Welcome To The Mojo Dojo Casa House

If you’re here for cutting-edge political commentary: what the actual fuck?

As an elderly Millennial woman, memes are a coping mechanism for apocalyptic times and the best one I saw by far this week was a tweet copy and pasted onto a Barbie-pink background that read: “For those who saw Barbie, we’re coming up to the Mojo Dojo Casa House part.

I straight up belly laughed—and felt seen. Barbie triggered me, and triggered me deep—back in those innocent times of July 2023 (hahhahahahhahah hahahahha), it felt like a reminder of just how dark the world could be, just how dark it almost became.

Ken’s patriarchy furs were giving absurd QANON shamman vibes, which I thought was very intentional, maybe the whole thesis of the film until I realized almost no one else had that interpretation. But the Mojo Dojo Casa House was more than that—it was the revenge of the bros, pay back for the “woke” agenda where women (and perhaps, minorities more generally) had power at the expense of the poor little dickless men, who now could be honest about how the whole time they just wanted them to hand them a “brewski” and shut the fuck up.

As my friend Maggie so aptly pointed out, at least in Barbie, Ryan Gosling was the face of fascism—and that, for many of us, would be a whole lot more fun. Instead, we have the broligarchy—the holy trifecta of Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Limp dick energy (LDE as we say on the streets), that’s the only explanation for that Nazi salute (I’m sorry, Roman greeting!!!!!), the sucking up and the plethora of other bull shit that happened this week.

So, the news—isn’t that why you’re here? While Elon Musk was Sieg Heiling (and apparently wondering on social media how he could possibly be called a Zionist and a Nazi at the same time), the orange-hued twat that journalistic style guides force me to refer to as a “President” decided to sign a number of Executive Orders, targeting immigration, trans rights and those terrible DEI programs that have ruined the fantasy of America as the safe haven of Anglo-Saxon stock lightly dusted with the remains of a bag of cheetos. If you’re really interested in the nitty gritty of it all, I recommend Austin Kocher’s Substack—he’s deeply committed to breaking down the facts without having a mental breakdown about it (unlike some people, whose Substack you’re reading, right now), but if you’re here for the cutting edge political commentary, here it is: what the actual fuck?

One of the changes that sticks out to me in particular is the fact that schools, hospitals, churches and other places of worship are no longer sanctuaries—this means that ICE can raid them. For those who don’t know, some churches act as sanctuaries for immigrants facing deportation—and as long as they’re within the churches walls, they’re safe from ICE. I interviewed a woman doing exactly this a few years ago—we ZOOMed, while I was at home in lockdown, and she was at home in a church in Utah. Her story actually has a happy ending—after three years of living in a church, she was granted asylum. She also speaks very fondly of the local community in Utah, of all places, who supported and rallied around her—and I think this says a lot about who Americans are as people, versus who the United States is as a government.

Now, even this sanctuary is gone and I’m thinking about the other people like Vicky, who have been trying to use this loophole to seek safety and sanctuary in a country that calls them criminals and treats them like political pawns.

It’s also making me think about all of the couples in my book, Love Across Borders, and the way that these new policies are going to rip apart couples and families, and wreak havoc on people’s lives for years to come. Already planes and appointments for resettlement are being cancelled, once again closing America off to people, and there’s talk of a Muslim ban that will not only bar lots of people from Muslim majority countries from reuniting with family in the United States, but even target people already in the United States, particularly those involved with Palestine activism.

But if you scroll through the TikToks of those living through Vichy America right now, you’ll see that teachers are using the index cards that they meant to drill vocab with their students on to write “know your rights” advice for their students, just in case ICE comes to their classrooms. They’re also reminding us that they’ve been training to take bullets for their students for years—and that they’re ready for this.

Fuck ICE. Also, tax the broligarchy and give all the money to these teachers.

One of the things that I’m particularly obsessed with the way that immigrants are scapegoated for everything that is wrong with the United States—and this year has given me no shortage of stories. I wrote about the way that immigrants have been scapegoated for the fires in California (when they’re actually helping fight them), but I think that Karla Cornejo Villavicencio said it best at PRISM, when she said that xenophobia is not about facts, but about feelings. It’s something I keep coming back to as a journalist who is armed with every single fact in existence about how, no, immigrants actually do not hurt the economy and well-thought out arguments about how immigrants help the economy much more than billionaires who don’t pay taxes, but when facts don’t matter what is the use of all of this ammunition? It is a question that I genuinely ponder—annoying for a journalist—but one that I think is important when we want to build power in our ranks. How do we fight back when it’s not about facts—but feelings?

I’m also thinking about radicalism—and how we got here. I spent a lot of my career reporting on radicalism in the Middle East, of the ISIS variety that recruits disempowered young men who have nothing better to do. It is not that different from MAGA—the dog whistles, the pockets of incels who have decided that they hate women, that they hate Black and brown and queer people, that DEI initiatives are the work of the devil and that the only way forward is to pretend that none of us exist.

I’m also thinking about social media platforms—because along with rolling back hate speech policies that pave the way for mass deportations and justify toxic masculinity, it signifies a greater ideological purge that is happening, and what we stand to lose if this is overtaken by the broligarchy’s agenda. I thought that Leigh Stein’s piece on what we lose if we lose BookTok summed up what so many people get wrong about the creator economy (that its just a bunch of nineteen year olds, privileged influencers) and can’t help feeling like there’s a wider, ideological purge going on. Jessica Valenti wrote about what happens now when you try to look up information about accessing abortion on Instagram, and apparently “Free Palestine” is now hateful content on the new TikTok—which is ironic in a world of double nazi salutes and an alleged push towards free speech and freedom of expression.

With this in mind, I’m deeply grateful for all of you for subscribing—like many writers (particularly other weird, queer, mouthy brown ones that speak their minds without thinking twice about the bridges that it might burn), I’m finding my content increasingly suppressed on other platforms. I don’t know what the future will hold, or how writers like me will continue to build community and find the people that want to read our words, particularly when we refuse to conform to anything remotely resembling their agenda. In response to that, I’ve decided to become even more unhinged here, while still being devoted to journalistic integrity, keeping you informed but entertained. I promise it will be stimulating for the mind, nourishing for the soul, and just inappropriate enough to be very appropriate for these times.

I’m also floored by the kinds of people who are subscribing. You’re lawyers, advocates, people who are fighting this bullshit on the ground. (Also, shout out to Uncle Neil and the handful of ex-boyfriends that keep tabs on me here, you’re all gems). I’m humbled by the fact that you’ve chosen my newsletter, of all of the newsletters, to pop up in your inbox. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the work that you’re doing, for the devotion that you have to fighting for what is right. If you ever want a journalist’s help to amplify the work that you’re doing, or your personal story, if that’s something you want to do. I hope that you’ll get in touch with me—to say hello, if nothing else.

If you’re working in this space and worried about digital security—doxxing, digital threats, that kind of thing—I invite you to check out Kanary, which is one of my clients that I work for as a social media strategist. We are on all of the platforms, as fraught as they may be, and also have a Discord server, where our team of experts is ready to help you with any threat you might be facing. All of this is totally free, though we also have a premium service to help organizations (with heavy discounts for non-profits).

So, my question for you is: how are you taking care of yourself right now? I’m personally writing queer meet-cutes in my novel, which, while absurdly political (have we met?) also focuses on many different love stories (love, after all, can be quite political) and I’m enjoying exploring my characters’ and their nervousness and neuroses around new love as my little bit of light in the darkness. If you want to read some love stories right now, Love Across Borders is available wherever you get books (but I’d love it if you got it from your favorite independent bookshop, or a place that supports those) —and we’re even having a book club meeting on Valentine’s Day! More on that later, but mark your calendar—it will be at 10 AM PST/1 PM, EST/6 PM GMT.

I also haven’t stopped feeling in awe of the Palestinian journalists who covered every single day of the genocide in Gaza and then got to take off their press vests and replace them with kuffiyehs, of the amazing valor, courage and grace that they showed the world. Most of all, I’m remembering Syria—the 54 years of tyrannical rule that meant that I almost didn’t meet my husband or my closest friends, who all know Bashar al-Assad’s jails and the price of resisting authoritarianism and fighting for freedom all too well. I promise to keep writing and speaking with no filter because of all of those who came before me who did this, with far more to lose.

Nothing lasts forever. Stay strong.

Anna