My worst fear, of course, is that none of us will live to see the end of the #regime. #Elections, #protests, attempted #revolution—anything we do will be futile. The future is a boot stamping on a human face, forever. Or at least close enough to forever for everyone around now.

If I believed that future was inevitable, I sure as hell wouldn't be talking about it on the internet. In fact I think the probability is less than a coin flip, although I won't even venture to guess by how much. The alleged people currently running things are absolutely as evil as anyone in history, but they're lazy and stupid. Maintaining a #tyranny is hard work.

So my second-worst fear, which I think we're a lot more likely to see, is that at some point things will get back to "normal," but measurably worse than they were before. We'll still have all the machinery of a police state, waiting for the next imperial wannabe to pick it up. Like we already did with the legacies of the Cold War and 9/11. It's a ratchet as well as a racket.

And absolutely none of them will ever face the consequences of their deeds. They may lose office. But they'll go on to profitable second careers as invited speakers and podcasters and talking heads, not as inmates. Pundits will intone that we need to forgive and forget and move on and heal.

We will always have to be lucky all the time. They'll only ever have to be lucky once.