Principles

I am not at all sure, that people even know what the word means.

I am going to risk going further out onto the limb of alarm than I already have. I recognize that acknowledging my emotional state will amuse the algorithm-captured people who sneer at me, seeing me as nothing more than an out-of-touch, preening intellectual. But I don't care. The truth is, I am quite upset about what has happened today. That the President of Ukraine was treated as he was, is a moral stain on this country. It was.

And it's true we have many moral stains on the clothes of our civilizational project. Because while we can get into conversations of foreign policy adventurism, and the long history of moral failings in this country, the truth is, it's the year 2025. Those things are in the past. Presumably, we've learned from them.

But apparently we have not.

We have somehow managed to elect literal traitors to act as the stewards of our country. I and others have written extensively about how this has happened. Yes, the liberal cosmopolitan elite lost touch with the rest of America. Yes, Biden was too old. Yes, Hunter Biden should never have been trying to sell access to his father. All of this is true.

But at this very moment, I have to say, I have such profound disappointment for a great many people. Not so much the people cheering this all on from the sidelines. They've been captured by algorithms and demagoguery, and have seemingly been rendered incapable of normative thought.

But there's a lot of people for whom that's not true. They know this is wrong. They acknowledge it. But they will not speak up.

They won't speak up because they feel “the left” has not sufficiently atoned for its sins. They won't speak up because of Gaza. They won't speak up because of moral failings in US foreign policy. These people are scattered across the left and right.

The bottom line is, they all know it's wrong. And that they stubbornly sit on the sidelines and explain why they can't be bothered to fight for the basic principles of constitutional government is supposed to be, as I understand—some of them family and friends—a feature of them standing firm on principles.

But what the hell do principles even mean, if you do not act on them?

What about this is normal? Can someone actually explain to me what is okay about what is happening that isn't regurgitating talking points from the MAGA media machine? I'm being really fucking serious.

Outside of a parade of nonsense about NATO expansion, fiscal responsibility, bullshit corruption scandals out of DOGE, I just don't know what possible justification there is for allowing this charade to go on? This isn't in anyone's interest. This isn't going to make anything better.

They are literally just breaking things, and then selling off the functions of government to Elon Musk.

This isn't governance. This isn't policy. This is vandalism on a national scale, dressed up in the language of populism and “America First.” It's a fire sale of our democratic institutions, our international credibility, and our future, all to satisfy the egos and line the pockets of a few.

And yet, we have people—intelligent, educated people—who continue to rationalize this behavior. They couch their complicity in terms of “both sides” arguments or whataboutism, as if the flaws of previous administrations somehow justify the wholesale dismantling of our democracy.

This silence, this inaction in the face of clear moral wrongs, is not principled. It's cowardice dressed up as moral superiority. It's a failure to recognize that while the past matters, the present is where we live and the future is what we're fighting for.

Yes, America has made mistakes. Yes, there are valid criticisms of our foreign policy, our leaders, our system. But none of that justifies standing idly by while the very foundations of our democracy are eroded, while we treat allies fighting for their survival with contempt, while we elevate those who would betray everything this country is supposed to stand for.

To those sitting on the sidelines, I say this: Your principles are worthless if they prevent you from acting in defense of democracy, decency, and the rule of law. Your moral purity is an illusion if it allows you to watch injustice unfold without raising your voice.

I don't know how to tell you this, but you are not above the fray. You are not an atomic unit unto yourself. You are a product of a society, a culture, a system. Even the language you speak was inherited. You do not exist outside of the contingencies of society.

Your delusions of your own sense of independence and the hero you think you are in whatever story is playing out in your fucking head is so detached, so removed from anything resembling a coherent reality, that you think of yourself as an independent thinker, that you think you rise above it all.

No, you don't.

You're a bag of meat and water like the rest of us, and the only reason you are where you are is because you worked with other people to help get you there. Your family. Your friends. Your colleagues. The customers who bought your product. The investors who took a risk on you.

You are part of a system. And you owe something to that system. Whether you realize that or not, you do.

And history will make its judgments.

To those sitting on the sidelines, I say this: Your principles are worthless if they prevent you from acting in defense of democracy, decency, and the rule of law. Your moral purity is an illusion if it allows you to watch injustice unfold without raising your voice.

The time for equivocation is over. The time for action is now. Speak up. Stand up. Fight for what you know is right. Because if you don't, you may find that the principles you thought you were preserving have been lost forever in the silence of your inaction.

This system, this democracy, this society that has nurtured you, educated you, protected you—it's now under threat. And your silence, your inaction, your self-serving rationalizations are not just a personal failing. They are a betrayal of everything that has given you the privilege to even have the choice to remain silent.

Wake up. Because this is not a spectator sport. This is our shared reality, our shared responsibility, our shared future at stake. And history—that relentless, unforgiving judge—will remember not just what was done, but what was not done when it mattered most.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” - Martin Luther King Jr.