It has now been decades that I have known Arundhati Roy as an amazing, courageous, and powerful voice of wisdom and truth. Her books line my bookshelves and I have read, watched, and listened to countless interviews, articles, and speeches by this extraordinary woman. Arundhati Roy is an international treasure.
And what she illuminates here in this quote is of vital importance. Yes, Trump and his fascist administration are a danger to us all and must go. AND we absolutely must uncover, absorb, and act to dismantle the toxic longstanding systems that have brought us this nightmare we now live. That said, we also need to recognize that the nightmare is something that is not new for millions of human beings in America and our other planetary sisters and brothers across the Earth.
These are the imperialist, white-supremacist, misogynistic, predatory capitalist, patriarchal systems that have been with us through both republican and democratic administrations — most recently with the Bushes, Clintons, Obama, and Biden — and which date back to the earliest days of colonialism, slavery, and the genocide of the Indigenous Peoples.
Many people are stuck in pointing fingers at those in the other political party to which one may identify with. And that is the danger. That we won't do the courageous deep dive embodied in a profound commitment to truth. And we'll stay uninformed, propagandized, and indoctrinated into a toxic status quo. The ignorance embedded in our denial is truly a threat to the well-being of us all.
Focusing only on the malignant narcissistic President and his enablers and supporters serves to distract us from learning essential lessons if we are ever to face and transform the poisons of the shadow side of our nation. We must see the systems that produced him and which ushered the United States into this fascist era. Nothing can be changed until it is faced.
Please know that I say this with the deepest humility and compassion. I was once there, certainly during the George W Bush era. My focus was on him and the neocons and getting rid of them because the republicans were the problem. Right?
No. Because then along came Obama and the hope and change that was promised but which did not happen. And that is when I first began to learn about neoliberalism and the many layers of betrayals of We the People and the planet by both political parties. A very painful time, and one for which I am very grateful for today. I came through this period of shedding layer after layer of my indoctrination and ignorance with the realization that disillusionment is the pathway to dismantling our illusions.
May courage be contagious. May we embody the growing wisdom that emerges within us individually and collectively as we pursue a profound commitment to truth. And may we join together in solidarity with the universal struggle for justice and peace and the well-being of all life on Earth.
- Amy Goodman and her multiple sources on Democracy Now!: https://www.democracynow.org/
- Chris Hedges: https://chrishedges.substack.com/
- Jeremy Scahill and Drop Site News: https://www.dropsitenews.com/s/jeremy-scahill
- Timothy Snyder: https://snyder.substack.com/
- George Monbiot: https://www.monbiot.com/
- Neoliberalism: https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2025/03/some-thoughts-on-why-it-is-so-important.html
- Smothered by Riches: https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2025/06/excellent-smothered-by-riches-history.html
- A related post that I did in March: https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2026/03/during-this-time-of-hightened.html
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