I'd say you should be more worried about the Orwellian climate.

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Ingeorgia, I agree. I used the term fascism loosely and I could have used Orwellian 1984-type climate, or other terms for an anti -democratic society.

Haven't seen season 1 yet. Wish it was on Netflix. I need to see if the library has the DVD. Think it was released a couple months ago.

Did all these things just pop up over the last few months? No. There is more of a spot light on closed minded people recently. There are closed minded people on both "far" ends of the spectrum. I think there are a lot of good people in the largest middle group. There are more good than bad. No one group in either offset middle space is of superior quality to the other.

What concerns me is the lack of protecting personal information. Sooner or later, any database is hacked.

I can't bring myself to watch this. Thinking about the future I'm glad I'm past childbearing age.

Sciencechick, reproductive slavery is just one aspect of what’s scary to me. The “thought police” type of control, the forced belief system and the hatred toward minorities of all types are a few others.

The BOOK freaked me out. The movie, too. I saw only one episode of the S1. Oddly, my son (age 24) and my DMIL (age 92) are big fans of the series. What really freaks me out is that I can totally imagine such a world.

Bpathome, that’s exactly how I feel. It’s beautifully made with a splendid cast. The episode with June asking herself how she could have missed all the signs was so disturbing to me because I feel like the signs are all there, all around us, right now.

I have not seen the series. But you are not alone in feeling freaked out. There are people keeping lists of the political norms being broken, the lies being told, etc. I also feel like there are signs all around us now and like I cannot do enough to stop this.

Just an antedocte, but quite hurtful for me: My Chinese son was recently told by a classmate that all Asians should be deported. (My son is a citizen.) This is not the sort of thing middle schoolers talked about when I was in middle school. It is clearly coming from current events. I discussed this with the principal and he said he had seen a severe upswing in kids using Nazi references, anti-immigrant rhetoric, etc with the last Presidential election and that it has gone back down some, but still no where near the “baseline” level he had previously observed in his many years as an educator in area middle schools. This is consistent with my observations about the rate of hate crimes, racist graffiti, etc.

crl - What did the principal say about the administration's practice (note: not POLICY, which is a paper game) regarding this type of student abuse? I ask because my DIL's parents are Pakistani. She was born in Saudi and came to the US at age 13. She was taunted by other non-white classmates telling her to go home. It was never reported to the administration though. I wonder what would have been said or done 30 years ago versus today.

Crl and Delilah, I’m so sorry to hear about your dear ones’ experiences.

My son did not want me to give the principal the kid’s name. He felt that he had handled it and the incident was closed. If I had given the name, the principal would have talked with the kid one on one about what he said and tried to help the kid understand what that really meant and guide him away from that kind of racist/anti-immigrant statement.

I went to the principal to advocate for more education around these issues. Earlier in the year—when Charlottesville happened—I had reported to the school when kids were using literal Nazi slogans as “punchlines” to “jokes.” And my kid also reports frequently hearing “gay”used as a slur. I find these all problematic.

The school has an anti-bullying curriculum that is taught in health class in eighth grade. They also read Anne Frank’s diary and study the Holocaust this year. And they take the kids to an event where people who lived though WWII talk with them.

I asked the principal to consider adding a training from a well-respected local human rights organization. (Or other training—that’s just one I am personally familiar with and could connect him to the trainer and to people who have received the training.). He was reluctant but did commit to talking with the principal of an area high school that used it this year and also held a student led day of justice events (speakers, booths, etc).

That abuse isn't new. My son's Korean-born friend was thrown against the fence and asked about his nukes when they were in middle school, about 9 years ago. And don't forget "enemy aliens" in the 1940s. Just watched a show that mentioned German-born citizens of Chicago who were interned in Chicago. In 1978-79 I was abroad, at school with a few Iranians who were concerned about their families (not to mention whether their tuition could be paid, due to the frozen assets). When I came back to the US, I didn't expect the anti-Iranian vitriol. Nothing is new.

As far as the book freaking me out, I read it in the 90s. Freaked me out then.

I agree that prejudice is not new. However, public manifestations of it are on the rise. I have had this confirmed by multiple educators in multiple locations as far as school settings go. And there are lots of other sources to confirm this as well. Just like there was prejudice against Jews before Hilter, but the flames were fanned and it became widespread and ultimately horrific.

I can't imagine the job educators have these days. They are expected to /teach kids all the things that parents should be teaching at home.

My DS1's long time girlfriend was telling me of her horrific middle and high school years. She is half black, many of the white kids didn't want to have much to do with her. Apparently the black kids were really mean because her skin was lighter. The Hispanic kids were not her friends either. The only kindnesses were from the Asian kids. This wasn't that long ago either as her middle and high school years ran up to 2009. My gay cousin used to get beat up about once a week through most of 1985 -1990.

I'm glad there is much more awareness from educators these days that this stuff goes on. It's heartbreaking hearing these stories. Still, I can't imagine the presure of having to play parent and teach.

I don't think educators have much of an effect on those kinds of abhorrent attitudes. That kind of education begins at home.

The kid who told my son all Asians should be deported talks about politics all the time and is the only Trump supporter in his family, according to ds. Does not sound like he is learning this at home—more like this is an unthinking/uninformed kind of rebellion. And I do truly believe that people can learn to be better from a variety of teachers, regardless of the source of their wrong-headed ideas.

There are some troubled kids that might benefit from educators to a point. I mean, one must try. And, things have come a long way since 2013 with training educators on effective compliance. There is much clearer policy along with the training and written code as of 2013. Teachers are so much more educated on the subject of bullying now comparered to the vague loosely floating , mostly codeless 1993 bully guidelines.

However, we shouldn't get into using a scapegoat for rude, cruel behavior. My sons girlfriend never blamed the black mean kids that were Obama supporters on Obama. The kid who supports Trump can't toss blame in that direction. Sometimes kids are buttheads and need to be called out as such. Kids need to learn personal responsibility.

Of course leadership matters. It would make no sense to blame Obama under the circumstances you describe, so that hypothetical leaves me baffled. There are myriad examples of our current President doing and saying racist things—as well as sexist things, etc. Accordingly, racism etc are more publically acceptable now. My son’s principal raised this independently as I was trying to avoid politics in our discussion thinking it would not be productive, but he tied the rise in these behaviors directly to the last Presidential election and surrounding media coverage. I have heard this from other educators and you can see it from other sources as well.

Ignoring the sources of problems is never helpful in trying to solve them. Racism is a multifaceted problem and I’m never going to claim that any one source is to blame, but nor am I going to ignore it when our leadership propagates it nor will I pretend that the leadership doesn’t matter.

I will stop now as I think the original poster was looking for a more general discussion of signs of a totalitarian society and no one needs me to dominate the topic.

Generally I’d also agree that racism and prejudice are as old as the human race. However, a few questions:

But, have we seen in the last 50-60 years, as we have in the last two years, the type of open hatred toward others, brazen disregard for the law, or open display of poignant symbols of hatred such as the swastika? Regardless of where one may stand on any given social or political issue, have we ever before condoned things such as: the government “losing” 1500 immigrant children separated from the families and claiming it is not responsible for finding them? Or someone within the White House circles calling a senator with a long and distinguished public service and personal sacrifice irrelevant because “he’s dying anyway”? I can go on and on, but the point is that we seem to be at the brink of some collapse of basic human decency in those who hold power and the collapse of the basic expectations that the governed in this country have had of their government. To me, things that are happening in the last couple of years seem fundamentally of a different character than the ever-existent racism and prejudice.

I’d also agree that no one person is responsible for any big change in social climate. However, the presidency in our country vests such vast and unique power in *one* person, the President, that it is only fair to expect some basic level of decorum from the person. Such expectations do not absolve the parents of their children’s poor behavior, obviously. (BTW, was Obama a mean person or a poor example *as a person* such that one could attribute meanness in among our youth, black or white, to him?)

Anyway, I’m sure there are varying perspectives on all these issues. Happy to hear some of them and look forward to hearing more.

Rita, a very insightful analysis. I agree completely that major reforms that are needed face a logjam.

Rita, I raised my children in the San Jose area, from about '92 on. By the end of their time, around '12, the population was around 60% Asian American+Mexican American. The other 40% was a combination of white, Black and others. I remember that 58 languages we spoken in our district. None of this bothered me, my family was a mix of races/abilities. But it WAS and issue with many white families. Given the political climate right now, I am relieved that my child raising days are over. And yes, The Handmaid's Tale scares the bejesus out of me. But I look forward to it every week.

And it is pure racism that is separating these babies from their mothers at the border.