In this conversation, Crystal and Taylor unpack the unsettling reality that American democracy isn’t dying— it’s already hollowed out and undead. Institutions still stand, rituals still occur, votes are still cast, but the animating spirit— the civic soul— is a shell of its former self. What remains is a zombie democracy: movement without meaning, structure without integrity.
Together we explore:
- Hypernormalization: how people keep living as if everything is fine, even as the democratic body decays from within.
- Weaponized algorithms and AI: how these tools accelerate disinformation, numb citizens, and enable modern authoritarianism without needing tanks or coups.
- The inversion of power: institutions like courts, agencies, and regulators no longer serve the public—they now orbit billionaires, hyperscalers, and AI infrastructure no one voted for.
- Civic apathy and desensitization: how people have stopped engaging with news, politics, and public life, making the soil fertile for authoritarian drift.
- Surveillance creep: from hidden license-plate scanners to travel pattern analysis, they trace how freedom of movement and privacy are silently eroding.
- New forms of resistance: from mass protests and whistle campaigns to community organizers running ICE out of cities, they highlight the emergent sparks of collective action.
- The importance of community: the antidote to the zombie state isn’t reform from above—it’s connection from below: organizing, mutual aid, shared vigilance, and local resilience.
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