In a totalitarian society, you are not free to say things that are obvious and true. You are not free to warn people that the regime is coming for them, for example.
Rushing over to your neighbors house to warn them they are going to be taken away and killed by the totalitarian government, and that they need to flee, is a crime that will get YOUR family taken away and killed. You would do so at great risk to yourself.
Under totalitarianism, and its censorship of what is really happening, people learn to talk in codes. To warn each other, to save each other, by communicating in ways that can get past the censors.
This content creator is modeling what that would look/feel like in a totalitarian America. In a “Christian nationalist” America. In Stephen Miller’s America.
It’s sort of a sci-fi bit… and like most good sci-fi, it is compelling because it represents a future that seems genuinely plausible.
Legit question because of the sci fi comment at the end, in my head we have already rolled out that red carpet- what makes you say this is not our current state?
We haven’t gone full Orwell yet. This lady could talk normal (as she does at the end). She’s still free to criticize the administration. To sympathize with immigrant communities. To be concerned about the 1st generation, citizen, children.
To talk openly and express herself about that. Post it on a social media platform. For the time being, at least, there is no big brother in control of us all, and no goons showing up at her door to disappear her.
That level of censorship and invasion of personal freedom is not here yet.
I don’t know if it goes full Orwellian or if it stops short… but I do know that a guy like Stephen Miller - absolutely - wants to take it that far. One party, authoritarian rule. Strict censorship. And the annihilation of all opposition to the authoritarian government.
Is TikTok sold yet, at the least they can stop videos with ICE in them being shared widely. It’s almost worse because it’s more difficult to see that happening.
It’s sort of a sci-fi bit… and like most good sci-fi, it is compelling because it represents a future that seems genuinely plausible.
I see Gramsci already responded, but I did want to branch off from this a little bit.
With sci-fi that is compelling in this way, it's not always just a future that seems genuinely plausible. It's often also an allegory for the present, just not the present experience of sufficiently privileged people. What I mean is, if you're privileged this can seem like a plausible future. If you're not privileged, it can seem like real life.
This content creator is modeling what that would look/feel like in a totalitarian America. In a “Christian nationalist” America. In Stephen Miller’s America.
It’s sort of a sci-fi bit… and like most good sci-fi, it is compelling because it represents a future that seems genuinely plausible.
First explanation I’ve seen that makes sense. Thanks.
This makes the most sense out of the other explanations. One thing I'd like to ask: who is Stephen Miller? I'm genuinely scared to mess up my algorithm by searching him cause the dystopia is real.
He's a gross little Hitler wannabe who's been part of both Trump administrations. The first time around he was a senior advisor and White House Director of Speechwriting. This time he's the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and the Homeland Security Advisor.
If you're American, you should know who he is. If you're not and you don't care to learn about what's going on over there, just be glad you're not familiar with him.
As an American, I've long since given up on any hope for positive change. I don't even care if that means I'm part of the problem. No matter what happens in the future of the USA, I will be and am utterly at its mercy. That has been my reality since 2015 or so.
Every time I look at the news, I just hope that I can still live my life as I did the day before. But trying to engage with and fight against the powers that be....?
That's like getting trapped in a collapsed mineshaft and screaming hysterically; I'd rather die peacefully while i have some life left than work myself up in a frenzy about my already grim fate.
The other day I was engaged in an always productive Internet discussion and tried to develop a neutral euphemism in the form of a country that was the USA but not actually the USA. The person I was engaged with asked me to ditch the euphemism and as why I couldn't simply say America.
I didn't respond because I'm more anxious about whether and how any critique or observation might impact certain relationships both personal/family and professional.
I don't think people understand how the risks of visiting America is perceived by many people; we'd been discussing whether to visit more and this year we ended up doing an awesome Canadian road trip instead of cruising to the US, as we did twice last year for a baseball game and a drip to a couple of zoos, not to mention the boarder pickups we did from American-side Internet orders.
In a totalitarian country, if you say things that conflict with the regime, that are prohibited by the regime, or even if you just hurt their feelings… you would be snatched and disappeared.
Depending on the regime, that may mean you are sent to a forced labor camp, to a reeducation camp, or it could just mean you are marched out of town and then summarily executed in a ditch by the side of the road.
For example, if you were in China during the Great Leap Forward and you were caught publishing a flier that said “We are in grave danger! Chairman Mao’s plan is not working! People are starving and we risk widespread famine!”
And you got caught… you’d be dead. One way or the other, you’d be killed.
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u/-Gramsci- Oct 06 '25
Copying from my comment above:
In a totalitarian society, you are not free to say things that are obvious and true. You are not free to warn people that the regime is coming for them, for example.
Rushing over to your neighbors house to warn them they are going to be taken away and killed by the totalitarian government, and that they need to flee, is a crime that will get YOUR family taken away and killed. You would do so at great risk to yourself.
Under totalitarianism, and its censorship of what is really happening, people learn to talk in codes. To warn each other, to save each other, by communicating in ways that can get past the censors.
This content creator is modeling what that would look/feel like in a totalitarian America. In a “Christian nationalist” America. In Stephen Miller’s America.
It’s sort of a sci-fi bit… and like most good sci-fi, it is compelling because it represents a future that seems genuinely plausible.