The primary operating mode of any bully is to get into your head.

Fear is primal after all. Very few of us yearn for confrontation. We want things comfortable. We want to sit and enjoy our lunch in peace and quiet. We want to watch our show without being disturbed. We don’t want to be angry or shouty or have a need to knock fists in the driveway.

So a bully threatens all of that stability with their words and actions. Threatens to cause an accident on a smoothly flowing highway by swerving wildly through traffic. Threatens to ruin your summer fun by burning garbage in their backyard. Threatens to topple your peace of mind by turning over the health care system to corporate interests. Threatens to take away your country and personal freedom by military annexation.

The balance is sent off kilter. The seed is planted in your head, and it takes root. The fear of the bully grows…

If you let it grow.

There is a rumour going round these days that speaking ill of the orange dictator south of the border will get you in trouble. I am a Canadian. I consider myself a peaceful guy. I don’t own weapons and I have handled multiple bullies in my life with diplomacy and deescalation. But now here we have this rumour of a government bully, the resources of an entire nation being set on the “just following orders” dial mode where I as a peaceful minding-my-own-business Canadian am supposed to react to the bullying by doing one simple thing; just shut up and comply with the bully and you’ll be fine.

And of course you know who the bully is. The bully is a nationalist government displaying the hallmark signs of fascism. The bully state. The do as we command folks literally pulling masks down over their faces and propping up their guns in threatening ways and wink, wink, winking that we should just shut up about their violent takeover of democracy down south or maybe some border agent will lock you in a cell next time you think about taking a flight to visit a theme park. Obey the bully state…or else. Just simply obey. But, too, obey in advance. Don’t speak up. Not now, not ever. Don’t talk about the bully being a bully. Don’t point out that these actions are eerily mirroring the actions that our grandparents and great-grandparents stood up to in eastern Europe in the early twentieth century. Don’t you dare suggest that we’re all heading down a road that leads into a dark age when the justified murder of millions will be driven by the political apparatus currently led by a clownish narcissist. Don’t question any of it or you might be next. Obey.

Fuck that. 

All that? That is the bully getting into your head. That is you watering the damn seed that the assholes planted there without your permission.

This whole thing is annoying. 

And that’s the point.

I am insulated here, I admit that. I am far, far away from the border and have almost no reason to travel to it any time soon. I live a comfortable life and can probably get by even if society starts to collapse at the edges. It is in many ways a position of privilege, even in a bad situation.

But still I’m annoyed. And angry. And, I will admit, a little afraid too.

And again, that’s the point.

The evil that sits on his fat ass in the american capital is well-practiced at being a bully who instills fear in people to get his way. It is, in many ways, his only real skill. He makes people afraid of losing their fragile political power, so they do and say anything to cling to it. He makes people afraid of losing their boundless weath, so they bow to him. He makes people afraid of each other, so they fight their family and friends because he commands them with disingenuous half truths. They obey in advance because they are all afraid of a little imbalance. None of them want to fight. They want to be comfortable. They want to sit and eat their lunch in peace and quiet.

So? Democracy crumbles and fear abounds. Because that is the whole point, too.