QOTD: America "A Frightening Shell"

 

Charles R. Davis, writing in Salon.com, describes the fear of foreign visitors, tourists and students, of being detained and harassed by the lawless Malignant Fascist's masked goons.  Phones and laptops are examined for any trace of anti-MF sentiment, free speech is threatened by the sick, out-of-control MF.  An excerpt from Davis' article:

 "It can be a maddening experience, living in America and not supporting Donald J. Trump.

In what has been billed as the greatest country on Earth, democracy is being unraveled because a majority of the nation’s white inhabitants voted for a 79-year-old man who is temperamentally unfit for any public office, much less one that comes with nuclear weapons. A once-proud nation of immigrants is being subject to military occupations because a man, in a marriage to an immigrant, says that foreigners are 'poisoning the blood' of the nation, and that they are to blame for all that one finds wanting in life.

Perhaps the end of the flawed American project comes as no surprise, but even the most jaded observer — one aware that the land of the free was also the home of the slave — has had to marvel that the collapse could be brought about by this, of all guys; not by some charismatic general, skilled at feigning empathy for the common people, but an elderly conman who’s only selling them crypto.

Take some solace, then, in that you are not crazy for thinking this is insulting, in all of its dystopian absurdity. Those who study and teach about America, abroad, also think the country has become a frightening shell of its past, imperfect glory."  (our emphasis)

This is part of the ugly and tarnishing legacy that the MF and his MAGA cult are leaving, turning the U.S. into a version of the countries that we used to oppose for their disdain of democracy and oppression of any dissent.  More and more are viewing the U.S. not as the "shining city on a hill" but as a dark and menacing alley to avoid.