Demonizing the Good Guys: What the F* Is Happening to America?

If you’re feeling like the ground is shifting underfoot lately, like the basic priorities of governance have gone completely off the rails, you’re not alone. One minute, universities are trying (however imperfectly) to address diversity; the next, they’re under federal investigation. An effective, bipartisan foreign aid agency focused on practical development? Shuttered by Elroy Muskrat’s DOGE initiative. Funding for crime victim hotlines, mental health for cops, programs to help trafficked immigrants? Axed by the Justice Department with barely a shrug. It feels less like policy and more like a wrecking ball swinging wildly. Looking at these moves together, the question isn’t just what is happening, but why? What kind of backwards-ass logic drives these decisions? Seriously – What the fuck are we doing? Make no mistake: this isn’t random noise or bureaucratic reshuffling. This is a pattern, a clear signal of hostility towards progress, equity, and basic compassion, and it’s dragging the country backward in profound ways.

Take the administration’s ongoing jihad against education. President Punk signed executive orders launching a full-spectrum assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts under the bullshit banner of fighting “wokeness.” Colleges trying to address historical inequities or foster inclusive environments are now targeted for federal scrutiny over foreign funding – a convenient weapon, especially against institutions like Harvard that dare to disagree with the administration’s agenda. Accrediting bodies, the essential gatekeepers of educational standards, are being strong-armed to ditch DEI requirements, threatened with termination if they don’t comply. Education Secretary Linda McMahon parrots the line that DEI is “divisive,” pushing accreditors to focus narrowly on “student outcomes” – as if equity isn’t fundamental to achieving good outcomes for all students.

And it gets worse in K-12. Efforts to address the undeniable fact that Black and Native American students are disproportionately punished are being rolled back. The administration calls equity efforts “racial discrimination” and demands a return to “common sense” discipline – code for ignoring systemic bias and pretending disparate impacts don’t exist. They’re literally trying to erase the concept that policies, even if not overtly racist in intent, can have racist outcomes. It’s an ideological crusade punishing fairness itself.  

Then there’s the stunningly abrupt execution of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). This wasn’t some controversial boondoggle; it was a George W. Bush-era, bipartisan agency with a solid track record of delivering practical, business-focused aid – power grids in Senegal, roads for farmers, clean water in Mongolia. Real stuff, improving lives and fostering stability, with a relatively modest $900 million budget. But under the decree of Elroy Muskrat’s DOGE, it’s simply… gone. The justification? “Foreign aid is not a priority.” Just like that, decades of bipartisan consensus and effective development work were gutted, staff thrown into uncertainty, because this administration apparently holds international cooperation and poverty reduction in utter contempt. Following the dismantling of USAID, this signals a craven retreat from global responsibility.  

If you thought the callousness stopped at the border, think again. The Department of Justice, under Attorney General Pam Bondi, just executed a grant massacre, suddenly canceling hundreds of previously approved, ongoing grants funding essential community services. We’re talking mental healthcare for police officers, support programs for victims of crime and sexual assault (including specific programs for vulnerable groups like transgender victims and immigrants assisted by anti-trafficking organizations), juvenile delinquency prevention, and even state-level hate-crime reporting. Bondi offered the pathetic excuse that these grants “do not align with the administration’s priorities” and promised victim services wouldn’t be impacted – a blatant falsehood contradicted immediately by providers reporting that critical hotlines are now “going away,” potentially leaving domestic violence survivors stranded. What kind of “priorities” deem support for victims, struggling youth, and traumatized cops expendable? This isn’t fiscal responsibility; it’s calculated cruelty, delivered with a bureaucratic shrug.  

Connect the goddamn dots. The assault on educational equity, the dismantling of effective foreign aid, the defunding of victim support and community programs – this isn’t just tinkering around the edges. It’s a coherent pattern. The common thread is a deep-seated hostility toward inclusivity, shared responsibility, and basic human decency. It’s about actively demonizing the people and institutions trying to do good, whether it’s educators fighting for fairness, aid workers building infrastructure, or advocates supporting the victims of crime and abuse. It’s a deliberate, damaging, backward march.

So, we have to keep asking that fundamental question, louder and more insistently: What the fuck are we doing? What kind of country actively undermines efforts to educate its diverse population fairly, abandons effective tools for global stability, and pulls the rug out from under its own citizens in their time of greatest need? This trajectory is destructive, it’s nonsensical, and it spits on the values many of us thought were core to the nation. It demands more than confusion; it demands outrage and a refusal to accept this warped definition of national priorities.

Let’s get this pattern changed.