The Inner Monologue

Ah, the age-old political strategy: Things are bad, and it’s all their fault. Who’s them? Doesn’t matter! The point isn’t that they are actually the problem—the point is that someone must be. And if you, dear citizen, want to feel better about your miserable existence, all you have to do is agree that those people are the reason for your suffering. Once they’re gone, everything will be perfect. Pinky swear.

But here’s the fun part: It’s never enough.

The regime knows this. The architects of blame aren’t stupid—they’re just playing a shell game with society’s anger. Round up the first group of undesirables and vanish them. Did life improve? No? Well, obviously, it’s because there was another group lurking in the shadows, propping up the first one! And once they’re gone, then—oh, wait, still bad? Hmm. Must be those guys over there. And so on, and so on, until the only people left are the ones smart enough to cheer loudest at the executions.

The brilliance of the system is that it doesn’t have to work. It just has to keep you believing that the next purge will finally fix everything. The regime’s real goal isn’t solving problems—it’s teaching you to enjoy the hunt. To crave the next scapegoat. To see enemies everywhere, except, of course, in the mirror.

So if you ever find yourself thinking, Wow, they really hate [insert group here], remember—they don’t. Not really. They just need you to believe that someone deserves it. And once you do? Congratulations. You’ve volunteered for the next round of Find the Undesirable.

(Don’t worry, though. It’ll definitely be the last one. Probably.)