Guest article by Michael Cohen. Remember to follow him on Substack for more by clicking here. Michael is also racing to 500K followers on YouTube! Subscribe today for free here.
I was sitting at Sant Ambroeus the other morning — my usual spot, the one place I can count on a decent espresso and a moment of peace — when a man at the next table decided to join my conversation uninvited. That’s the new national pastime, by the way: inserting yourself where you don’t belong.
The topic was ICE, and the reports of their increasing brutality during raids. Before I could even finish my sentence, this guy, maybe early forties, pressed his cup down, leaned in with that smug, self-righteous grin I’ve come to recognize, and said, “They shouldn’t be here. They’re not entitled to our protections.”
He said it casually. Like he was commenting on the weather.
Now here’s the irony: he’s first-generation himself. His parents came here from somewhere else — probably the kind of story we like to romanticize as “the American Dream.” But there he was, sneering at the very same struggle that birthed his own existence.
That’s the America we live in now, where hypocrisy isn’t hidden anymore. It’s a badge.
We’ve become a country where Americans hate Americans. And not in the way that used to mean something — Democrat versus Republican, left versus right. No, this runs deeper. It’s personal now. Existential. It’s a moral collapse dressed up as patriotism.
I listened to that man talk, and it hit me: he’s not some anomaly. He’s the average American in 2025 — certain, angry, misinformed, and desperate to feel superior to someone. His hate gave him purpose. His cruelty gave him identity. And his indifference gave him power.
This isn’t politics anymore. It’s pathology.
Every day, I see people turning their outrage inward — not at corruption, not at injustice, not at the billionaires strip-mining the country, but at each other. Their neighbor. The single mother crossing a border. The stranger at the grocery store who doesn’t speak English.
We are rotting from the inside out, and we’re applauding ourselves while it happens.
When I worked for Donald Trump, I saw firsthand how easy it was to weaponize division. You feed people lies long enough and they’ll start to crave them. You tell them who to blame, who to hate, and they’ll thank you for the direction. Hate, after all, is simpler than introspection.
Trump didn’t invent this sickness; he just understood how to sell it.
Now, years later, we’re still buying it — with interest.
We are the United States in name only. Look around. One in three Americans believes violence may be necessary to “save the country.” One in three. Governors are defying federal law. State militias are arming for “defense” against other Americans. We’re fighting cultural wars, racial wars, class wars — all while pretending the real war isn’t the one inside us.
The billionaire Ray Dalio said recently that America’s “power to hurt each other has never been greater.” He’s right, but not just because of weapons or technology. It’s because we’ve learned to enjoy it. The cruelty itself has become entertainment. The humiliation of others — their pain, their downfall — it’s not just tolerated. It’s monetized.
We now have an economy of hate — political, cultural, digital — feeding a population addicted to outrage. And like any addiction, it demands escalation.
The man at Sant Ambroeus wasn’t an outlier. He was a mirror. He was showing me — showing us — what we’ve become: a nation that no longer values decency, only dominance. Where empathy is weakness and hate feels like power.
We don’t talk to each other anymore. We perform at each other. Every disagreement is a declaration of war. Every online argument becomes a moral crusade. We’ve traded humility for hashtags, truth for validation, and citizenship for sides.
The danger isn’t that Americans disagree; it’s that we’ve stopped believing the other side deserves to exist.
This is what happens when a country loses its soul. Not overnight, but inch by inch. Through the small, daily indulgences of contempt. Through conversations like the one I had at that café — where hatred is expressed casually, confidently, and without consequence.
We’ve been trained to think the next civil war will start with gunfire. It won’t. It’ll start exactly like this: with silence. With indifference. With people looking away.
The truth is, the next war won’t be fought between North and South, red and blue. It’ll be between Americans who still believe in the idea of humanity and those who don’t.
That’s what I saw in that man’s smirk. Not confidence. Not conviction. Just a void where empathy used to be.
And that’s what terrifies me most: not that Americans hate each other, but that hate has become the only language we still speak.
BAD THINGS ARE COMING OUR WAY!
RIGHT NOW IS THE TIME FOR YOU TO JOIN THE FIGHT!
PLEASE SUPPORT INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS…
SUBSCRIBE. READ. LIKE. RESTACK.
Yeah, I know — you’re tired. This shit is exhausting.
Guess what? Me too.
But I’ve spent the last eight years throwing punches in the dark so truth could get a little daylight. And now I’m asking you to step into the ring with me.
Because if you’re still reading this, you already get it:
This isn’t just a newsletter. It’s a rally cry. A war drum. A line in the sand.
We are not passive observers of the downfall. We are the resistance. We call out the liars. We drag corruption by the collar into the sunlight. We say the quiet parts out loud — and we don’t flinch.
But here’s the truth: I can’t do this solo. Not anymore.
The storm is already here. We are standing in it. And it’s wearing stars and stripes like camouflage, preaching “freedom” while it sells fascism at retail.
So let me ask you:
Are. You. In?
Because this is not a scroll-and-forget read. This is a living, breathing, fire-breathing movement — and movements don’t move unless you do.
We need to be louder than spin, tougher than propaganda, and impossible to gaslight.
That takes more than clicks. More than likes.
It takes skin in the game.
So if you believe truth matters — if you’re sick of the bullshit, if you’re ready to stop screaming into the algorithm and start pushing back with purpose — this is your next step.
HERE’S HOW YOU PUT YOUR FOOT ON THE GAS:
Become a paid subscriber. Fund fearless, unfiltered journalism that hits back.
Share this with the loudest people you know — the ones who never sit down and shut up.
Build the community. Amplify the message. Be the damn megaphone.
And yeah, Founding Members — the first 240 of you will get a signed, numbered, limited-edition Substack version of Revenge. That’s not just a collector’s item. That’s receipts. Proof you didn’t sit this one out.
But let’s be clear:
This isn’t about a book.
It’s about backbone.
It’s about calling out the gaslighters and refusing to be played.
It’s about locking arms and saying, “Not. On. Our. Watch.”
You want to make a difference?
Then make it — right now.
Because if we don’t fight for truth, no one will.
But if we fight together?
They can’t drown us out.
Let’s be so loud they wish we were just angry tweets.
Let’s be unshakable.
Unignorable.
Un-fucking-breakable.
Let’s go!
“Americans” hate Neo Nazis.
What brilliant piece of literature ! As a concerned Australian I am awed by your insight but alarmed by my total belief in what you’ve written.
Can America ever recover ? Ever heal ?