| Image by Elaine J.E. Degale
In the past nineteen months, the U.S.-backed Israeli war machine has obliterated more than 50,000 Palestinian lives. But instead of investing in an enduring ceasefire, the classic American response has been to hand Mosab Abu Toha a Pulitzer—while starving Palestinians count their dead. According to UNICEF, over 9,000 children have been admitted for acute malnutrition as Israel’s food aid blockade enters its third month.
History has a sick sense of humor. In the 19th century, Britain wore the crown for being the most violent empire on Earth. Post–World War II, that title passed to the United States like a cursed family heirloom. The victims of imperial glory now place their hope in a grim statistic: that empires rarely survive beyond 250 years. And yet, to soothe our anxiety about Western civilization’s possible collapse, the powers that be have offered us a public relations pageant; this time, celebrating a trade deal between the current and former global overlords.
But fear not. Rolls-Royce is safe. And according to CNN, U.S. stocks closed higher Thursday after President Donald Trump announced the trade pact with the U.K. The bad news? Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, is not eager to become the 51st state. Apparently, some folks still have boundaries.
Meanwhile, on Democracy Now!, journalist Mehdi Hasan—recently axed from MSNBC for a gutsy interview with Netanyahu’s adviser Mark Regev—called Gaza’s crisis what it is: “a mass starvation campaign.” Americans, he argues, rarely hear from Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, or anyone with actual expertise or lived experience in places like Jenin or Gaza. “That is a fundamental problem,” Hasan says. “You’re getting a very one-sided view of the conflict.”
That skewed narrative plays out in full color across U.S. media. Take the recent student protests: when Columbia University students staged a sit-in at Butler Library, Mayor Eric Adams sent in the NYPD and labeled their demonstration “unacceptable.” The New York Times reported that over 80 protesters were arrested for exercising their First Amendment rights in defense of global human rights.
Echoes of the 1960s anti-apartheid protests are apparent. Today’s student activists demand that their universities divest from companies with ties to Israel. So far, the BDS movement has made only modest inroads into higher education, but let’s remember that the anti-apartheid movement began in 1965, took decades to build momentum, and didn’t see apartheid dismantled until 1994.
“Mythmaking, scapegoating, silencing dissent—it’s a global playbook for crumbling democracies as it gives birth to fascism. Freedom, once the soul of a democratic society, is being quietly auctioned off by elites convinced that in the coming tech-driven dystopia, they’ll be the only ones with a view.”
As journalist Chris Hedges notes, “Rulers divide the world into worthy and unworthy victims.” We’re expected to mourn Ukrainians, but ignore Palestinians. Domestically, it’s the same formula: police violence against Black communities is rationalized, ICE raids immigrant homes, and Israel kills civilians at a rate of 100 per day, with American democracy nodding along in approval. And if you dare to call the war industry a moral atrocity? You’re branded a “homegrown terrorist.”
This tactic isn’t unique to America. In the Philippines, critics of entrenched political dynasties are red-tagged as NPA insurgents—the implication being: disagree with the government, and you’re automatically the enemy. Mythmaking, scapegoating, silencing dissent—it’s a global playbook for crumbling democracies as it gives birth to fascism. Freedom, once the soul of a democratic society, is being quietly auctioned off by elites convinced that in the coming tech-driven dystopia, they’ll be the only ones with a view.
The Trump administration wants the American democratic experiment to fail. It is betting against the dollar, against America’s peaceful future, and against the idea of global equality and justice for all. The French Senator Claude Malhuret referred to Trump’s America as less than great. “Washington became the court of Nero,” he said, “an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a ketamine-fueled jester in charge of purging the civil service.”
Empires rot from within. Bush read “The Pet Goat” to second graders on 9/11. Nero fiddled as Rome went up in flames.
And somehow, I can’t shake the feeling that Trump will be orbiting the moon in a red, MAGA-branded rocket when World War III drops its first nuclear bomb on innocent lives. Yet history will be more inclined to remember his gravity-defying feat, floating in zero gravity with Mickey D’s.
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Editor’s Note: The Philippine Daily Mirror welcomes Elaine J.E.. Degale as a columnist. Ms. Degale’s column, The Dreamweaver, will appear every Thursday. Her articles will be in the guest column as her handle is being prepared. Her initial column, We Are Sub-Saharan, was published on March 23, 2025.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Elaine Joy Edaya Degale is a Black-Filipina writer and lecturer at community colleges within the City University of New York (CUNY) and has an Ed.M. and M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University.
She graduated cum laude from Mount Holyoke College, where she studied International Relations and Development, and continues to support literacy and food programming efforts in Indigenous communities through her Community-Based organization, OperationMerienda.org.
