Conclusion
We must respect evil, and we must make evil respect us.
Millennium, Season 2, Episode 2: Beware of the Dog (1997)
It is said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
American historians often argue that the Union won the Civil War, but the Confederacy won the peace. The same can be said of the Nazi by the way, which like neoconfederates have made a breathtaking resurgence as of late.1 Both factions are known to have massively infiltrated law enforcement across the United States in recent decades.2 In fact, one factor explaining the January 2021 Capitol insurrection debacle was widespread sympathy for the rioters among public officials charged with defending the institution.3
Nowadays the blight permeates every level of the US government, starting of course with the White House. Speaking of which, do you remember when in Chapter 2 I enumerated the key tactics Putin employed in order to subvert the Russian Federation? Let’s talk about those employed by Trump to subvert American democracy, just in the first year of his second term:4 He massively pardoned insurrectionists on his first day in office;5 undermined the judiciary with intimidation6 and scandalous nominations such as that of his former defence lawyer;7 gutted the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division, and turned it into a political retaliation apparatus;8 muzzled the press with abusive defamation lawsuits,9 and pressured it to silence irreverent comedians such as Jimmy Kimmel;10 cracked down on Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) policies;11 turned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into an unscrupulous state militia and unleashed it unto racial minorities,12 massively abducting them, rounding them up in concentration camps,13 and deporting them even in contempt of judicial orders,14 such as those protecting Kilmar Abrego Garcia;15 condoned violent crackdowns on peaceful protesters and even the extrajudicial killings of Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti;16 deployed the military on domestic soil and even threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act;17 purged historical displays of the country’s civil rights violations;18 and even conspired to undermine the electoral process ahead of the midterms to preserve Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress19—all the while floating the prospect of an unconstitutional third term as President.20
The remainder of the government has started turning on his administration. Federal workers have since massively resigned from their positions.21 Judges have grown insubordinate amid erosion of judicial power;22 one was even convicted of obstructing justice for enabling a defendant to evade ICE agents via the courtroom’s back door.23 Some members of Congress have desperately reached out with a video imploring armed forces to refuse to comply with illegal orders.24 The country teeters on the brink of civil war, which may erupt by the end of 2026 as the administration undermines the upcoming election;25 several contemporary uprisings have started precisely this way.26
All eyes are set on the United States because the current world order, which emerged following the horrors of World War II, rests on American influence; the world’s sole superpower even hosts the United Nations headquarters. When the beacon of democracy and individual freedoms collapses, the whole world shall tremble.
Don’t go thinking none of this concerns you because you live abroad. I myself live in Canada, which is separated from the United States by an imaginary line on the ground, the world’s longest undefended border at that. Trump has already revealed his intention to take over Canada—along with Venezuela, Greenland, Cuba, Mexico, and Iran.27 Even discounting a military invasion, subversive forces already undermine Canadian sovereignty by promoting separatism,28 just like Putin did in the Donbas region of Ukraine as a prelude to the February 2022 invasion which still rages four years on.29 One day American tanks may suddenly roll past the border following a diplomatic incident used as a pretext—let’s say by an off-duty Canadian soldier making yet another assassination attempt against Trump.30 Remember that World War I was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Serb nationalists in 1914,31 thus shattering a fragile political equilibrium in Europe reminiscent of the simmering crises that have recently afflicted the Russian Federation, the European Union, and the United States of America. The powder keg is set to detonate at any time.
And don’t tell me no one could have seen it coming; anyone who looked up the word ‘surreal’ in 2016 could have predicted what would happen in 2026 at that rate.32 It was every American’s duty to know. It was everybody’s duty worldwide to care, just like it was their duty to care about civil rights in Russia, Israel, Egypt, China, Iran, Belarus, the Phillipines, and every other authoritarian hot spot or volatile region on this planet. Because in this modern age prosperous societies can no longer hide behind walls, pretending to be safe from all evils beyond.
Yet progressive voices have stood by in silence while regressive forces subverted democratic governments. Rote meliorist narratives have made our generation complacent. Philosophers like the Roman historian Polybius have long warned that the cycle of government concludes with collapse under mob rule;33 I warn in contrast that democratic societies collapse when they outlast those who built them and newer generations take their way of life for granted, as we have. It is no coincidence that the international order built in the aftermath of World War II is collapsing eighty years later; that is approximately the human life expectancy in developed countries.
Now that the wolves are bragging about having taken over the henhouse, Western democracies have entered their terminal stage of malignancy. My prognosis is extremely bleak: it is too late to save them. I have shown you how they were once built, because this generation has to build them anew. You, who are reading this book in 2026, have to do this. Every one of us is a civil rights pioneer, who will set the foundations for the democratic states that shall emerge from the ashes of the old. Some of us will go down in History for drafting those enactments, others for upholding them in the face of adversity. Future generations will carry the torch, taking those battles from where we left them. You have a role to play in this. Yes, I mean you, so don’t look nervously around waiting for your neighbour to take the lead; muster your courage, step forward, and be a leader yourself.
Generations past observe us from beyond the grave, urging us to defend the rights they fought for so we would enjoy them today. Will you be up to the task, or instead be found wanting?
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