Living in the Upside Down

By Siggy Raible

I’m a fan of the Netflix series Stranger Things. In this sci-fi coming-of-age thriller set in a 1980s small-town America, teenagers face their fears of growing up and transitioning to an adult world with all of its peculiarities. The existential threat to their world is illegal aliens living in the Upside Down. Who are these aliens ─ visitors from another world or Frankenstein-like monsters of our own creation? Boy, can I relate to the inhabitants of the imaginary town of Hawkins, Indiana, because, as I see it, we are living in our own very real Upside Down.

In America’s 2026 Upside Down, federal Darth Vader-like troops have been deployed to cities throughout our nation to round up our “illegal aliens.” In this upside-down nation, the masked enforcers (federal employees) are the ones hunting down their neighbors because, presumably, these aliens are to blame for all that’s gone awry in the nation ─ they have taken jobs away from citizens, they are murderous criminals, they eat pets, they are the wrong shade of white, etc. In this truly strange world, the so-called aliens are not to be feared; it is the state actors who arrest, shoot at, kill and terrorize the citizenry. The aliens are the government.

As if that were not enough, the leaders of America have imposed tariffs on trading partners and competitors alike, only to find out that it is against the Constitution. But never you mind, there’s always another tariff that can be imposed, the law be damned. In the Upside Down economic chaos prevails.

And, just to top that, America’s military has been used to attack ships in international waters killing anyone on the boats, invading a sovereign country and abducting the president of that country (Venezuela ─ in case you haven’t been paying attention). This was done, so say the leaders of America, to stop drug trafficking, to capture an accused drug trafficker, to stop the immigration of narco-terrorists into the U.S. ─ you pick a rationale. But, never mind, our dear leader told us it was to take over the oil fields. This was, of course, after the abduction.

But the best was yet to come. On February 28, 2026, the United States (and Israel) declared what it has variously called an operation “,” an excursion, a preventive/preemptive strike (anything but a war) on Iran. The reasons for this not-war are: for 47 years the Ayatollah has threatened the West with death; the country is in possession of fissionable material and will destroy western civilization (even though the ability to produce a nuclear bomb was “obliterated” in a prior 12-day attack by Israel and America); Iran has intercontinental missiles; a preventive strike was needed to thwart Iran from striking us first and last but not least, this action is merely an excursion. Now, I used to think that an excursion was a sort of short vacation. So I decided to check with Google. Here’s what she said: “a short, usually pleasure-focused trip.” (I’m not sure the Navy servicemen and women think of their deployments as excursions.) I’m betting that additional reasons will be identified in the future. You pick a rationale and they’ll make it fit the situation.

All this is to say that in the American Upside Down nothing makes sense. In a world where stranger things happen every day it is unsettling and disturbing. We find ourselves questioning what is happening and struggling to find our footing. But like the youngsters in fictional Hawkins, Indiana, we must fight to right-size the country.

The teens in Hawkins figured out what to do; they gathered together to fight the menace threatening their lives. In our everything-everywhere-all-at-once world where the only thing that is constant is change, we must do what the kids in Hawkins did: find where our strengths and interests lie and get engaged.

In my opinion, when the adults in charge are acting badly, we must stand up and point out where they have gone wrong. We are taught that actions have consequences. Well, the consequences of the actions of our present day leaders have led to disastrous outcomes. An increase in the cost of living for everyone ─ with the middle and poorer classes hit the worst. The invasion of our cities by our own federal forces has brought fear and death to our communities. And, the acts of war perpetrated by our military, without our consent, on sovereign nations have led to destruction, dislocation of hundreds of thousands of people and the deaths of many, many innocent individuals like you and me. This is inhumane! This is amoral! This is unacceptable.

GET INVOLVED and VOTE THE POWER-HUNGRY BARBAROUS BILLIONAIRE BUMS OUT!!