Frozen Take (Ninth Circle)
I haven't identified as American since September 11th, 2001. I wrote then that I was more afraid of my government using the attack as an excuse to slouch towards authoritarianism, and of the jingoists defending them in the name of patriotism, than I was of the terrorists.
Very little in the last sixteen years has challenged that emotional shift, and every mass shooting followed by "thoughts and prayers" with no meaningful gun control reform reinforces it.
Frozen Take (Ninth Circle)
@literorrery That is basically the same thought that I had, just starting my senior year of high school: "The government will use this to crack down and lash out unjustly and disproportionately against its /perceived/ enemies and threats."