos truly drove home how evil the US had been.

Not just invading and destroying her country for no good reason, but then imposing cruel sanctions to ensure they could never rebuild. U.S. media only ever described how killing helpless civilians made our soldiers feel bad.

Could it be … that we are… the baddies?

And was it always like this? Was it always rotten?

Even the 1990s, my beloved childhood golden age, was when the Rodney King tape came out, the first of many times that police brutality would be caught on video in my lifetime. Marginalized people have known this forever, we just didn’t want to listen.

Winter 2025

The United States is fully fascist now. Armed gangs of masked men are abducting people off the streets. I’m still living in Germany, watching my country crumble from afar. I’m visiting my in-laws for the holidays, and as 2026 begins the news from back home fades from view. I’m preoccupied with other things - planning my son’s birthday party, working on my podcast.

Then I hear the news. ICE has killed someone. Of course that’s nothing new, they kill dozens of people in custody every year. But this time it’s different. This time the victim looks like me.

Six years ago when George Floyd was murdered in the same city, the people rose up and inspired a nation wide outburst of protests in support of Black Lives Matter. Then our militarized police did their thing and crushed the uprising. The moment faded. Trump regained power. We failed. Or did we?

Copy of “You can kill a revolutionary, but you can never kill the revolution.”.gif

Spring 2026

The solution is twofold. Listen and organize!

When marginalized people tell you what is happening, and what they need - listen! When the state turns bad, all we have is each other. Join an organization. It doesn’t have to be explicitly political. Anything that helps build community, helps people with their struggles, is a worthy cause. Find the smallest problem you can fix with your comrades, and fix it. Repeat.

If you do go to a protest, don’t be the main character! Renee Good and Alex Pretti lost their lives for the cause, but you don’t have to. Stay together. Learn how to protect yourselves. Don’t lose hope.