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GPT-5: The pattern is cumulative. Once comedians are being silenced, it’s a red flag that the net is widening.

GPT-5: The pattern is cumulative. Once comedians are being silenced, it’s a red flag that the net is widening.

From marginalized groups to mainstream cultural institutions, then to professional critics (press, academics), and finally to any organized opposition.

Pascal Hetzscholdt
September 18, 2025

The Scapegoat Cycle: Who Gets Targeted Next in America’s Crackdowns?

by ChatGPT-5

Historically, authoritarian-leaning administrations and political movements in the U.S. (and elsewhere) tend to expand their targets in a recognizable sequence. The logic usually follows “othering,” scapegoating, and silencing” patterns, with one group being vilified at a time, often overlapping, until broader civil liberties are eroded.

Here’s what history suggests could be “next,” based on past U.S. cycles:

Academics and Intellectuals
- Historically targeted during the Red Scare and McCarthyism, and more recently through attacks on “woke universities.” When comedians or artists are censored, universities usually follow — portrayed as “indoctrination factories” or “un-American.”
Journalists and the Press
- From Nixon’s “enemies list” to Trump’s “enemy of the people” rhetoric, undermining a free press is a reliable next step. Critical reporting gets reframed as bias, treason, or “fake news,” opening the way for censorship or intimidation.
Religious and Ethnic Minorities
- After immigrants and LGBTQ+ groups, religious minorities (historically Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs) are often cast as “outsiders” or “dangerous.”
- For example, Japanese Americans were interned in WWII, Muslims surveilled post-9/11, and antisemitism resurges in every era of instability.
Labor Organizers and Unions
- Workers pushing for better wages/conditions are painted as “radical” or “socialist.” Suppression of labor rights has been common whenever governments want to consolidate economic control.
Artists and Musicians
- After comedians, broader arts and cultural figures often come under fire. In the 1980s and 90s, there were explicit attacks on hip hop, heavy metal, and queer art as “corrupting.”
Dissenting Veterans and Activists
- Those who “should be patriotic” but question government actions (e.g., Vietnam veterans against the war, Iraq veterans speaking out) often get branded as traitors.
General Civil Liberties Advocates
- Eventually, rights groups themselves (ACLU, human rights defenders, civil liberties lawyers) become targets, accused of “protecting criminals” or “undermining national security.”

📌 The pattern is cumulative. Once comedians are being silenced, it’s a red flag that the net is widening — from marginalized groups to mainstream cultural institutions, then to professional critics (press, academics), and finally to any organized opposition.

Who Is Responsible? One Party, or Both?

Historically, scapegoating has not been the monopoly of a single party. Both Democrats and Republicans have, at different times, used fear and division as political tools. What differs is the era, the group in power, and the groups they chose to target:

Democrats (early 20th century, wartime America)
- President Woodrow Wilson’s Democratic administration oversaw the Espionage Act (1917) and Sedition Act (1918), criminalizing dissent during WWI. Immigrants, leftists, and labor organizers were prime targets.
- In WWII, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, also a Democrat, ordered the internment of Japanese Americans, a mass violation of civil liberties.
Republicans (Cold War and modern era)
- Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) led the infamous Red Scare in the 1950s, blacklisting academics, entertainers, and suspected leftists.
- President Richard Nixon compiled his notorious “enemies list,” targeting journalists, activists, and political opponents.
- In more recent decades, Republican-led state legislatures have pushed laws restricting LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant protections, and certain forms of speech in schools and entertainment.
Bipartisan Patterns
- After 9/11, under Republican George W. Bush, the Patriot Act massively expanded surveillance and curtailed civil liberties. Yet Democratic lawmakers largely supported it at the time, showing how bipartisan consensus can form around restricting rights in the name of “security.”
- Crackdowns on labor movements, anti-communist paranoia, and censorship of artists have appeared under both parties in different guises.

📌 The broader lesson: scapegoating tends to be a function of power, fear, and crisis — not strictly partisan affiliation. Parties out of power sometimes defend liberties, only to turn around and restrict them once in control.

The danger for the United States is that once a political culture accepts eliminationist logic as a valid way to deal with political opponents, the psychological and moral barrier to applying it...

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