When the Nazis came for the communists, I kept quiet; I wasn’t a communist.

When they came for the trade unionists, I kept quiet; I wasn’t a trade unionist.

When they locked up the Social Democrats, I kept quiet; I wasn’t a social democrat.

When they locked up the Jews, I kept quiet; I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me, there was no one left to protest.

- Martin Niemöller

I’m writing this post because others can’t write it. I recently spoke to a friend who is an international student studying in the U.S. They were scared to criticise Trump in a poetry collection they were writing because they feared getting deported. I’m sure my friend is not the only one who is feeling this way.

I’m a U.S. citizen, so I can, at least for now, criticize the Trump administration without fear of getting deported. So here are some of my grievances:

  1. Deporting people without a trial is extremely bad. The Trump Administration has been revoking visas and deporting ordinary people without a trial. Some are even getting sent to El Salvadorian prison, which is notorious for human rights violations. The United States should be a world leader in human rights. Sending people living in the U.S. to this kind of prison — even if they are guilty — is a gross violation of what the United States should stand for.
  2. The executive branch should not be able to destabilize the global economy with ridiculous tariffs. We have the system of checks and balances for a reason. Systems where one person can decide policy for the whole country are dictatorships, not democracies.
  3. The Trump Administration seems profoundly uncompassionate. Here are some examples: Posting ASMR of people getting deported, making AI art of someone crying after getting arrested, canceling lots of foreign aid that helps people with HIV/AIDS. There are real people affected by these actions. Deporting someone upends their whole life. Even if you believe that it’s necessary to take these actions, you shouldn’t take glee in it. That’s just cruel.

For a very long time, I believed that America was the best country in the world. I studied our history. The United States has done some extremely messed up stuff. But I believed we were fundamentally good. I thought the Founding Fathers had set up a system that ultimately bent towards justice. I’m not so sure that’s the case anymore. Something seems to have changed in the past ten years. I’m not exactly sure what it is. My best guess is that the internet and social media have caused political polarization to increase. Presidential debates used to be much more civilized. Especially since it seems like the intelligence explosion will heat things up in the next ten years, I sincerely hope that this country can become more sane.

Part of the reason why I’m writing this is because if I imagine that if this country collapsed and I had not done anything, I would be disappointed in myself. I’m also writing this to make it more likely that others stand up for me in the future, if I’m ever in a similar situation. I’m an avid reader of Scott Aaronson’s blog and I really admire how he stands up for what he believes in. So for a combination of all these reasons, I’ve put out this post, even if it is a bit scary.