The predictably racist center of MAGA’s shitty politics
Are MAGA's cultural tenets of greed and vengeance enough to sustain a massive societal regression? What holds it together?
I consume a lot of media about politics and political culture. Throughout the last decade, the voices that I trust to help me contextualize our political moment have evolved—they're more studied, more rooted in community, and more empathetic than the people I used to listen to. The media I'm focusing for this series of short posts is a perfect confluence of these qualities—it's the incredibly timely podcast Apathy is Not an Option by the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center).
We live among waves of misinformation and mountains of AI slop. Widespread corporate capture of media is reducing journalistic institutions to reactionary propaganda machines... the 2025 US media ecosystem is a shit show.
Apathy is Not an Option stands in stark contrast to all the bullshit. It focuses on the ongoing fight for civil liberties and democracy in the United States. By analyzing 20th century victories, this show literally maps out the ways in which the current fascist threat can be defeated.
The people who make this show are infinitely smarter and more equipped to resist fascism than I am... you should check out the show firsthand! But I hope documenting my thoughts can help others contextualize and apply some insights. This series of short posts highlights the key lesson I’ve learned from each episode of the show.
Jubilee and Justice: The Fight for Civil Rights Isn't History—It's Now
Apathy is Not an Option • Episode One
For many working class people, the rise of the MAGA movement throughout the last decade has felt... ominous. Like the long-feared return of some ancient evil in a Hollywood fantasy trilogy. Unbelievable but also far too real.
During that time, a lot has been said about the second A in MAGA—make it great again. The mythical past at the center of the MAGA mythos is pitched to the Republican base as a time when the economy worked for them—an era that Trump claims he’ll revive. Ironically, supporters envision the domestic economy of the 1950s, when the greed of the wealthy upper class was held somewhat in check by the progressive policies of The New Deal.
In January 2025, high on confidence, Trump allowed himself some honesty. He said America was last "great" in 1896—a time of mass suffering for the working class due to the extreme greed of a handful of wealthy elites.
MAGA is working furiously to turn the clock back by at least a century. Through the years, I've learned a lot about their fascist methods, but it's always felt like I was missing something. Could MAGA's cultural tenets of greed and vengeance actually be enough to sustain such a massive societal regression? What holds it together?
For me, the first episode of this show made clear MAGA’s strategic centerpiece. Its specific organizing principle is pursuit of the destruction of the Civil Rights laws passed in the 1950s and 60s. That’s why MAGA exists—that’s the whole point.
Every one of the fascist movement’s goals—including authoritarian rule—hinges upon its ability to neutralize or overturn our Civil Rights laws (and a handful of constitutional amendments).
Racism and misogyny have always been the wealthy elite’s best tools for dividing and conquering the working class. Our Civil Rights laws frustrate their efforts. With our pesky legal protections gone, the wealthy elite would be free to dial up racist policy and keep us focused on fighting one another instead of those in power.
Life for the majority of Americans is already defined by economic anxiety. We are already beholden to billionaires. They slash our social safety nets. Our taxes subsidize their companies to line their pockets. Their endless greed is propagandized as noble capitalist ambition… meanwhile, working families struggle to choose between groceries and rent.
If MAGA is successful in its goal of Civil Rights destruction, the wealthy elite will accelerate today’s pervasive economic injustice in ways we can hardly imagine… unlimited wealth and power for a select few… and a lifetime of pain and poverty for you, me, and everyone we’ve ever loved.
Recognizing this central goal of the MAGA movement feels like a big unlock... understanding its tactics makes me better at resisting its bullshit.
All power is up for grabs. But it sure seems like power is attracted to those who proclaim that the future is theirs... and then fight relentlessly to make it so. There's no reason that we in the working class can't be that delusional and courageous. Power can be ours once again.
Our present-day Civil Rights were once willed into existence by organized communities of everyday people like you and me. If MAGA strips away our rights, there will be pain… but we’ll rise up once again and reinstitute what was taken from us. We’ll make our rights more robust and resilient than ever before. We’ll learn from the victories and shortcomings of the 20th century, and we’ll pass hardened new laws against fascist overreach that protect our communities from corrupt billionaire interests. We can do this and so much more.
There are more of us than there are of them—there always will be.
