The Real March Madness: Dehumanization is the Fascist Playbook

While millions of my fellow citizens in the United States choose to be enthralled and transfixed by “March Madness” on the basketball courts of our colleges and universities, a MADNESS far more important to both understand and work to stop continues to MARCH forward: The campaign to dehumanize others and justify an illegal war in Iran to tighten its grip on power.  No end to this violence in the Middle East is visible today, and escalations continue. Students of history, warfare and international law recognize this dumpster fire of executive power for what it is: An illegal and unilateral act of immoral and misguided executive authorities, which has had and will continue to have devastating consequences even the wisest today cannot fully see or predict.

Welcome to March Madness 2026.

Responding to Anne Applebaum’s Substack post yesterday“The Memification of War” (March 15th), Johan observes:

The sequencing reveals everything: Hegseth gutted the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence by 90% before launching strikes. Central Command’s civilian casualty team cut from 10 people to 1 for the entire Middle East. Then flew the missiles anyway. 181 children dead at Minab elementary school—-outdated intelligence, they say, like that’s explanation rather than confirmation the safeguards were deliberately removed.

Treating enemies as subhuman is authoritarian standard. Treating your own casualties as props is the tell that nothing matters except performance of unconstrained power.

Our nationwide “No Kings 3” protests are scheduled for Saturday. March 28, 2026.

“See you at the pole.”

Do not be surprised if the peaceful protests of thousands across the United States are met with violence. As Timothy Snyder presciently observed in his post last week, “The Desire for Terror (and the Defense of Democracy),” we should expect and be ready to experience, witness and psychologically process (WITHOUT losing hope OR resolve) escalating violent events here in the Continental United States / CONUS.

These violent escalations are actually welcomed by our fascist U.S. leaders, because the sense of emergency and desperation they are sure to engender will further advance their playbook for power. Their opportunity to suspend more laws, ignore more laws, fire more ethical public servants, and delay or nationalize elections will be enhanced. They will continue to consolidate power and attempt to silence the voices of their critics and opponents. You know, the stuff fascists do.

In many ways we are living in a political and cultural nightmare, but our prospects for winning this struggle for the causes of democracy, human rights and the rule of law are FAR from hopeless. The tools we have to peacefully organize, resist, and advocate for our shared values today are better than ever in human history. The tools available to those in control of our surveillance state are formidable too, but we can take encouragement from our studies of history as well as the community coalitions we continue to build.

See you at No Kings 3. Our nation has never had an appetite to suffer kings and tyranny, and there’s no reason to give in now. It’s time to reject the March Madness of MAGA, and together, work to “heal our culture.”

Yes, this is a long term group project.

The stakes are high, but so must remain our resolve to overcome.