When people ask the polite question, “How are you?” I skip the perfunctory answer. I reply with some variation of “I’m not OK,” “Democracy is crumbling” or “Look around; everything is falling apart!”
I find it important to normalize and name the daily havoc that has ramped up since mid-January. Assaults on science, media, health care and higher education. Immigrants kidnapped on the street. LGBTQ+ folk fighting for dignity. Racist rhetoric that would make DW Griffith blanch. All lives certainly don’t matter. Every day is chaotic. On Monday, pregnant women were told, falsely of course, that Tylenol causes autism.
Tomorrow will bring something else. And so will next week. And the month after. The Trump administration is inflicting authoritarianism through petty grievances and sweeping policy changes. Meanwhile, the price of groceries is still high because the president ran on fixing the economy. Yeah, right.
The news is exhausting; stories flood the 24-hour cycle and are hard to keep track of. In response, too many people are choosing to tune out as they wrestle with feelings of despair and inertia. I hear this from friends and strangers alike. That’s what the White House wants — for the public to crumble into weariness and tune out the shenanigans. Whittle us down like an overused pencil.
Ignoring the problems won’t make them go away. We can’t stick our fingers in our ears, especially as the attacks on the First Amendment and journalism mount, which leaves an opening for misinformation to fester and spread. Journalism is a linchpin to democracy. While the news media isn’t perfect, journalists are trying mightily to document our times.
If the news is overwhelming, create a practice of consuming at least one piece daily or some other means to keep abreast. At stake is falling into what scholar Timothy Snyder calls “anticipatory obedience,” a political tragedy in which citizens freely give power to authoritarianism. His book “On Tyranny” warns “do not obey in advance.” Various American institutions — law firms, universities, media and corporations — already have. Being properly informed is a key line of defense against this anticipatory obedience.
In Chicago and Illinois, resistance to fascism is multipronged. Activists protesting are pepper-sprayed at an ICE facility in west suburban Broadview. Community groups are protecting undocumented Chicagoans in vulnerable neighborhoods. Authors and librarians are pushing back against book bans. Chicago Public Schools isn’t caving to federal demands to end a Black student success plan or rights to transgender students.
We are used to the scrutiny. For a decade Trump has picked on Chicago. He made promises to fix our “hellhole” city by sending in troops to stop crime instead of researched-backed policies. ICE agents are crawling around the region, but the administration backpedaled (for now) on bringing in the National Guard. The City of Big Shoulders really isn’t to be trifled with. People drink nasty Malort for sport and roll the windows down in 40-degree winter weather and declare a heat wave.
Earlier this month as the city braced for those troops, I witnessed a form of resistance: Chicagoans enjoying “hell.” They packed the Printers Row Lit Fest, Taste of Chicago, El Grito festival and Mexican Independence Day Parade. On a Saturday evening I attended an old-school hip-hop festival on the Midway Plaisance. DJs spun ‘90s rap music. It was a good time.
But I know strangers hate to see me coming. No one wanted to talk about the impending fear of troops or politics. I get it. I, too, would rather vibe to A Tribe Called Quest. Everyone isn’t on the front lines of activism, but everyday people can name and acknowledge that what’s happening all around us isn’t normal. Or it could be too late.
The next time someone asks me how I’m doing, I’ll continue to say: We’re not OK. But don’t worry, we can keep dancing, listening to music and enjoying our little slice of our so-called “hellhole.”
Natalie Y. Moore is a senior lecturer at Northwestern University.
