It shouldn’t take much to express my worries about the United States of America plunging further and further down the path to fascism. Since President Donald Trump took office for his second term, we have consistently been berated by ever-increasing fascist action. 

Mahmoud Khalil was the first of many major deportation victims. Khalil was arrested without a warrant and has been ordered to be deported, despite being a green card holder, based on his political views and involvement in pro-Palestinian protest on Columbia’s campus. Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk was abducted on an off-campus street by 6 masked ICE agents, some also wearing sunglasses or hoods. She was sent to a detention center in Louisiana in defiance of a court order. All of this stemmed from an opinion piece she had written alongside other students critiquing Tufts’ president for not acknowledging the genocide in Gaza.

Closer to home, 23 students of the University of Washington, three students of Washington State University and two students of Gonzaga University have had their student visas revoked. Al Jazeera has published an interactive map of all the 1,700+ students who have had their visas revoked, which I highly encourage engagement with.

There has never been a more dangerous time to speak out against the government in the United States. The Trump Administration is looking for any small excuse it can use as reasoning for suppressing those it sees as threats, which could include people on Whitman’s campus. 

As a response, The Whitman Wire created a deletion request policy intended to help shield those who may face backlash for words published in The Wire’s articles. The creation of the policy is undeniably the correct decision given the threats to the safety and security of community members who could potentially see severe repercussions for their words. 

However, I would be lying if I said that it didn’t worry me that this policy is potentially doing everything that the Trump Administration wants it to. 

By attempting to protect these contributors by hiding their names, we are also directly contributing to the silencing of individual opinion and opposition. We are allowing fear to undermine free speech and expression. Whether people like it or not, pseudonyms simply cannot allow for the same level of expression or understanding that can be expressed with real names and identities. If every single story you were told came from an anonymous messenger, stories would lose their nuance, depth, realism and emotion. 

Stories stop being stories. We are suddenly inundated with a list of complaints with no names attached, making everything said easily dismissible. Witnessing inequalities or injustices becomes impossible when the ruling of a fascist government scares its people into silence, and witnessing makes all the difference.

We should all be incredibly worried about the disappearance of stories. Fascism always seeks to silence political opponents and the media that would seek to critique it. If the American people can be scared into silence, nothing will remain to stand up against Trump’s obvious goal of being appointed for a third term. 

Remember, it has been barely over 100 days since Donald Trump took office, and the effects of his administration have already been felt this hard in the media. I can’t fathom how this will continue to grow over the next few years, especially if we don’t get up in arms about it NOW. Silencing ourselves is entirely counterproductive. This is not the end of the media suppression Trump seeks.

Sadly, there are those among us who reasonably feel they must stay silent to ensure their safety, which is the precedent of the last few months. That is why the rest of Whitman College’s privileged “progressive” population needs to grow up and be obnoxious and vocal in their opinions as soon as possible. Now is not the time to be silent while injustice and suppression are at their peak and only increasing.

I’m tired of chalk being the furthest this campus is willing to go. I’m tired of sitting around and waiting for things to return to normal. I’m tired of being too tired to speak out. If we want real change, it starts with large-scale disruption. Get fucking mad. We should be up in arms about fascism taking over the country, not sulking in our “woe is me” mindset. 

Fascism won’t wait for you to have time to battle it. Get loud. Be obnoxious. 

“Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” — Dylan Thomas