Drawing the connection between systems of oppression isn’t always easy. It typically requires examining the root cause of any given issue more closely. For example, the connection between mass migration events and “maximum pressure” policies against countries that don’t give in to US corporate interests over their own people is undeniable. Oppressive systems such as this exist across the spectrum of issues.
Sowing doubt and confusion while oppressing specific communities is standard practice across the board. It typically starts with destabilization and creating desperate conditions, then criminalizing that desperation. Corporate media bolsters the process. It was the difference between a Black person “looting” a grocery store and a white couple “finding” food during Hurricane Katrina, highlighting the history of negative depictions of Black people compared to the positive portrayals of white people in the news cycle, whether they are victims or criminals.
The same strategy is involved with so-called “third-world” countries.
As a society, the US regularly dehumanizes nonwhite groups, starting with the most vulnerable and working its way up. The language used to dehumanize immigrants before the US Revolution is identical to what we hear today. The same arguments about not “assimilating” have been weaponized against a broad spectrum of groups, from Black people and Germans to the Chinese and Latinos; the list of targets is unending. That bigotry also exists in US foreign policy.
Dehumanize
For more than two years, we’ve watched a genocide in Gaza be justified with language suggesting the oppressor, the occupier, has a right to defend itself while simultaneously referring to any of the oppressed defending themselves as “terrorists.” If this sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same logic used to slaughter indigenous people, the so-called “savages” in the Americas. Let’s also not overlook the “divine right” aspect, which is somewhat of a broken record here. Both models suggest this otherworldly “right” to murder and steal.
When it comes to settler colonialism and imperialism, there is no strategy more broadly used by Western powers, whether they were fascists who copied the US or otherwise. In 2025, we witnessed an escalation in the US’s superiority complex against its own neighbors. We’ve heard countless lies about Mexico and its President, Claudia Shienbaum; Colombia and its President, Gustavo Petro; Venezuela and its President, Nicolas Maduro; and any other world leader that isn’t an outright far-right Christian nationalist willing to bow to President Donald Trump.
The US not only spread lies about many world leaders being tied to drug smuggling operations, but it also labeled drug cartels as terrorists. It used those designations to justify killing civilians in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The US amassed a massive military presence in the Caribbean and has threatened war against several countries, from Cuba and Nicaragua to Colombia and Venezuela. The White House even threatened to end agreements with other Latin American countries if they didn’t elect whom Trump wanted them to.
Villainize
The White House and Republican lawmakers’ meddling in Latin American elections in 2025 is a story corporate media failed to cover adequately. The stories about Maduro are like a comic book series of the world’s worst villain. He went from being a dictator to the leader of the Tren de Aragua gang, then to being a drug smuggler himself, only to be accused of being the head of a nonexistent cartel. None of these stories was corroborated by US intelligence services, which told a much different story: Maduro was none of those things.
The White House continued to reiterate that Maduro stole the last election in 2024, but the evidence it is using is riddled with errors. The news articles it cites have disclaimers saying that the data published by Maria Corina Machado’s opposition can’t be validated as authentic without telling you why it couldn’t be. I investigated that and showed you why. When you consider the amount of lies spread by the Trump administration this year, it should call into question everything the US government has ever said about another world leader.
The incompetence in the current White House has inadvertently exposed how the US manufactures narratives to justify regime change and war. Some of this was already obvious due to the George W. Bush administration’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and “Global War on Terror” lies. However, in both Trump administrations, Venezuela served as not just another example of the US continuing to use the same tactics, but also of how comically outlandish the process is and just how easily corporate media simply repeats what every administration says.
Criminalize
The recent manufactured narratives against Venezuela and Maduro started with immigrants in the lead-up to the 2024 election and continued immediately after Trump took office. It started with referring to Latinos, in general, as criminals; to every Latino immigrant as an illegal, and Venezuelans as gang members working for Maduro to undermine the US. Then, alongside the allegations that Maduro was the head of Tren de Aragua, came the accusations that “they” (Venezuelans) emptied their prisons, insane asylums, and sent detainees to the US.
Again, decades-old rhetoric, once used against various Latin American leaders, such as Fidel Castro, continues to be used. The language and lies are as nauseating as ever, but wth one-sided news coverage that, when it comes to foreign affairs, often repeats what the US government says without question, civilians in the US never get the whole story, particularly when it comes to Latin America. Whether it’s an electoral coup or a military one, US news media provides a nationalist slant that glosses over the lies that lead to atrocity.
The attacks on Latino immigrants turned into an attack on Black immigrants, leading to even more oppression in already occupied Black communities. Now, they aren’t just occupied by police under the guise of “fighting crime,” they are being invaded by a militarized federal agency that lacks appropriate accountability measures and has a long history of abusing its power against civilians, violating their constitutional rights. Black communities have also been overrun with National Guard soldiers under Trump’s autocratic polices.
Surveillance powers are being abused, and data for every person in the US is in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security without so much as a warrant. Trump’s White House is also surveilling everyone’s internet activity, threatening to target anyone who doesn’t profess allegiance to the administration’s views. Not only are the inhumane and largely illegal immigration raids boosting the US’s mass incarceration crisis, but now it will be bolstered by blurring the lines between law enforcement powers and ignoring the US Constitution.
The Connection
If it hasn’t been clear by now, everything is connected through white Christian nationalism. From Christian Zionists supporting a genocide in Gaza and demonizing Palestinians, to supporting a war with Venezuela to take control of drug smuggling networks, and overthrowing world leaders, the same agents of white supremacy upholding oppressive systems at home are what tie it all together. Hate is big business because it largely fuels industrialized systems of oppression.
There are no better examples of targeting nonwhite groups than using military power to kill boaters off the coast of South America and using federal agents against nonwhite communities while simultaneously pardoning a notorious drug smuggler and strengthening partnerships with leaders who are facing widely reported allegations of facilitating cartel activity, including smuggling tons of cocaine into Europe.
In 2025, you learned that some things transcend presidents and that everything mentioned here falls under that category. You also know that I am here to give people in power hell, as I have in the past, regardless of who’s in power. In 2026, you can expect more of the same type of reporting. My work exists not just to report important news, but to educate by explaining the whole story.
The incremental shift back to a state of oppression of nonwhite people at home and imperialism abroad connects at the intersection of politics and race, and it goes beyond political affiliation. US government overreach and injustice on behalf of corporate interests are and should be nonpartisan.
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