When Cruelty Becomes the New Normal
I can’t believe I’m having to write this. Not in the year 2025. Not in this country. This is not normal. I mean, it shouldn’t be normal. Ever. Especially not in this day and age. But it is.
Cruelty has become normal.
I don’t care about those many millions who are ignorant, not do I care about their racism. I really don’t. Hate can easily be dismissed — though never ignored. Pretending ignorance and racism doesn’t exist is dangerous. History proves that, as America has always overflowed with mass ignorance and overt racism — often masked as patriotism — whether the 1700s, 1800s, 1900s, or sadly even now in the 2000s. We can argue about progress that’s been made and how far we’ve come collectively speaking, or the lack thereof. We can also debate the ways to improve education and diminish racism. We can even discuss the many reasons for ignorance and racism.
What I do know is — it’s impossible to defeat when it comes from THE TOP.
Indeed, what isn’t debatable is the common aspiration that OUR LEADERS should be *better* than us. OUR LEADERS shouldn’t reflect who we are and all of our collective stupidity and irrational prejudices, but rather to inspire us to be *better* than who we are. To aim higher. Those are the people to look up to. Those who make us *better.* That’s LEADERSHIP.
Currently, we are not led by a wise leader who lifts us up. Instead, we’re led by a buffoon and a bigot who punches down, usually at the weakest and most vulnerable among us. Trump’s outburst last week calling an entire group of immigrants — make that LEGAL IMMIGRANTS, many whom are now U.S. citizens just like most of our own parents and grandparents became after they arrived upon our shores — was utterly shocking in its unapologetic bigotry. But 75 million or so Americans love him because he’s “politically incorrect.” He says what he thinks, and in turn, that’s their mindset, too. He is THEM.
Were Trump’s words REALLY that shocking to anyone who’s been paying attention the previous decade of constant degradation? Nope — they weren’t. We’ve come to expect it. And, see — that’s the problem. Cruelty is something we’ve come to expect. Whether we admit it or not, cruelty is NORMAL, now.
Trump’s blathering stupidity isn’t a surprise to anyone, really. What’s truly shocking was the LACK OF OUTRAGE, all across America. The hate hardly even mattered, to say nothing of the grotesque mangling of Constitutional responsibilities toward *all* citizens by the nation’s highest elected public official. It was only a minor news story, a blip, until the next outrageous comment, or bogus lie. A racist tirade one might expect to hear from a drunken white supremacist in a redneck bar became the words and the thoughts of the President of the United States. Let that sink in. Just a normal day at the White House.
When an entire ethnic group must live in fear, there is no freedom nor democracy for anyone; nor a country worth admiration when its most powerful leader — a cruel man elected not once, but twice — blurts out such bigotry without objection, outrage, nor apology. Millions of people would be outraged if a so-called “leader” made those remarks against Jews, or Italian-Americans, or (White) Minnesotans. I don’t really care what you think of the politics of a state or any particular racial group or nationality. A LEADER of all the people simply DOESN’T DO THIS. How far away can “ethnic cleaning” be as the next step?
Please pay attention here. When we say that we *despise* Trump both as a President and a revolting person, it’s because of gross ignorance and grave bigotry like this. You call it “derangement syndrome?” We call it being a moral human being. We call it being Americans, worthy of the designation of exceptionalism. When we reluctantly announce that we no longer respect you, and in some cases we want NOTHING to do with you MAGA people, it’s precisely because you and they have been silent. Again and again and again and again and again. And, if and when you do SPEAK OUT, it’s always to make excuses or defend the indefensible.
This should never be normal. But now, it is.
