First they came for “those people” over there; then those nearer to “you” here; next they’ll grab you
Crazy times where it feels violent goons in suits have taken over our government. Feels we’re living in a slow-burning nightmare from a mad mix of Kafkaesque terror and Catch-22s. A few have pointed out even back in Trump’s first term the manner in which he pursues his perceived enemies with childish vengeance. This pursuit is similar to the grim persecution and rounding up of different categories of people by Nazis, Fascists, Communists, and religious fanatics. The drumbeats warning us to pull our heads up and wake up grow louder and more persistent as any ideas of playing the drums deteriorate into banging and beating such musical instruments in a cacophony of horrible noise.
Donald Trump’s American fascists have gone after and are going after a still-expanding list of fellow human beings. Remember first the MAGA Cultists went after Muslims from the Middle East and Black people from so-called “shithole countries?”
Then the list quickly included so-called “illegal aliens” and those migrants who committed crimes other than being inside America “illegally.” Instead of doing the hard work of significantly reforming the outdated, expensive, chaotic, and overly lengthy process of becoming a US citizen, the Trump-Vance administration and its rubber-stamped Congress and Supreme Court merely arrest, detain, torture, and deport. In all fairness, every US administration has failed to streamline and simplify the immigration process. The Americans under Obama-Biden deported far more people than under Trump, but the way it was done and the tactics used are very different.
Student political dissidents, especially those protesting against Israeli actions in Gaza and for a Palestinian state are being rounded up. Many institutions both private and public are being stripped of their funding. Legal immigrants including naturalized citizens, US nationals, Green Card holders, etc., are being rounded up, questioned, accused of crimes, and deported. There is little opportunity to challenge such acts in a court of law. Often people are arrested and detained as they legally prepare to enter the courtroom to apply for citizenship or refuge. The right of Habeus corpus has been suspended with those detained whether they overstayed their Visa or protested against ICE because “illegals” are deemed invasion in a time of war with protestors labeled “terrorists.” Transgendered people are stripped of their rights. Other Gay, Lesbian, Queer, Intersexed, Bisexual, and other sexual and gender minorities are also being deprived of their rights. The Supreme Court is being asked to roll back gay marriage rights as they did women’s reproductive rights including those to abortion and birth control.
The homeless are not just being swept out of sight but plans are in motion to round them up and put them in internment camps. This includes a large number of people with addiction and other mental health problems that need assistance other than being crammed into camps. Perhaps gathering up the homeless into centers with housing would be beneficial if done with compassion, care, and the finances and services required to help them heal and get back up on their feet. But not the way it’s being done. In fact, funding to help the homeless and public mental health issues has been slashed at Federal and State levels.
Our situation has gotten even worse. Anyone woke is suspect. People are fired en masse from government jobs for simply being there regardless of their skills and achievements. Anyone advocating for DEI and CRT policies as well as removing public statues of slave traders, colonial imperialists, and Confederate traitors are themselves viewed as traitors. The Dominionists and other White Christian Nationalists view the USA as a Christian nation and everyone else is of the Devil. Obsolete, violent notions of what it means to be a man are being fostered by immature, insecure men while women are increasingly urged to return to the kitchen and the bedroom with a desire for anachronistic notions of European civilization by a mix of White supremacists and Christian nationalists.
More and more people are being targeted. Democrats, progressives, socialists, social justice advocates, environmentalists, and liberals in general are smeared as communists, terrorists, and wacko leftist lunatics. Traditional conservatives are lampooned by the MAGA folks. RINO ex-Republicans are viewed as traitors. Women are increasingly demonized by the Far Right. They’re prey for male predators within our one species, and few truly raise a stink about it. People with disabilities, elderly retirees, and the poor are being stripped of funding and many services. It is grotesque. Trashing entire categories of people and demonizing even those in the mainstream who disagree with one is the prelude to physically persecuting them, denying them funding, smashing their belongings, and detaining their persons. Do it so often the public begins to tune it out, but tuning evil out does not make evil go away.
Tuning out evil does not make evil disappear. The MAGA Trump fascists may eventually come after you next. Then what will you do, if anything? Below is a famous poem on this topic. You’ve likely encountered this poem before and then forgot about it as just another poem somewhere by someone. Well, let’s revisit the poem and its author:
“First They Came”
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
This poem was written shortly after the Second World War by Pastor Martin Niemöller. He was a complicated man who felt compelled to change sides during a brutal conflict. Niemöller was German and a Protestant Christian pastor who first supported Adolf Hitler, the Nazis, and their antisemitism before turning to oppose them. After serving on Imperial German submarines in the First World War, he worked building railroads and finally became a Lutheran minister. Niemöller eventually turned away from his open support of Nazism and antisemitism to become one of the founders of the Confessing Church, a movement opposing Nazi efforts to unite all Protestant Churches within the Third Reich into one pro-Nazi, Aryan evangelical church. He was arrested several times by the Gestapo before being imprisoned in concentration camps from 1941 to 1945 at war’s end.
Born in 1892, a veteran of the First World War and one who endured the Great Depression, he remained a controversial figure after 1945 as he called for fellow Germans to atone for their sins and crimes against the Jews, the Roma, and others. Pastor Niemöller died an elderly man in 1984. His poem, however, remains world famous and a stark reminder of how easy it was for everyday people to go along with and even embrace the beginnings of tyranny. If one is in a so-called privileged category, it’s so easy to simply go along with the flow. Doesn’t matter if the flow is negative and toxic or positive and enlightened. Going along to get along is an expression of our natural herd instinct as bipedal, social mammals. Niemöller’s poetic words, ironically, have been embraced by both those on the right and on the left. Today they still ring true, whether in Russia, China, India, Venezuela, Iran, Hungary, and many other nations including in America today.
What do you plan to do if and when they come for you? For Pastor Niemöller’s poem is called, “First They Came,” not “If They Came.”
William Dudley Bass
Thursday 14 August 2025
Revised Wednesday 20 August 2025
Shoreline/Seattle, Washington
USA
Cascadia
Earth
See also: Waging Nonviolence, https://wagingnonviolence.org/
Copyright © 2025 by William Dudley Bass, except for the poem, “First They Came,” which is now in the public domain. All Rights Reserved by the Author & his Descendants until we Humans establish Wise Stewardship over and for our Earth and Solarian Commons. Thank you.