Rumors, hearsay, slander, and libel are an intrinsic facet of politics here in America and abroad. Within the last decade, we’ve seen all of it take monstrous and destructive form. Today, however, we find ourselves facing the same volatile conditions Americans faced during the 1950s Red Scare. For the past ten years, we’ve seen political speech go from ambiguous to “alternative facts” to bald-faced lying to American citizens through the media. This is the doing of one man whose disingenuous words have spread throughout the country like an STD in a frat party.
President Donald Trump and the most inept political sycophants ever in the history of the United States repeatedly bash democrats by calling them “radicals”, “socialists”, and “communists”. Radical? Seriously? It’s a grossly hyperbolic and sacrilegious affront to actual radicals. Democrats aren’t interested in anything “radical”; they want to maintain the status quo and only seek to ensure that it runs with a minimum of bumps or obstacles. Donald Trump is guilty of crimes against this country and its constitution, of violating civil and human rights, rape, fraud, and even murder. While I’m sure that many democrats feel the suffering he’s causing, on the day we no longer have the threat of Trump in this country, democrats will return to the status quo, where they feel the most comfort. If democrats were radical, they would have thrown Trump in prison a long time ago, damn the consequences. He only throws the word “radical” around because he knows that it riles up his base, making them think the worst of the opposing party and anyone who’s critical of him. Democrats are far too timid and aren’t in the habit of doing anything radical, but that doesn’t stop Trump from telling “ghost stories” to his base and conning them into believing these lies. These falsehoods aren’t harmless, though.
The words: “not a satanic socialist sex cult” are so fucking cool that I wish I had thought of them as a tagline before the one we use now. They came to me one night as I pondered the conservative, right-wing response to Neuerotica, should it become a success. There’s a high level of probability that accusations of satanism, pedophilia, and cult-like behavior will hit our e-magazine. These kinds of accusations aren’t new. During both Red Scare eras, the term was used to describe individuals or groups who stood outside the norm or held radical ideals (even the term “radical” scares the unknowledgeable). These were the kinds of accusations lobbed at anyone the capitalist white power structure considered a socialist or communist, whether they were or not. MAGA types have proven themselves all too willing to make up and believe conspiracies. With the kind of content I’ve published (and plan to publish), I know I’m not making things easier for Neuerotica (or for myself).
So-called “radicals” are a peculiar breed. They’re not particularly public, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. You want to be visible to reach more people, but not so visible that you become a target. I’m attempting to do a radical thing with Neuerotica; we showcase radical art, radical music, radical style, and we publish radical editorials. I’m quiet when my neurodivergent brain has wandered off somewhere, but try as I might sometimes, I can’t keep silent when I see or hear about an injustice being committed, and I can't stay uninvolved. I am a rabble-rouser and a firebrand, and it’s apparent in every article, editorial, and meme Neuerotica publishes.
People are beaten or killed for their political leanings of late. Once the accusations fly (true or not), people get riled up. The political climate in this country is as volatile (if not more so) as it was during the Red Scare of the 1950s. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover terrorized American citizens with his campaign against “communism”. The difference in tactics between Trump and Hoover is that Trump needs only to speak (or post to social media), and his base will promptly attack any one of his detractors. In Hoover’s day, it took propaganda, union busting, threats from the government, and a healthy dose of paranoia to set Americans against each other. Don’t think that Red Scare tactics of the past have gone anywhere in the general political sphere, however. As JT Chapman of Second Thought points out in his latest video, we’ve entered a new Red Scare era.
I say all this to say that, if everything goes right (the way I expect it to) for Neuerotica, I expect trouble to come knocking on my door. I’ll have to answer it, or else it only delays the inevitable. But believe me, I will be prepared; I’ve been prepared for a long time. It won’t be the first time that someone has come gunning for me. I’ve been “dead” before. In their debut hit song “How About Some Hardcore”, Brownsville, Brooklyn rap group M.O.P.’s Billy Danze says, "I have been licensed to kill, and he has been marked for death.” In the spirit of his James Bond and Steven Seagal movie references, I’d like to confess that I am hard to kill (I understand and accept your maniacal cackling). In other words, I do not intend to be an easy target.
Honestly, I don’t intend to be a target at all, though that’s not up to me to decide. While I can’t be certain, I think most people would prefer an actual assassination to an assassination of character, though both result in different kinds of death. There’s nothing I can do in either case. I have four women in my life whom I call my “brides” (“wives makes me sound polygamous, and “girlfriends” makes me sound like a player, and I am neither). How we came together was a matter of coincidence. We’re all neurodivergent, socialize together, and since I’m older and have more experience with mental health issues, I often offer counsel and comfort them when they need me. To an outsider, I may seem like a modern day Charlie Manson. Even if I crumpled and abandoned Neuerotica and everything I stood for, however, that wouldn’t stop what’s going on in the U.S., nor would my enemies, should my editorial content become familiar. Dead or discredited, the (socialist) party will be over for me. I’ve always believed that I would likely end up killed either by an agent of the state or a fanatic seeking to “protect” it from people like me. These days, I think the latter is more likely.
There’s a part of me that says that everything I’ve said here about being a target is speculation (or my general anxiety); I’m a nobody after all. But the other part of me knows that people who have said less about Trump than me have been seriously injured or killed. But in the words of the great Alfred E. Neuman: “Who, me worry?
