Fear Societies and Free Societies, &c.
On dictators, the Ukraine war, ‘The Late Show,’ and more
In China, there are people who dare not even mention the name of Xi Jinping, the country’s dictator. Here is a comment from Yaqiu Wang:
Someday I will write a book about how profoundly fearful Chinese people are—even though we often do not realize it ourselves—after nearly eight decades of atrocities and abuses at the hands of the CCP.
(“CCP,” as you know, stands for “Chinese Communist Party.”)
Yaqiu Wang is a Chinese human-rights activist living in the United States. I did a podcast with her a month and a half ago, here.
Many years ago, I learned something about Cuba: Some people were afraid to mention Fidel Castro’s name. When referring to him, they would gesture toward their chin, indicating a beard.
Years later, I learned something about Belarus: Some people were afraid to mention the name of the dictator, Alexander Lukashenko. Instead, they gestured toward their upper lip, indicating a mustache.
These are marks of a “fear society,” to use Natan Sharansky’s term.
Our society, a free society, ought to be the opposite. For example, you should be able to stand in front of the White House and holler imprecations against the president without any fear of repercussions at all.
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The Russian military attacked an apartment building in Kyiv, killing 24, including three children. Almost 50 people were wounded.
From some quarters, you hear that Vladimir Putin is “defending Christian civilization” against the “woke.” I know that many believe this. I don’t know what could ever disabuse them.
After this latest attack, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said, “A Russia like this can never be normalized.” But I’m afraid that this Russia has been normalized. And normalization—in the sense of numbness or wrong acceptance—is an enemy.
Zelensky agreed to a ceasefire so that Putin could hold his big parade in Moscow on May 9. I have a question for moral philosophers, and maybe even for realpolitikers too: If Putin is simply going to go back to murdering women and children, should he be allowed to hold his parades unmolested?
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You may have seen this missive from our president, written yesterday:
Donald Trump has a habit: he praises Communist, anti-American dictators and denigrates American leaders he dislikes. He does these things in the same breath. There was a time when Republicans and conservatives would have abhorred this habit. I remember. I was there.
On Election Day 2024, I published a piece called “A Political Testimony.” This was a personal piece, subtitled “The life of a conservative from Reagan to Trump.” I would like to paste a portion:
On May 18, 2019, Joe Biden launched his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. In the course of his remarks, he said, “Are we a nation that embraces dictators and tyrants like Putin and Kim Jong-un?”
Four days later, on the 22nd, North Korea’s official “news agency” issued a broadside against Biden, calling him, among other things, a “fool of low IQ.”
On May 25, President Trump issued a tweet:
“North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me. I have confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me, & also smiled when he called Swampman Joe Bidan a low IQ individual, & worse. Perhaps that’s sending me a signal?”
Concerning the firing off of “small weapons”: These missile launches may have been trivial to Donald Trump. But they were not so trivial to the South Koreans and Japanese. The president’s advisers were right to be “disturbed.” (One of those advisers was John Bolton.)
Concerning “Swampman Joe Bidan,” etc.: The conservatives I knew, pre-2016, would have been aghast at what Trump did. You may not like Democrats. But to chortle with a murderous, anti-American dictator over a former vice president …
Repeatedly, President Trump hails Xi Jinping as a “great leader” who “loves China” and so on. Obviously, democracies have to deal with dictatorships. But truth ought to be respected, and human rights ought to be thought of.
Xi Jinping is the boss of a one-party police state with a gulag (known as laogai). According to our State Department, China is committing genocide against the Uyghur people.
What does America stand for in the world, and what do we stand for to ourselves?
***
A news item, from yesterday:
Pete Hegseth’s last-minute decision to cancel the deployment of 4,000 troops to Poland caught Pentagon staff and European allies by surprise—the latest example of an abrupt personnel move from the Defense secretary that blindsided both sides of the Atlantic.
(For the full article, go here.)
This comes on the heels of our withdrawal of 5,000 troops from Germany.
Move after move from this administration pleases Putin. I know people who bristle when you say this. But can it be contradicted?
Obviously, Trump and his administration are itching to withdraw from NATO. Trump and other Republicans talk about the alliance as if it were a hostile power, instead of one that we created, for our benefit, chiefly.
And it has been “the most successful military alliance in history,” as I heard Republicans say, all my life, until about ten years ago.
Maybe they should just go ahead and withdraw—be done with it. Better than death by a thousand cuts?
Fundamentally, this is in the hands of American voters. They decide the president and the Congress. They steer the American ship. “Elections have consequences,” to quote an old saying.
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Another news item, this one from Tuesday: “Russia Keeps Attacking U.S. Firms in Ukraine. The White House Is Silent.” The subheading of that article is, “Facilities tied to Coca-Cola, Cargill, Mondelez and others appear to have been deliberately hit. The Trump administration’s muted response has raised concerns.”
As will not surprise regular readers, I have problems with America First even in its genuine form. But over and over, the current administration is something other than America First.
Perhaps this could be the subject of a long article …
***
Did you see this?
Above, I spoke of “normalization” and “numbness” (in a different context). No one bats an eye. Most presidential statements and actions don’t even make the news. It is a torrent, whose individual drops go ignored.
***
This has not been a very fun column. I will make up for it soon. Maybe we could end on something fun—Stephen Colbert and David Letterman dropping things from the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater, where The Late Show has been filmed (1993–2026). The first host was Letterman, the second Colbert.
In their antics, Colbert and Letterman are punching back at CBS, which canceled the show. Fans of (the new) CBS and non-fans of Colbert and/or Letterman may not love the video—here. But it is all very American. Classically American in spirit.
As a reader pointed out, “We made our bones throwing things overboard in protest.” Yup. And in our politics, we had a Tea Party, not very long ago.
Anyway—over and out, and God bless you.
One might well ask: if Trump were a known Russian agent what would he be doing differently?
To tie it all together, in at least one contemporary fear society, *people* were reportedly dropped from the roofs of tall buildings—their punishment for being gay.