The "Other"

In "Hearts and Minds," a 1998 episode of the sci-fi series Outer Limits, a group of soldiers have drug injectors to protect them from "diseases" harbored by their hideous non-human enemy. After an injector malfunction, the soldiers realize that the drugs are hallucinogens that make the enemy -- also humans but from another region -- appear as giant insects. When they try to contact the enemy, they are all killed. The "enemies" hallucinogenic drug injectors did not malfunction.

An effective way to ostracize a person or group is to create a fiction that they are the "other" -- somehow different, less worthy, dangerous -- because of "race", ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or social or political identity. Slavery persisted in the U.S. because slaves were labeled as sub-human, mere property. Hitler blamed Jewish people for "blood poisoning" of the Aryan race just as Donald Trump blames immigrants for "poisoning the blood" of the country, even though four of his children are from immigrant wives.

Now Elon Musk, an immigrant and an unelected unconfirmed Trump minion, is attempting to remove tens of thousands of federal workers from their jobs using the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative created by Trump. In order to garner support from the people who elected Trump, the federal work force needs to become the "other", because, in many cases, people who voted for Trump may be losing their jobs.

• Kari Lake (who denies everything including elections, masks, and even reality) called federal workers animals infested with ticks and parasites.
• Charlie Kirk (a conspiracy aficionado who denies that racism exists) called federal workers parasites.
• Jesse Watters (former Bill O'Reilly attack dog) called federal workers dead enders and saboteurs.
• And finally, Donald Trump (who is a cheater, liar, felon, sexual predator, and has been convicted of multiple frauds) called federal workers fraudsters, liars, and cheaters.

If you are a federal worker and you voted for Trump, you may want to reconsider your support in the future.

John L. Ferri

jlferri@epix.net

(Printed in the Towanda Daily Review on 4/1/2025)