Americans Mistake Hydras for Big Snakes (Patreon)

The US is so individualistic that it permeates even on the Left. They're so focused on centralized singular power, they're biased against decentralized threats. Or they'll do mental gymnastics to make it centralized. "Guys! We found the creators of Q. It's over now!"

I've seen so many memes and articles over the years about how we've defeated fascism. How many people were flexing that fascism was defeated when Trump lost the election? If you have to keep beating it, maybe it means no one person or group owns the rights to hate.

White supremacy has no nation-state. It has no leader—it can pick one or remove them at any time but mostly exists without one. Same with Qanon, same with anti-Semitism, same with misogyny. Who's the leader of Manifest Destiny, American Exceptionalism, or settler colonialism? Who's the leader of American Evangelicals?

Conspiracy theories look for masterminds because it's simple, but conspiracy theories themselves don't necessarily have one person leading them because they're complicated. Thinking it needs a leader is like thinking the tail wags the dog.

Now everyone is looking for the mastermind of Jan 6, 2021, and maybe they'll find some. But that doesn't mean anything has ended. America has been uniquely libertarian, and the way things manifest here is also unique. While Europe prefers Catholicism, America prefers a Christianity without a central body or leader. Maybe being noncentralized is so normal, we no longer see that as another possible avenue for a threat. Our eyes are elsewhere.

When we have a problem that's nearly impossible to solve, we say it's like a hydra, but paint the one-headed serpent as the only possible baddie. When we say "next time they'll find someone better than Trump," it says this movement is not ultimately about a cult leader but rather it uses cult leaders for its means. Saying "the next one" is saying this thing has infinite heads—it's decentralized. Yet somehow, people don't realize the meaning behind their own words. Who's the authoritarian behind this? The bully? Because having one bad guy has a face, it's easy to cast someone in that role for a movie. And like all movies, beating that one target ends the nightmare.

When I was in school, I was called ch-nk and g--k all the time. I've been harassed and had racist attacks even to now. There is no mastermind behind this, no conspiracy, even though I want to believe it does because then it would make me feel less powerless. But I know it's racism.

But for a white person, especially a white man, perhaps it was just one bully or only one group of kids. It wasn't systemic. Beat that one bully, and their problems are over. That was THEIR reality but not the reality for the oppression of womxn and people of color. How does a right-wing authoritarian or fascist leader explain racism on the Left?

Sometimes these dominant voices will have us buy into their concerns, and we too start believing our oppression is centralized to one figure. "It's all Trump!" "Authoritarian leaders must be the only problem!"

There are systematic things built into policing that makes it racist, but police officers ALSO bring their own racism into the job without having anyone tell them to be racist. Kids don't necessarily need racist parents to become racist—they can become racist through the social fabric.

The one bully explanation makes sense for people who never had systemic oppression. So if it's not systemic and you're of the powerful group, then it's just the one asshole who doesn't like you. But that doesn't explain everything. That just makes it neat and straightforward.

We say complicated problems are byzantine or chaotic or like a hydra. So I have no good method to solve them. But I know pretending the hydra only has one head ain't it.