So, this woman, Fiona Hill, an Anglo-American academic, foreign affairs advisor and author, who since 2023 has served as Chancellor of Durham University, Wikipedia dixit, was interviewed on Chanel 4. Political activist George Conway posted a bluit highlighting her declaration that “The United States is on a path toward full-on state repression.” His post got 15000 likes, was reposted 5100 times and generated 415 replies.
One of them was mine. I wrote “You are all in denial, it’s really amazing as seen from Europe. The USA is fully repressed and depressed. What more evidence do you need?” This post unleashed a tiny storm in a teacup, with a flurry of 200 likes but also about two dozen direct replies of all kinds, from “yes, indeed” to “shut up, Karen” (I blocked that person and replied to the rest, with all my respect). Today I’m writing about this small incident in the huge tornado that are the social media because one of the persons I upset questioned that I could do anything at all just posting bluits from Spain.
My daily task on BlueSky is recommending a book, and in that way publicising the collection of reviews of contemporary fiction and non-fiction that my students wrote and I edited, Reviewing Contemporary Anglophone Fiction and Nonfiction (https://ddd.uab.cat/record/307453). This gives my BlueSky participation a focus, and I quite enjoy it. The rest of my posts are comments on the news, sending dozens of likes (particularly to photographers) and, yes, replying to posts with a political content. I did ask the guys and gals of Anonymous, whom I follow, what I could to do to help the US and democracy in general. They told me to pass on reliable information and opinion, and this is what I’m doing in Spanish, English, and now and then Catalan.
No doubt, writing bluits from the comfort of my Spanish home does not compare to marching in Washington DC but, to begin with, I have totally cancelled my chances of getting a visa to travel to the USA. Remember that French scientist whose laptop and cellphone were confiscated at the border and he was at once deported because the migration agents found anti-Trump comments in his social media posts? Well, that could be me. Or any of the millions posting pro-democratic bluits.
I have made a point, in any case, of never ranting against any person. I present myself as a European and a Spaniard with a direct knowledge of fascist dictatorship, as I child who attended Franco’s school. Many of my bluits are about what things that work in European democracies are missing in the USA, such as being entitled to vote automatically when you turn 18, having an opposition to nag the government, the possibility to call an election when a leader is corrupt, how a Parliamentary monarchy works and so on.
I’m usually cautious and measured, but yesterday I got impatient. I’m reading many posts on BlueSky about how if things are going this or that way, the USA will be in trouble. I’m not in a position to teach lessons to anybody, but my view is that even though every day brings an even more preposterous decision by that President, and truly horrible things are happening because of his cruel randomness, Americans seem to believe that life can revert to normal after the 2026 mid-terms or in 2028, with the end of the second mandate (if it ends!).
I was told yesterday that many Americans understand the situation perfectly but they are missing a leader, or that the huge distances make it impossible to coordinate significant mass demonstrations, or that with the media keeping silent about the protests it seems they are not happening. Another person told me it’s too much to expect a country to react efficiently in view of the carefully orchestrated political manoeuvring of the last five years. Fair enough.
The angriest person told me that I was wrong to believe Americans were all losers and guaranteed they would go down fighting. My point, precisely, is that I can’t believe that Americans, who have shown themselves to be great fighters for human rights, are now unable to coordinate a collective response against the autocracy that has taken over their land. My view is that the ones who care, for half the country is clearly complicit with the guy they voted for, trust too much that the law will defend them. A few judges have stepped up and stopped the President, but this is a very slow system of defence and the damage done in the meantime is terrifying in terms of personal lives (the people brutally kidnapped and deported) and collective life (the assault on science or worldwide humanitarian aid).
There is another problem. Even though Americans (or at least the US Government) are used to interfering in other countries, with altruistic or predatory intentions, they have difficulties accepting that others can intervene in their own nation to help. I’m not speaking of expressing my personal opinion, or liking the posts by US politicians I have not voted for. I mean listening to the European Union, China, or the UN.
Twice in the 20th century did Germany threaten the world by unleashing international wars that caused much suffering. In both cases, the USA came to the rescue, leading the coalitions that put an end to the remains of 19th century imperialism and of Nazism. During the long Cold War, the USA presented itself as the guarantor of democracy worldwide although, as we know, the CIA and the US military did their share to support dictatorships like Chile or Iraq until they were no longer useful. The question is that the US President has gone rogue and there is no other world leader than can guarantee stability. If we think that China can play that role, then the world has become a truly strange place.
I wrote a second post, in reply to an American who assured me that they were doing all they could, but were being hampered at each step, and needed some luck: “I know, I know, this is why I’m here. I do wish you all the luck in the universe because the whole planet depends on saving American democracy, I really mean this.” As I wrote these words, at 1AM, I felt as if I was dreaming, and the whole thing was a nightmare.
You can laugh at the ridiculous antics of that guy and his cabinet, send the sharp US cartoonists lots of likes, support Mark Hamill and George Takei’s unflinching posting, but in the end the whole situation is sinister, dangerous, and contagious. I had to read a lot about Hitler when I wrote my book on villainy, and the same pattern is being repeated. I don’t mean that 2025 is 1933, what I mean is that we are seeing at work the same systematic failure of the systems of control that prevent entitled persons thirsting for power from doing as they like, and destroying democracy.
In Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the Sons of Jacob storm the Congress and the Senate, and kill all members. That’s all it takes for US democracy to end: a bloody coup, with relatively few victims. I would like to insist that the main danger comes from the impression that life in the USA is still normal, because it is not like life in The Handmaid’s Tale. Not for all, though for the migrants terrorized by ICE it’s quite similar. The soft coup that has already happened shows an extreme deviousness and a relentless inhumanity, whether this comes from the President, or from the groups behind him. Even Elon Musk has been ostracized! Things are already very, very bad and will easily get much, much worse.
In a way we were lucky in Spain that although foreign governments did not intervene to stop Franco (actually his position was consolidated in 1953, thanks to the treaty signed with the American government of Dwight Eisenhower), the millions of tourists that started arriving in the 1960s did have an impact on our lives, if only because of their different understanding of personal freedom. They did not come to Spain to fight Franco and end our suffering, but they opened our eyes in many ways. Then some privileged Spaniards started travelling, and imported new ideas. Until we all saw, when Franco finally died, in his bed of old age, that the way ahead passed through becoming a European-style democracy. With a king, but that’s another story.
That President understands that he can control the USA by isolating his fellow Americans from the rest of the world (as abusers deprive their victims of contact with family and friends). Migrants (and some US citizens) are being deported, including children with cancer; no foreign students will be able to study in the USA next year; few tourists (or academics) will choose the USA as their destination; many Americans will stay home for fear of being unable to return if they travel abroad.
The next step, you know and I know, is controlling social media. Trump already tried to take TikTok away by force from its Chinese owners. He might think next of limiting X, BlueSky, Instagram, Whatsapp or any other social network to internal national use (as the Chinese do). Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. announced this week that US researchers funded by the government would be banned from publishing internationally; he wants to set up instead national research bulletins.
So, I could keep quiet, post about mushrooms on BlueSky as that popular account does, or fill with likes the feed Photography (Trending), but that’s not the reason why I abandoned my total inactivity in the social media. I’m posting on US politics because this is affecting my life and the persons in my immediate circle, which extends from Spain to the European Union. I’m posting because no foreigners helped Spaniards to get rid of Franco, and I wish they had.
Supposing BlueSky had existed in 1970, and I had been then a woman my age today, I may have been irritated at any posts by American citizens protesting that we, Spaniards, were in denial and not active enough. But I would have agreed: many Spaniards were risking prison, exile, and even death, while the rest did nothing and this is why Franco could die of old age. Yesterday I was no doubt projecting onto US citizens my frustration at my fellow Spanish citizens, who were unable to get rid of that monster for forty years. Inaction, you see?, has consequences, often lasting for generations.
I’m very scared. This is not like watching Argentina or Brazil struggle not to return to old dictatorial regimes. Post-communist Russia or China have been dictatorships for so long that we can’t even believe they can one day be a democracy. The fall of the USA is much, much worse: it’s seeing Superman become Lex Luthor or, even worse, Captain America join Hitler.
I was about to erase my post, but it the end I’m happy that it started a conversation among a handful of US citizens, even if it was a tiny one. When the person who got so annoyed with me told me off sharply (‘go and take your privilege to a right-wing forum’), another American told them ‘you’re fighting the wrong person.’ Indeed, and thanks for defending me!
Now, paraphrasing John Kennedy, don’t ask yourself what democracy can do for you, ask what you can do for democracy. Before it’s too late, and not just the USA but the whole world falls to the dark side, where so many nations already are. Trust me, it is very urgent. We all need to do something.