day 9: is this what the early days of nazi germany felt like?

today is day nine of the trump adminstration. i woke up several times last night. i think i only had one nightmare, but it wasn’t a pretty one. all i can think right now is: i wonder if this what the run-up to nazi control of germany felt like? some terrifying things have happened in the last days that seem all to similar to that period in history (almost as if people in his adminstration have studied how it worked last time and improved on the strategy…)

1. the administration has ramped up its war on the media establishment. it seems that the 1st amendment only applies when you’re on the administration’s side. trump has tweeted that the new york times is fake news and steven bannon, trump’s top advisor, has said “I want you to quote this. The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.” when the media establishment falls, we’re all in trouble because then truth can literally be made and remade by the government. if the administration can convince enough people that media establishments aren’t trusthworthy, the government will then be the only institution with enough distribution power to communicatte “information” with the populace at scale. in other news, sales of 1984 have spiked.

2. with an executive order (and somehow even before that), trump has halted citizens entering the country from majority muslim countries. this has been aptly named the #muslimban (although some folks think it’s a smokescreen to distract his supporters. either way, it is baffling to me how people see this as any different from the treatment of jewish people during the holocaust.

3. the president mentioned (out loud (fox news link)) that torture works as a technique. at this point, based on the executive orders i’ve seen so far, i can only hold trump at his word. this is a truly terrifying possibility. people seem not to be talking about it. i don’t understand how this isn’t a bigger deal.

4. several agencies in the federal government have either had their upper level leadership removed (can’t tell yet if by force or choice), been told they can’t speak about their research, or have been informed that their data “will be brought in line with the new adminstration’s beliefs.” based on the removed of the climate change website from the white house website within hours of inauguration, i can only imagine this is an obvious indictator that the administration is probably going to delete anything that disagrees with their worldview.

are we awake yet?