America: The Evil Empire

Red or blue, the war machine rages on.

In some of the most famous works of fiction, the antagonist is a power-hungry evil tyrant that aims to subjugate the entire world. The nation they rule tramples on millions of people in their march to world domination. Sometimes, as in Avatar the Last Airbender’s Fire Nation, that means an entire planet. Other times, as in Star Wars’ Galactic Empire, that means entire galaxies. When we see this in works of fiction, we immediately know who we are meant to root for — the underdog protagonist and their ragtag group of rebels opposing an oppressive hegemonic nation-state. It’s easy to root for Aang and Luke Skywalker because we see how the Evil Empire that they oppose infringes on citizens' rights all over their world or worlds. However, in the real world, Evil Empires still exist. Many of us, myself included, live in these Evil Empires and directly benefit from their global domination. Unfortunately, we never hear the ragtag protagonist’s side of the story.

Was this what we voted for?