Politics

Foreshadowing the Clampdown on Academic Freedom

~ Randy Blazak ~ Leave a comment

From Substack September 5, 2025

September 5, 2025

My senior year at Emory, I added a second major. I had taken more than the required sociology classes, so I decided to double major in political science. I wanted to better understand the history of fascism, but also the geopolitical events of the day. So I signed up for Professor Juan del Aguila’s Latin American Politics class and Professor Thomas Remington’s Soviet Foreign Policy class (where President Carter was a regular guest lecturer). I also enrolled in a semester-long course called The Philosophy of Marxism, taught by a wonderful Catholic priest named Professor Thomas Flynn. I tried to integrate all this with my sociology background into my senior honors thesis, a Marxist analysis of the Irish conflict.

Emory in the 1980s was a vibrant place. Between classes, frequent protests over apartheid, CIA recruitment, and whatever Ronald Reagan was doing that week, and keeping up with the abundance of live music, there was a small fracture on campus. As a kid from a Georgia Klan town, Emory opened me up to a multiplicity of progressive approaches to politics, culture, and sexuality. But there was dissent in the liberal utopia. A conservative group called Students for America, founded by Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, began showing up in classrooms. Their goal was to out “liberal” college professors. They weren’t very effective. As it turns out, the truth is liberal.

But forty years ago, I already knew what this was. Having studied the rise of Hitler, I knew that college campuses were the first targets of the Third Reich. In April 1933, the Nazis passed the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. It effectively forced universities to fire faculty who were leftist, Jewish, and/or anti-fascist. Among those let go was Albert Einstein. After that, students in the Hitler Youth and the National Socialist German Students’ League would report professors who made “un-German” statements or who were critical of the Reich. The students forced the firing of more faculty, often threatening them with violence. A climate of fear overtook German universities as Nazis purged them of any hint of “leftist indoctrination.” Many professors fled Germany, and others ended up in concentration camps.

At Emory in 1985, we joked that the Students for America were the Reagan Youth, following history’s fascist playbook. Little did we know what was to come.

The far right has long waged a war on higher education funding. Fascists need a docile, uneducated populace, not cohorts of college grads who have read Karl Marx and Frantz Fanon. Professors were in the crosshairs of Joseph McCarthy’s Red Scare in the 1950s. More recently, laws and executive orders have been passed to restrict university funding and curriculum around LGBTQ and race issues. In 2021, when I was teaching my Race and Ethnicity class at the University of Oregon, I announced on the first day, “This class is based on Critical Race Theory. Tell me if you have a problem with that.” Fortunately, Oregon still protects academic freedom, but I was told I would be watched by conservative students. It was clear that universities were nervous about pressure from the right. (That same year, Professor Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of the 1619 Project, was denied tenure at UNC–Chapel Hill because of pressure from conservative donors.)

Things began to shift after the election of Trump last November. Right-wing social media influencers began to encourage conservative students to out liberal professors and try to get them fired, as the Hitler Youth had done 90 years earlier. Far-right group Turning Point USA published their online “Professor Watchlist” (which includes some of my favorite academics, like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Robin Kelley). It should be noted that the front-page of their website features a “professor” who appears to be Jewish. Right-wing pundits and online influencers attacked history professor Ibram X. Kendi, the author of How to Be an Antiracist, and tried to have him removed from his position at Boston University. Hopefully academic unions are tracking complaints from conservative students. I’m guessing they have spiked.

When I was a tenured full professor at Portland State University, I felt ten feet tall and bulletproof. But this is a new era, and I am in a new position. As I focus on my consulting work, I’ve had the great privilege to adjunct at our local community college, and I’ve had a front-row seat for the shift. I have great respect for all my students, no matter their political leanings. Sociology classes are kind of group therapy. We’re all working it out in real time. But some of the young white men—the demographic that broke for Trump—have been given permission by our anti-education president to disrupt that sacred space. They are more likely to push back against discussions of patriarchy and white supremacy. It pops up in class, in course evaluations, and in online reviews, often as snide comments. Since I was in their exact shoes all those years ago (as a conservative white teenager), I desperately want to reach them. But I’m also deathly afraid of them. I’ve studied the history and know what they can do.

Fortunately, I’ve got a union and an administration that defends faculty freedom. But it feels like a dark cloud is coming to campuses across the country. And we have been here before. Buckle up.

Responding to the Murder of Charlie Kirk: How to find calm in an insane nation

~ Randy Blazak ~ 6 Comments

September 11, 2025

It was a call from a reporter. That’s how I found out that right-wing activist Charlie Kirk had been shot. I didn’t know enough to make a comment to the media. My brain started making a list who could have been responsible:

  1. Far right groups who think that Kirk’s Turning Point USA is not extreme enough.
  2. Right-wing groups who think Turning Point USA is too extreme.
  3. Someone having a mental health crisis.
  4. Someone personally connected to Kirk, like a spurned lover or someone he financially ripped off.
  5. Someone from the Trump camp, hoping to knock the Epstein files out of the news cycle and/or angry with Kirk’s demand that Trump release the files.
  6. A Russian plot to create political instability in the U.S.
  7. An incel frustrated over Kirk’s success as a family man.
  8. A nihilist who worships death and chaos.
  9. A suicidal individual seeking fame on their way out.
  10. An accelerationist who wants to hasten societal collapse.
  11. A right-wing “patriot” hoping to spark a civil war.
  12. A student hoping to harm the school where it happened.
  13. Someone from the left who opposed Kirk’s right-wing positions.

The immediate response to the shooting said everything about America. Some on the right (assuming they knew who the shooter was) called for violence on the left. Some on the left responded with the quip, “the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi.” Most expressed regret that we’ve gotten to this point. My social media feed was filled with hysterical MAGAs screaming about the “violent left,” while the left filled the feed with quotes from Kirk himself about the cost of gun violence in the protection of the second amendment. What a shit show.

This needs to be said. Charlie Kirk was a racist, homophobic, transphobic misogynist. He profited from spreading his brand of “free speech” hate. But he also encouraged public debate on these issues, not violent conflict. And he didn’t deserve to be slaughtered in front of his wife and children. He deserved to be ridiculed for his toxic beliefs. One day, he could have seen the light and become an advocate for tolerance. Now he’s just dead.

So on this 9/11, where does are nation go from here?

The United States is on the proverbial ledge.  Hours after he announced the death, from the Oval Office, Trump blamed the “radical left” without even a suspect in custody. Activists in Portland are on high alert for retribution. In 2020, we saw right-wing actors outside Portland create “Pro-America” caravans to attack local Black Lives Matter protestors. The rhetoric in extremist forums, like 4chan, state the Kirk killing has green lit an open season on leftists. Could our Fort Sumpter be Utah Valley University? Has the civil war begun? Do I need to arm up to protect my family from gangs of Proud Boys attacking Portland? America is a powder keg, with troops on the street and endless chatter about right and left.

The good news is, America is not divided as Fox News would have you believe. Watching MSNBC whitewash Kirk’s hate mongering might be evidence. While the media (including MSNBC) leans right, the vast majority of Americans are happily in the middle. Surveys find a general consensus on “divisive” issues like gun control, abortion, gay rights, vaccines and even tariffs. That’s because, while we might debate an issue (Transgender swimmers, go!), our core values across the political spectrum are relatively stable. Conservatives and liberals, MAGA and Bernie Sanders fans, we generally value education, public safety, privacy, equality, fairness, and justice. Research shows when people from different political positions first share common values, political civility returns to the discussion. We can heal this divide.

Every 9/11, I like to focus, instead, on 9/12 – that incredible feeling of national unity we felt following the attacks. We have a choice this 9/11. We can push our peers farther to the extremes and tip the nation into an unwinnable civil war that will plunge our beautiful nation into years of traumatic violence. Or we can find that common ground and create a rebirth of our vibrant multicultural democracy. We can put down our doom scrolls and meet out neighbors, rebuilding community. Charlie Kirk’s life was dedicated to dividing us. Perhaps his horrible death can motivate us to reject violence and incivility and find what binds us. The attacks of 9/11 still tear at my heart, but the resilience of 9/12 gives me great hope.

Are We There Yet? On Dictatorship, Civil War, and Revolution

~ Randy Blazak ~ Leave a comment

From The Blazak Report on Substack, August 21, 2025.

August 21, 2025

Usually my time machine fantasies involve things like going back to 1965 to see the Beatles at Shea Stadium, or to 1415 to see if the Battle of Agincourt was anything like Shakespeare and all those movies depicted. These days I’m trying to leap ahead 100 years to see how 2025 turned out. Will 2125 be a new feudal era, another Dark Ages, where elite technocrats hold the all wealth and power and the rest of us are just miserable renters? Or will we have chopped the heads off the authoritarians and preserved democracy for another century?

There’s no guarantee that the United States lasts another five years, let alone a hundred. I’ve seen plenty of nations come and go in my life and Trump and his handlers are dismantling democracy so fast, I don’t have much faith that we will have free and fair elections in 2026. If Texas is any indicator, Trump and the GOP (now Guardians of Pedophiles) are setting up the apparatus of permanent rule.

But there’s a “but” there that I will get to in a minute.

There’s a lot of hand wringing at the moment around these three questions:

Are we in a dictatorship? It certainly feels like it. Trump is busy destroying the checks and balances of our constitutional democracy, there are troops on the street, and he is attempting an Orwellian rewrite of American history. But there are almost 900 federal judges who can gum up Trump’s plans and over 3 million federal workers who can throw in plenty of monkey wrenches. While the mainstream media has capitulated as much as congressional Republicans, the internet is still wide open and the journalists of social media are doing the hard work of covering fascism in real time.

Are we in a civil war? Not yet. If the National Guard starts firing on civilians, probably. But polls show the vast majority of Americans disapprove of Trump and his tactics, including the Gestapo-like sweeps of immigrants. We are not “brother vs. brother” in the 1861 sense. Yet. There’s a former Marine and current ICE protestor who told me that we shouldn’t “look right or left, but up.” He talks to conservatives (and ICE agents when they detain him) about joining this fight. More and more people are leaving MAGA as they figure out that Trump is only serving his billionaire oligarchs.

Is it time for revolution? This is a tough one. The people of 2125 may ask why Americans in 2025 didn’t stop the authoritarian takeover when they had the chance. (We love to ask the same question of 1933 Germany.) We know the heavy hand of the state is already upon us. Just look at how the entire Department of Justice was mobilized to mete out swift justice to the lawyer who threw a Subway sandwich at a federal agent. People throwing rocks at ICE vehicles are being quickly arrested. And the NRA is strangely silent.

I want to believe this can be resolved with a massive nonviolent uprising, but there may be a growing voice that advocates for offing the king and his corrupt court. The nightly battles at the Portland ICE building seem like rehearsals for storming the Bastille.

So here’s the “but.” We don’t have the advantage of 2125’s perspective. If there’s one thing I learned from Joe Strummer it’s that the future is unwritten. A whole bunch of things could happen. Donald Trump and JD Vance/Peter Thiel could drop dead (please, sweet Jesus, do us this solid), and America could wake up to the great harm done. The GOP could decide to take back its soul (led by the ghost of John McCain). The Democratic Party could get it’s shit together, focus on tariff-inducing inflation, health care, and making sure our elections are fair, and we, as a democratic nation, could burst Trump’s narcissistic bubble.

So, yes, it’s time for revolution, but it doesn’t have to be a violent one. Once MAGA feels the hit of the “big beautiful bill,” the ranks of the resistance will swell. It’s already happening. The protests at the Heritage Foundation, the Epstein scandal, the closing of rural hospitals, direct actions confronting returning members of Congress, and the fact that Sesame Street has been foreclosed on by Donald Grump will bring in Americans ready to fight and shut the machine down. This is just the beginning of our resistance.

There’s still more of us than them.

“The people have the power to redeem the work of fools.” – Patti Smith

Are Third Places Democracy’s Last Hope?

~ Randy Blazak ~ Leave a comment

From The Blazak Report (July 24, 2025)

July 24, 2025

My parents met in a bowling alley. A lot of my generational peers’ parents met in bowling alleys. Those days are long gone. As sociologist Robert Putnam detailed in his 2000 classic, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, nobody joins clubs anymore and our happiness has suffered for it. We are a nation of miserable loners. No wonder people identify with Trump.

A land of 340 million people staring at their phones does not make for a vibrant democracy. COVID was the nail in the coffin of civic engagement. We were locked down with Netflix and we liked it. Why build community when you can binge Love Island? Why prioritize democracy when you can doom scroll. And now you can share your alienation with your AI girlfriend.

All this loneliness is catnip to fascism. Where we got endorphins from meeting people at parties and pubs, we now get it from likes and algorithms. Fascism will walk in while we’re on TikTok, and be just another 60 second reel.

Let’s hope for a countertrend. And the countertrend is actually pretty cool.

As a college student, I probably over-romanticized the mythology of revolutions and protests being born in cafés and coffeehouses, but there is some truth to those stories. Rejecting British tea, the political discussions in the American colonies moved to coffeehouses. The Green Dragon tavern and coffeehouse, built in 1701 in Boston, became known as the “headquarters of the revolution” after Paul Revere bought it 1764 to give the Sons of Liberty a meeting place.

Sociologist Ray Oldenburg, in his 1989 book, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community, refers to places like the The Green Dragon as “third spaces.” First place is home and second place is work. Third spaces are the community gathering spots where we have regular interactions with our neighbors. They include bars and barbershops, cafés and churches, local stores and hair salons. Anyplace people hang out. In the new 2025 edition, Oldenburg’s coauthor Karen Christensen argues that third places are the answer to political polarization and climate resilience. It’s like that Sesame Street song, who are the people in your neighborhood?

Third places are vital to democracy to several reasons. Putnam argues these places create social capital among community members, building trust which is key to democratic action. Taverns and barbershops encourage free expression and the exchange of ideas. Many a night in my youth I argued theory at cafés until the chairs were on the tables. Third places become places for building social movements. Yeah, Hitler did it in beer halls, but we can hijack Starbucks to fight fascism. Third places are a cure for isolation as we reconnect with fellow travelers. Finally, democracy requires a sense of shared ownership and salons and local shops can help people to care about public life and bond over shared struggles.

In the 1990s, I had a third place I virtually lived in in Atlanta called Café Diem. To say I held court there would be an understatement. But the realization that inhabiting that space and getting to know owners, employees, and regulars was more rewarding than sitting on a couch in front of a TV made it an easy lifestyle choice. Much bohemian joy came from what we lovingly referred to as “Diemland.” Social media has zapped that impulse in the 21st century. We’re zombies.

But the counter-trend is bubbling off screen. Two years ago a group of dads at my daughter’s elementary school started a poker club and it’s become medicine for my soul. Every other Thursday, cards, whiskey, and good conversation. People are re-discovering their local coffeehouses, not as alternative offices, but place just to talk and share the emotions of this insane moment. Churches, mosques, and temples aren’t just for religion anymore. I actually went to a great local church, called Riversgate, to hear people talk about political civility! It was awesome!

So let’s get out of our first place and find a third place. You don’t have to dive in like a crazy person. “Hi everyone! What the fuck are we gonna do about this fucking fascism?” Ease in like you’re a new kid at school. Third places are relaxed. Belly up to the bar and check the vibe. You might talk about a ball game or the history of the establishment long before you bridge political chat. Maybe you’ll just hang out reading a book until somebody asks you what you’re reading. But that’s your place and those are your people. It’s time to get to know them. Democracy might depend on it.

The American Revolution started in a coffee house. And it will again.

What Do We Do When the Violence Comes?

~ Randy Blazak ~ 2 Comments

From The Blazak Report on Substack July 10, 2025

If we’re using history as our guide, we know it’s coming. The state sponsored violence against citizens. It’s already here at the hands of ICE and the violence against women’s body’s in the restriction of reproductive rights. But we can expect more waves of escalation. An ICE abduction that goes sideways when they try to kidnap an armed individual who does not want to be deported to some third country gulag. Protestors shot by National Guard who are unsure of their engagement orders, brains in fight or flight mode. The attempted arrest of Trump’s political prisoners who stand up to the weaponization of federal police. Critics of the regime who end up dead as is common in Putin’s Russia. We are a powder keg nation, one Kent State away from exploding. And that may be exactly what Trump wants.

Trump loves to cosplay strongman. He’s already sent the Marines to Los Angelos. He’s hellbent on turning America into one of those “shithole countries” he shit talks about. The slightest escalation could cause him to bring the hammer down so he can prove he’s an “alpha.” Then he has his pretext for suspending elections and cementing his police state rule. History has told this story before.

So how do we respond to the worst provocations of state violence?

The right has long argued for the need of a second American revolution against the multicultural liberal democracy that has sought to dethrone straight cis WASP men. (Can we start using SCWASPM, or is that too much?) The left is now quoting founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Hidden among the peaceful protestors have been anarchists holstering side pieces. Is this the preamble to civil war?

I will admit the thought has crossed my mind. As someone who has had some weapons training, arming up for the coming shit show has been considered. But then I realize that’s a Hollywood fantasy of me protecting my family from Proud Boys and federal forces with an unlimited supply of ammo and slow mo John Rambo rage. It looks super cool in my head.

There will be blood. And there will be calls of retribution.

But, again, if history is our guide, we know that non-violence is the path. This isn’t the 18th century. For the last hundred years the model for the restoration of democracy has been built on mass uprisings that used peaceful means. They don’t always work. I’ll never forget watching the carnage in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But sometimes it has. (I also remember watching The Philippines and the People Power Revolution of 1986.) There will be casualties and it’s going to be heartbreaking. But the dictates of civil disobedience requires us to throw our bodies upon the wheel. Those deaths will be the seeds of a rebirth of democracy in the United States and their names will be cherished.

This moment, this terrifying moment in this terrifying history, could use a singular voice. We need an MLK or a Václav Havel to constantly remind us that the peaceful path is the most effective. To help us to channel our rage. An army of left-wing Timmothy McVeigh’s will not bring us the revolution we need. We can storm the ICE Bastille to liberate the prisoners of Trump’s race war. Or we can use our moral authority to transform those jailers to join us in the great experiment of democracy. In the absence of our Dr. King, we will have to be that singular voice.

We must hold the line and not become them. We’ve got the numbers and the moral arc.

On the question of violence

~ Randy Blazak ~ 1 Comment

June 21, 2025 (Originally published in The Blazak Report)

There are times when I see the logic of violence. If an ICE agent was trying to abduct a loved one and I was armed, I can imagine my lizard brain telling me to do whatever it takes to save that person from being disappeared from view. This country was founded in violence. Violence was used to free us from tyranny 250 years ago. And violent protest has occasionally played a role in making America great. The role of riots after MLK’s assassination played in the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 is an easy example.

But America is plagued by the dark side of political violence. The deadly shootings in Minnesota by a Trump supporter is only a recent example. And the death at the No Kings rally in Utah was the result of a protest “peacekeeper” trying to stop a man with a gun but shooting a fellow protestor by accident. The narrative of “civil war” has never felt closer

.

I’ve had many people ask if I have a gun or urge me to get a gun. I’ve comfortable with guns but I have a kid in the house, so that changes things. I want through the FBI Citizens Academy and got some good firearm training, but who exactly would I be shooting? When I see ICE agents brandishing weapons or heavily armed Marines in the streets of Los Angeles, I wonder who are they planning on killing. Every gunshot fired is fired with the intent to kill. Nobody shoots a gun just to scare people.

All this is to say, that while the pressure for violence seems to be ramping up, nonviolence is still our path. Even famous pacifist John Lennon said he would use violence to protect his family, but America is not there yet. We still have a clear ethic of doing this with non-violent civil disobedience. I’ve certainly had violent thoughts in this moment. Seeing the hell being levied on our communities by Gestapo-like ICE raids led me to wonder if we could protect those people by just burning all the ICE offices down to the ground. But ultimately people would be hurt or killed and then we’re worse off than we were before. We can do this without fire.

Growing up in the shadow of MLK in Atlanta led me to study Gandhi’s tactics more closely. We take the moral high ground when we throw our bodies against the wheel of death. And, as was the case in India, some of our bodies may be crushed. It seems inevitable that in the clash between protestors and Trump’s federalized goons there will be protestors killed. We could have Kent State on a weekly basis. And Trump will say they hated America and we will make them martyrs, but they will be dead either way. And then there will be those on our side to call for violence as a form of protection. It’s the old MLK vs. Malcolm X dynamic.

I’ve assigned Malcom X to my students for decades, because I want them to know where that “violence as self defense” impetus comes from. I get it. If Marine tanks roll into Portland, there’s going to be a cash course in Molotov cocktails in the Rose City, I’ve already posted the Doors lyric, “They got the guns, but we got the numbers.” You can feel the tension rising. But Mel Gibson fantasies aside, what does that actually get us?

It should be perfectly clear that Donald Trump is a madman. A senile, syphilitic madman. He’s willingness to jump into to the Israel-Iran war should be proof enough. Hundreds of protestors dead as Kristi Noem “liberates” the supposed “socialist” cities on the West Coast would be a trumpeted as a MAGA victory. And then we are in a civil war. We must maintain the moral high ground.

So there are two strategies here that must be kept up in the planning of all actions.

First is the value of peaceful resistance. Things are going to get ugly. Rumors of DHS deputizing Proud Boys and bounty hunters may turn out to be true. They will try to provoke a violent response so they can bring the hammer down, even employing agent provocateurs, so they can claim, “Antifa fired the first shot!” We must resist the impulse to hit back. Non-violent monkey wrenching can take many forms, from human barricades blocking ICE vans to (and this was a YIPPIE trick from the 1960s) loosening the lug nuts on the tires of said vans.

Secondly, these Marines, police, National Guard, and even ICE agents are Americans. They swore an oath to the Constitution, not to Stephen Miller or the Mango Mussolini. We have to encourage them to lay down their arms and walk away from this fascist abuse of the legitimate work they are bounded, by law not Trump, to do. We have to start diffusing the tools of authoritarianism by taking way their cudgel.

June 14 saw 5 to 13 million Americans in the street (depending on your sources). The people are sick of what this madman is doing. Yeah, they got the guns. But we got the numbers and that should be enough.

Note: I’m currently in LA to check on things. I was at the ICE detention center downtown where a half a dozen armed National Guardsmen stood watch, fingers on triggers.

The Gaza Question

~ Randy Blazak ~ 1 Comment

I posted this piece on the paid part of The Blazak Report, my Substack, on May 24th. In wake of yesterday’s horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, I thought it should be available to a wider audience.

May 24, 2025

Remember that song about the Vietnam War being the “big muddy”? (For you young ones, I’m referring to Pete Seeger’s 1967 “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.”) Gaza feels the same way. The endless war where the locals are the casualties. It’s also the “big muddy” for the left. Since October 7, 2023, I’ve learned not to talk about Gaza, because if I do I will surely inflame somebody on my team. For example, does the word “Zionist” mean “a person who believes in the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel” or a fascist who wants the genocide of Palestinians?

Even the basic facts are volatile. The October 7 Hamas attack killed 815 civilians, including 36 children, with another 251 Israelis taken hostage. The details are horrific. The worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. But there are those who then argue that the attack was the penultimate response from Hamas after years of deadly violence against innocent civilians by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Jewish settlers in Gaza and the West Bank. Since IDF’s response to the attack, the Gaza Health Ministry has reported over 53,000 Palestinians have been killed, including over 17,000 children (as reported by Al Jazeera). And there are those who would argue that this is the cost of finally defeating Hamas and securing Israel’s safety.

Because I think it’s a bad idea to kill children in Ukraine or Yemen or Gaza, I attended some of the early protests to the attacks on Gaza. The local Palestinian/Arab/Muslim population were understandably outraged. Hospitals were being bombed. A year later Benjamin Netanyahu would be declared a war criminal by the International Criminal Court. But much of the protest was not about the Prime Minister of Israel, but Israel itself. When the chant turned to, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” I did some rudimentary geography in my head and figured out this was about more than stopping the bombing.

And I totally understand the need and the aching for a free Palestine. I also understand the need and the aching for a secure Israel. I have good friends and colleagues in both camps. What’s a human rights activist to do?

I was given some solace when I saw how many Jews, as well as Jews in Israel, were protesting Netanyahu’s war on civilians. I was also heartened to see Arabs and Muslims decry the October 7 attack. But then something weird happened.

The Trump administration started labeling the Gaza protestors as “antisemitic.” At the protests, I heard a lot of anger at Israel but I never once heard anything about “The Jews.” I have been studying anti-Semitism for a long time, including interviewing German neo-Nazis, so I think I have a pretty good handle on defining the term. Antisemitism sees a Jewish “race” as evil (some antisemites claim the Jews are the product of a union between Eve and Satan), and part of a global cabal to control banks, media, governments, and the world. There has been none of this in evidence at these protests. Trump’s Orwellian rewrite seemed more like performative “friend of Israel” strategizing.

It doesn’t mean that Jews haven’t felt unsafe or targeted by these protests. The murder of two Jewish employees of the Israeli embassy in DC this week, by a pro-Palestinian activist, certainly adds to that fear. However, antisemitism was on the rise before October 7 and has been a constant blight in American culture. But it is reasonable to believe that anger at Israel has morphed into anger at Jews as a group. It’s a rough time to be Jewish. Or Arab.

The pointless murder of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky this week reminded me of the pointless murder of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume last year, killed by his landlord in Chicago because the landlord was angry about the October 7 attack. These names should be said together; Sarah Milgrim, Yaron Lischinsky, and Wadea Al-Fayoume, casualties of hate.

I have no solution to this conflict. It’s easy to say, “two state solution.” It’s easy to be angry at the rockets of Hezbollah and the Jewish settlers who drive Palestinians from their homes. I only have anger and the ability to alienate colleagues on both sides by not taking a side.

But I need to make two key points here.

I want to the right to stand in the discomfort of not taking a side while validating the hurt and anger that is felt on both sides. I believe in a free Palestine and a secure Israel. I believe that war is terrorism. And unlike Donald Trump, who one minute declares Qatar backers of Hamas, and the next minute is licking Qatari asses, I know this unwillingness to take a side is problematic. And I’m sorry to both causes.

The second thing is that I know in our struggle against the rise of authoritarianism in America we need all hands on deck. That means pro-Israel Americans and pro-Palestine Americans are going to have to lock arms. There’s going to be a lot of strange bedfellows in this fight. Wait until I tell you my plans for Reagan Republicans.

I don’t want to be afraid to talk about Israel/Gaza anymore. I want to acknowledge that it is hard and that I have faith in the people who are building bridges between the two people (and that included the two people who were murdered this week.) The violence must end. Shalom. Salam. Peace.

Escaping Gilead – My experience crossing the border

~ Randy Blazak ~ Leave a comment

May 21, 2025

Ever since January 20th, when Trump pretended to take the oath of office, things in America have felt really dark. From people being grabbed off the street by ICE and disappearing from public view without due process to the rise and fake fall of Trump’s top campaign donor, Elon Musk, it’s felt very end of a nation-ish. This includes rumors about changes at the border.

Here in Portland, it’s about a four-and-a-half our drive to the Canadian border. I’ve made the crossing many times. Last time was in December when Cozy and I drove up to Vancouver for the Taylor Swift concert. The crossing was a blast with carloads of Swifties shouting to each other and Canadian border guards the recipients of countless friendship bracelets. It’s so nice having another country just up the road a piece.

So I decided to make a run for the border.

After Andi picked up Cozy yesterday, I hopped on I-5 to make that long journey north; Olympia, Seattle, Bellingham, to the Peace Arch crossing about 10 pm last night. Late on a Tuesday, the usual border traffic jam was gone, but there was something new this time.

On the American side of the Peace Arch, there was a red traffic light and a barricade pushing cars into one lane. Up ahead I saw two armed men talking to a driver. When they finished, I was waved me forward. Two men in black military gear and long rifles stopped me. I searched for any identifying organization; border patrol, ICE, HSI, FBI. Nothing. I could have asked. I could have said, “Hey fellas, I’m on a DHS CP3 project. Who are you with?” But the rifles just shut me up.

It was a brief interaction. One of the men asked me to role down all my windows so he could look in the car. It was clear they were looking for people, not contraband. I have no idea who they were. To tall white guys straight out of central casting. I assumed that if I wasn’t a white male, the stop would have been longer, but they sent me forward where I showed my passport to the border guard and headed into our great neighbor to the north.

I didn’t go all the way to Vancouver. I booked a “pod” just south of the city in Richmond because I saw a program about Japanese pod hotels and it seemed like a fun way to crash for the night before turning around and heading back the U.S.A. in the morning. If you ever wondered what sleeping in a coffin would be like, this was it. But the coffin had wifi, so I got an Instagram post up about the experience. Actually, it reminded me of sleeping on the tour bus back in my road manager days, so I slept well.

This morning, after breakfast at IHOP (it truly IS international!), I headed south. There had been a lot of talk that entering the US would be the real problem. That I would be made to swear loyalty to the Mango Mussolini or would they search my phone and look at my social media footprint where I daily proclaim the emperor has no clothes. One wrong thoughtcrime and I would go from Canada to El Salvador.

There were only two lanes open at Peace Arch so I had time to watch and get nervous. It was obvious that the guards were taking their time, especially with Canadian cars. When is was my turn, I got the 20 questions, about what I did in Canada, who I met in Canada, what I bought in Canada. I know that most of these questions are meaningless and just meant to give the guard a chance to evaluate your demeanor. He took my keys and opened up the back of my car. He said, “Where are all your clothes? Your backpack’s empty.” I wanted to say, “That’s my brother’s backpack. He’s dead.” But, for some reason, I said, “I left them in Seattle.” Again, my white maleness played a role, I’m sure. I was allowed to enter my country and head home to pick up my kid.

The whole thing was weird. Why are there armed guards before you get to the Canadian border guards? What are they asking Canadians coming into the U.S.? Last night, it felt like they are trying to stop people from escaping  the United States, not escape into it, like a scene from The Handmaid’s Tale. I can’t change my skin tone to repeat the experiment, but the joy of international travel by car is now tense and scary. Part of me wonders if I should have just stayed in my pod.

Cooling Off the Hot Air of the Manosphere

~ Randy Blazak ~ 1 Comment

April 28, 2025

I’m trying to navigate my newfound celebrity. For whatever algorithmic reason, my Instagram account has exploded. At this writing I have over 62 thousand people following and over 3 million views in the last 30 days. That includes a certain star of Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club. I’ve gone viral! My 90-second takes on the state of political crisis are generating a vibrant dialogue from people around the world who are concerned about the fate of American democracy.

And it’s also brought out the trolls.

It’s shouldn’t be surprising that right-wing trolls target my masculinity. They call me “gay,” “beta,” and “cuck.” It’s the same language of the schoolyard bullies who called me “fag” and “pussy.” One troll said, “I bet he can’t even do 20 push ups.” (I immediately got on the floor to make sure that I could.) Somehow they associate caring about democracy with being feminine and they associate being feminine with being weak. These “alpha men” must not know any actual women. And their AI girlfriends don’t count.

I’ve written endless words in this blog about the ginned up “mansophere,” the booming world of performative masculinity that is there for boys and men who can’t navigate the social changes that include seeing girls and women as human beings. These are the fragile fellas that rally for Trump and rail against all things DEI, that think the man should be the king of his castle. They love MMA and rapists like Andrew Tate because they  mourn the loss of the myth of unrestrained male id, to fight and fuck whoever they want. Trump allowed them to escape 4chan and take over Washington. Pete Hegseth is the Incel god.

The fragile troll boys aren’t much of an issue for me. I learned how to deal with them in high school. Redan High had a notorious bully named Ted who one day during lunch, unprompted, said, “Blazak, you’re a pussy.” I shot back, “Well, Ted, I guess you are what you eat, you dick.” I escaped while he tried to figure out what I had just said. These guys are never too smart. They can’t argue policy. They only have ad hominem attacks on how much you’re not like their avatar on Grand Theft Auto V.

Where the danger is in how these “alpha men” treat women and how they vote. The gender gap among the youth is widening. According to a recent NBC poll, only 24% of young women approve of Trump’s performance, but 45% of young men approve of Trump’s shit show. I see this in my college students. There are young men, including men of color, who see the MAGA movement as “preserving” a world where men had status over others. The idea of sharing power cripples them with fear. Trump, the sexual assaulter, with the porn star wife, is their redemption.

So they come after me as a “soy boy libtard.” It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Their hollow macho fantasies of fascism will ultimately bite them in the ass. This isn’t their imagined Roman Empire and it was never meant to be. But trying to beat them down only triggers their fight response. We need to learn how to talk to these boys and men to bring them into the family of man and woman. Alpha Men might just need a hug.

Save America – Adopt a Republican

~ Randy Blazak ~ Leave a comment

April 18, 2025

This national divide we’re in feels like a ramp up to civil war, brother vs. brother. But instead of the “We Want to Keep Slaves” Confederacy versus the “Let’s Just Brutalize Indians” Union, it’s MAGAts versus Libtards. Have we ever been so divided?

I’ve been writing about the Great Schism in this blog since 2015, when Donald Trump came down from Billionaire Heaven on his golden escalator to blather about Mexicans being “murderers and rapists.” But since my work on a federally funded de-escalation project, I’ve been pushing a controversial approach to the conflict, talk to the other side instead of yelling at them.

Trump and DOGE ended the funding for our 3-year project to reduce political violence, but I have a new audience; Instagram. For whatever reason, my Instagram account (@blazakr) has exploded, from 2000 followers last week to over 43,000 (including some favorite celebs). The algorithm gods have said, “You must take this message to the people.”

Here’s the simple truth. The 2024 election gave Trump the White House and both chambers of Congress. Trump and his MAGA acolytes believe America handed them a mandate, even though Trump got less than 50% of the votes. (77.3 million Americans voted for the Orange Don, but 108.5 registered voters didn’t even vote.) Since January 20th, Trump and his D.C. droogs have gone buck wild, shredding the very fabric of our democracy. DOGE has thrown over 65,000 Americans out work (and countless jobs that relied on federal funding, like mine). People have watched their 401Ks tank as Trump cosplays tough guy with tariffs. And between the ejection of due process protections and official buffoons chatting war plans on leaky apps, in 89 days the world has watched America collapse into a shithole nation.

Can America be saved?

Trump and his elite democracy death squads are hard at work dismantling the guardrails of our sacred system of checks and balances. His complete disregard with the Supreme Court’s unanimous order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador is just one example of the collapse of the rule of law. Tik tok time is running out for the USA.

But there are still options on the table. The millions of Americans taking to the streets is a central strategy. The 2020s could make the 1960s look like the 1950s in terms of protest actions. But I’d like to offer an additional strategy to rescue this 249 year old citizen ship.

Talk to Republicans.

We have to build a majority and there are some important populations to bring on board our pro-democracy movement. The first are Trump voters. That includes the thousands of Trump voters who voted for Biden in 2020. Many of these people are not happy with what Trump, and his boss, Elon Musk, have done to their country. They are farmers and (former) federal workers, parents of kids with disabilities, and old white people who were about to retire.

I tend to lump Trump voters into three categories. There are the MAGA cult members who think Trump is Jesus. They refuse to believe he has ever lied or committed a crime. The 2020 election was stolen because he told them it was. The only way to reach them is with a serious deprogramming regiment. Then there are the fascists. They loved the cruelty of Trump 1.0 and they want Trump 2.0 to bury our multicultural democracy once and for all. They are accelerationists who fuel the chaos and dream to create a white ethno-state from the ashes.

But the third group are perhaps the biggest. They are the casual Trump voters. They voted for Trump because he told them he would drop the price of groceries and adult diapers on Day 1. They thought a businessman would make a better president than a Democrat big government liberal. Many believed the complete crap that came out of Trump’s mouth about “illegal aliens” and “transgender athletes,” and the complete crap that came out of the right wing noise machine about Kamala Harris. Many supported Nikki Haley and held their noses to vote for Trump.

These people can be reached. Many of them are already protesting in front of Tesla dealerships and raising hell at Republican town halls. They are ripe for the picking. But they won’t be won over by being told how stupid they were for voting for Trump. They share many common values with us, including caring about our democracy and the future our children face. And many care about the immigrants in their churches and communities. This is the time to unclench the fist and open the hand.

This same appeal to decency and democracy instead of cruelty and barbarity can be made to the millions of Americans who didn’t vote. We need them, too. The very existence of this nation is on the line. We might not all be perfectly in sync on Gaza or GMOs (but at least we are on the same page about Greenland), and that’s OK. We need to drop the dogma and show up for the promise of America.

The other population to reach out to are elected Republicans. Many have sold their souls to Trump and live in fear of his wrath if they waver in their loyalty. They kiss his ass profusely out of terror of being accused of a thoughtcrime, being a RINO. But there are others who see the cracks in MAGA and are facing re-election in 2026. They know Trump’s War on Woke won’t win over the electorate when eggs are $16 a dozen and retirement accounts have been zeroed out. They include the Reagan Republicans who can still hear the ghosts of John McCain and Mitt Romney. (I know Mitt is still alive, but you know what I mean.) The constituents of these R’s should flood their offices and town halls with demands that they stand up to the Trump-Musk assault on America.

I can’t believe that I’m going to say this, but we need Republicans right now. Yeah, I’m pissed that that Kamala Harris is MIA in this fight, but you know who could really taken Donald down a few pegs? George W. Bush. Yeah, I know, war criminal. But good God, if anybody could peel away some good ol’ boys from the Trump train, it’s W. and his folksy charm. There are Republicans who know that Putin is the bad guy and that undocumented immigrants deserve kindness not cruelty. They need a permission structure to abandon MAGA.

Look, I’m as radical as the next sociology professor. I think capitalism is a death trap for the masses. But I’m willing to put my righteousness to the side while we save this democratic experiment that is America. That’s why I’m urging every liberal, progressive, radical, libertarian, and vegan pagan priestess to adopt a Republican. Reach out to one Trumpie, whether it’s a co-worker, family member or U.S. Senator. Make them your pet project.

Instead of screaming at them (the temptation is real), ask them how they’re doing. Be curious about their lives and then steer the conversation to our common values and how we’re not red and blue Americans, but just Americans. Stay calm and kind. Discuss the harm done to people you know. Don’t get distracted by silly tirades about “men in girls’ sports.” Stay focused on preserving the fabric of America’s Constitutional democracy. Fighting on social media is fun but where has that gotten us? Let’s try something different. It’s just us. No them. And many of these attempts will be complete failures, but some folks will flip and that might just enough to save us. Kill MAGA with kindness. They won’t know what hit them.