Well, it must be an election year, judging by the sheer volume of bullshit showing up in my Facebook feed. Everybody's grandstanding, everybody's an expert, and everybody's got some profound political opinion they've apparently pulled straight from whichever perfectly curated information source their preferred political party has decided they should trust.
And, naturally, everybody is absolutely fucking convinced they're right.
For the record, I'm not a fucking dumbass. I know it's midterm election season. I also know how little I believe any of this political theater actually matters in the grand scheme of things. Oh, sure, elections have consequences. Politicians get elected, laws get passed, money gets spent, and more money gets taken from us. But the machine keeps running, regardless of which collection of assholes happens to be in charge.
And the people who are convinced that electing their preferred collection of assholes will somehow save the country? They're part of what keeps that machine running. Because while we're busy fighting one another over whatever manufactured outrage is dominating the news cycle, the people running the show are steadily eating away at what little liberty we have left. And they're doing it while lining their pockets with our fucking money.
Think about how much of your income disappears into taxes. Federal income tax, state income tax, Social Security, Medicare, property taxes, sales taxes, fuel taxes, registration fees, and taxes buried in the cost of practically everything we buy. By the time you've earned your money, paid your bills, bought what you need, and tried to enjoy whatever's left, how much of it has already found its way into somebody else's hands? And what exactly are we getting for all that money? More bureaucracy? More regulation? More politicians telling us what we can and cannot do?
Wonderful.
But I digress. What really set me off this morning was the parade of political bullshit on Facebook. People screaming their opinions into the digital void, apparently hoping somebody will engage so they can enjoy the satisfaction of demonstrating just how morally and intellectually superior they are. I saw one post predicting practically apocalyptic consequences depending on how the midterm elections turn out. The end is near! Democracy is doomed! Civilization will collapse!
Oh, for fuck's sake.
It's fearmongering, plain and fucking simple. And it's effective because fear gets people emotionally invested, keeps them engaged, and makes them easier to manipulate. Convince somebody that the world is going to end if the other party wins, and suddenly they'll overlook practically anything their own party does. They'll excuse the hypocrisy, rationalize the corruption, and defend politicians they wouldn't trust to watch their fucking dog.
Then there are the posts about ICE. Or, more accurately, the increasingly fashionable declaration: Fuck ICE.
Not "I disagree with ICE's enforcement priorities." Not "I believe certain immigration policies should be changed." Not even "I think immigration enforcement needs better oversight." Nope. Just fuck ICE. And I find that particularly hilarious coming from people who otherwise seem to have an almost religious devotion to government regulation.
The same political crowd that wants more government involvement in practically every aspect of our lives suddenly finds the existence of a federal law enforcement agency intolerable. More regulations on businesses? Absolutely. More restrictions on firearms? Sign them up. More taxes to fund another government program? Where do they send the check? But enforce federal immigration law?
HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!
Now, I'm well aware that not everybody on the left believes the same things, just as not everybody on the right does. But I'm talking about the people actually making these declarations. The people whose political philosophy seems to change depending on which party currently controls the machinery of government. The people who apparently believe government authority is a wonderful thing right up until somebody uses it to enforce a law they don't particularly like.
And that brings me to something else. Does anybody remember September 11, 2001? Because I sure as fuck do.
Nearly three thousand people were murdered when terrorists hijacked commercial aircraft and turned them into weapons. And afterward, the federal government underwent a massive reorganization. The Department of Homeland Security was established, intelligence sharing and national security coordination became major priorities, and immigration and customs enforcement responsibilities were reorganized. ICE was created in 2003 as part of that restructuring.
But here's something that seems to escape people who talk as though immigration enforcement was invented yesterday: The federal government was enforcing immigration and customs laws long before ICE existed.
Those functions previously existed under agencies including the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Customs Service. The name changed, the organizational structure changed, and the responsibilities were redistributed. But the underlying concept wasn't new. We had immigration laws before 9/11, we had people responsible for enforcing those laws, and we had federal agencies tasked with determining who could legally enter and remain in the country.
And ICE has existed through two terms of George W. Bush, two terms of Barack Obama, Donald Trump's first term, Joe Biden's term, and now Trump's second. Different administrations, different enforcement priorities, different political rhetoric, but the same agency carrying out immigration enforcement responsibilities. Yet now I'm seeing people act as though the very existence of immigration enforcement is some outrageous new development.
What the fuck?
And here's where it gets particularly interesting. Someone I know who owns a local business has been talking about undocumented employees being afraid to come to work because of immigration enforcement. Think about that for a moment. We're not talking about some hypothetical political debate. We're talking about an employer openly discussing employees who aren't legally authorized to work in this country, and the concern being expressed is that enforcement might interfere with the business.
I'm sorry, but what exactly am I supposed to do with that? Applaud? Offer my condolences because enforcing the law might make staffing a little more complicated?
If you're knowingly employing people who aren't legally authorized to work in this country, you're breaking the fucking law. And I think employers who do that should be held accountable. I don't particularly care whether you're running a construction company, a landscaping business, a restaurant, or some massive corporation. The law shouldn't become optional simply because following it might make your business less profitable.
Look, I understand that immigration is complicated. I understand that people come here for all kinds of reasons, including the desire to build better lives for themselves and their families. I also understand that the United States has immigration laws, and I don't think expecting those laws to be enforced is some radical, extremist position.
If you believe the laws are wrong, advocate to change them. If you believe immigration procedures are broken, propose something better. If you believe the country should admit more immigrants, make that argument. But simply declaring "Fuck ICE" doesn't explain what you think should happen instead.
Should we stop enforcing immigration law altogether? Should people be permitted to enter and remain in the country regardless of whether they comply with the legal requirements? Should employers be free to disregard employment authorization laws whenever doing so benefits their businesses? If that's what you're advocating, then fucking say so. And if it isn't, explain where you think the line should be.
Because shouting slogans is easy. Governing a country is considerably more complicated.
And there are consequences to pretending otherwise. Housing is already expensive. Rent is already ridiculous. Infrastructure is strained in plenty of communities, and public services cost money. Those costs don't magically disappear because somebody has decided a particular policy makes them feel morally righteous. How many people a country can accommodate, under what circumstances, and with what resources are legitimate questions. They're questions we should be able to discuss without immediately retreating into our respective political trenches.
But that's not what happens, is it? Instead, we get slogans, outrage, and people assigning malicious intentions to anybody who disagrees with them. And we get political parties that are perfectly happy to keep feeding the fucking circus.
Which brings me back to the bigger problem. Neither major political party has a monopoly on hypocrisy.
The right will scream about limited government right up until there's something it wants the government to control. The left will scream for more government programs, more taxpayer-funded benefits, more regulation, and more government intervention in practically every aspect of our lives, right up until that same government starts enforcing laws they don't fucking like. Suddenly, government authority is the enemy. Both sides want the government to stay the fuck out of their business while simultaneously demanding it stick its nose into everybody else's.
Meanwhile, the politicians keep collecting their paychecks, the lobbyists keep doing their thing, the bureaucracies keep growing, and ordinary Americans keep fighting over which collection of assholes deserves to hold the reins.
It's almost impressive, really. They've managed to convince millions of people that the greatest threat to their freedom is the person living down the street who votes differently. Not the institutions accumulating power. Not the political incentives that reward division. Not the machinery that keeps grinding along regardless of which party occupies the White House.
Nope. It's your fucking neighbor. The guy with the wrong bumper sticker, the woman who shared the wrong Facebook post, or the coworker who voted for the wrong candidate. That's who we're supposed to hate, and apparently we're supposed to spend every election season reminding one another of it.
Fuck that.
I don't particularly care which political party somebody identifies with. What I care about is whether they're capable of thinking critically, questioning what they're being told, and recognizing when they're being manipulated. I care whether they're willing to apply the same standards to their own political party that they enthusiastically apply to the other one. And I care whether they're capable of having an actual fucking conversation without immediately reaching for whatever talking points somebody handed them that morning.
I'd love to see the day when the extremists in both major parties finally open their fucking eyes and realize they've been played like a two-bit fiddle. Because the people benefiting from all this division aren't the ones screaming at one another on Facebook. They're the ones watching us do it, encouraging it, and using it to keep themselves in power.
And as long as we keep treating politics like a team sport, defending every contradiction, excusing every abuse of authority when it's committed by our preferred party, and repeating every convenient talking point, why the fuck would they change anything?
They've got us fighting each other instead of paying attention to what they're doing. They've got us convinced that the next election is the most important election in human history, that our neighbors are our enemies, and that surrendering just a little more liberty is perfectly acceptable as long as the right people are making the rules.
And while we're busy arguing over all that bullshit, the machine keeps running, taking our money, accumulating power, and laughing all the way to the fucking bank.
The political machine is working exactly as intended.
And we're the idiots keeping it running.
