Bread and Circuses
why shit sucks and no one wants to do anything about it.
Around November of 2025, I dropped my smartphone for a dumb phone (the modern term for a classic flip phone with little-to-no mobile internet capabilities). This transition was not entirely my choice, with my partner goading me to join them in becoming one of many people that comprise this rising trend.
The phones weren’t the first thing to go; they were preceded by swapping our streaming services for the public library and a secondhand DVD player. It was just one more step in the process of detaching from our screens.
There are plenty of think pieces about why this trend is on an upswing and about why you should join in on the “retrotechnolution” that’s happening (my own coined term, thank you very much).
I’m not here to preach about the joys of old tech, though I must admit that I do understand the multitudes of articles already swarming Substack regarding the topic.
Instead, I want to talk about the underlying implications of this movement and why it is happening. I want to explain why it is important to look outside of your phone, at least for a minute. Quite frankly, I also just want to vent about the state of the world because I feel that I am going absolutely bonkers being quiet about it.
(This is more of a rant than an info-piece, so if that scares you, this is your chance to back out.)
Anyways, back to the tech.
The transition from dopamine junkie to zen mp3-playing monk has been hard. I’ve noticed that everytime I try to cut out one device (my iPhone) another tends to take its place (the iPad, the laptop, the television, etc).
It’s this cyclical bouncing from one bad habit to another that made me wonder:
What am I escaping from?
I don’t have to look deeply into the pattern to understand that the cycle is continuous, chasing escape after escape in these little dopamine machines. And the answer that exists in the real world beyond these screens is simple:
Shit sucks.
It is what it is right now. Things are bad in the world, and while there are highlights in the daily news cycle— if you care to seek them out — overall, the world is kind of a nightmare.
This is definitely a U.S.-centric perspective, and as much as I try to check my biases, I am not a well-traveled person. Growing up without the money for a passport will do that to you. Yet, even looking at Europe and beyond, it seems there is this international swing towards conservatism that is worrying young people like me everywhere.
There is this glimmer of hope in other countries, that doesn’t feel like it exists here at all. For example, in Nepal last year, as a response to the banning of multiple social media platforms and government corruption, young citizens digitally coordinated protests that lasted about 3 days. These protests resulted in the resignation of the former prime minister, as well as the appointment of the first ever female prime minister, Sushila Karki (1).
This felt so hopeful to me as someone who has become further disillusioned with our own government, the further I get into adulthood. There is so much potential in how we could use our technologies, our communities, and our voices. Yet, I can’t help but feel that things fall so flat on my own home-turf.
I think first of the 50501 “movement,” (which has many critiques against it that will be more well-organized and nuanced than my own.) For those that don’t know, 50501 is a grassroots political organization that has been behind many of the protests and economic boycotts over the past year, including the No Kings Protests.
I will give credit where credit is well-due. The organization resulted in the ‘No Kings Day protests’ which are estimated to be the “largest single-day political protest” in U.S. history, following the 1970s Earth Day protests (2).
That’s where my praises end.
I was present at the No Kings Day protests and the ICE protests that were earlier the same week (October 12-18 2025). I felt very frustrated at the No Kings protests and everything that has since followed. It has shocked me how little substantial change has come from what was supposed to be a unified movement across all the states.
First let’s start with the “emergency ICE” protests that happened the same week. When I attended those, it was a much smaller crowd. There are a couple reasons for this:
The ICE protests that were happening in solidarity with L.A. were announced day of, which leaves very little time for people to make plans to attend
These protests were mid-week and so many people had school and work the next day
The empathy factor — quite frankly, deportation touches many less peoples’ lives and I’m inclined to believe people are selfish with their time and energy when it comes to politics
Despite this, that crowd and turnout was immensely better in spirit than the crowd I would see on the day of “No Kings” later that week. Majority of the crowd was Latino like me, it was a sea of brown faces and culture. It made sense to me: those who were directly affected, were the same people who were willing to spend the time and energy to come out mid-week.
Additionally, the protest was much more focused. From the speeches given at our local capitol building, to the chants in the street.
Everyone was focused on one cause: Fuck ICE and get them off our streets.
This solidarity led to our march around downtown, taking over multiple streets unrelentlessly with the echoes of “chinga la migra” and “el pueblo! unido! jamás será vencido!” There was a low-rider doing tricks in front of the cops, keeping us safe on the other side everytime they tried to interfere.
It was beautiful and full of a the glimmering hope that is needed for real change
Hope that I did not feel on the following weekend.
The No Kings Protest
First of all, this protest was incredibly white, which at first glance is not a bad thing. White people are the majority here in this country. They hold more positional power, more capital, more connections. Having white people on your side is not a bad thing when you are a minority group. That is, if they are bold enough to use their whiteness for good.
When I say this protest was white, though, I mean culturally. Despite what some may claim, this protest was by white people, for white people.
Reaching the protest, I was greeted with a sea of white faces and not many people who looked like me. Capitol Hill looked more like a renaissance fair than a political movement, with a million booths of people trying to shill for their particular cause.
White people in costumes, including taco hats. White people selling their art. White people trying to get you to sign up to their newsletter, or to buy into their faction of leftist politics because of course they have ALL the answers on how the revolution will happen (looking at my local communist branch).
Worse than the shills were the signs. Majority of which made jokes about missing brunch for this, calling Trump a TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out— I’m aware, and it’s still distasteful), and just overall being out of touch.
Many of the sentiments seemed to be entirely against Donald Trump, despite the fact that many of the abuses going on right now were sustained under the regimes of the Democratic Party as well. The ongoing issues are exacerbated by Donald Trump’s bold-faced fascism, but do not exist in the vacuum of a GOP majority. People seem to forget that if he’s gone, it goes to JD Vance. Even if it was a Democratic majority, Obama increased funding for ICE as a fledgling agency!!
My partner and I felt immediately uncomfortable and out of place.
We still decided to stay for the cause.
We veered towards the marching groups and away from the street fair, as this seemed a more worthy use of our time.
While marching through the streets this time, the energy was incredibly different. The chants seemed a lot more akin to what I had heard at summer camps growing up. Millennials sang out in the streets with a “hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” The cheery vibe did not match the crisis at hand, and the cognitive dissonance felt immense.
During the lulls, my partner and I tried to start up chants about anti-fascism, anti-ICE, or anything in español. Every time, about 1/3 of the crowd would pick it up and fumble with it for a minute before some white man started “hey”-ing and “ho”-ing again.
Shit was weird.
At one point, the group started heading towards the highway. The well-suited chant at the time being “Whose streets? Our streets!” At the top of the highway entrance stood a line of riot-geared police brutes with shields waiting for us; blaring a message from their pig-mobiles about staying away from the highway or else.
Those from respectable (white) political organizations held the megaphones, signalling that they were the “leaders” of the protest. They cautioned the wary group away from the highway entrance and back to the polite streets of downtown. Many people were almost relieved to oblige this request. It was almost as though in the face of actual political confrontation, they were looking for a way out. The leading white bodies were more than happy to give it to them.
It was at this point that my partner and I were fully enraged with it all. So many bodies, so many white faces continued screaming cheerfully that these were “their streets,” and for what?To walk away from the actual test of their commitment to a cause?
Me and another Latino, faced with the ignorance and sizzling-hot irony of the situation, screamed at the crowd:
“If these are your streets— then prove it! Why are you walking away?”
We bellowed and screamed to no avail, the white sea had its current already and wasn’t going to break off to help us. Just like a river that’s had its channel dug out for hundreds of years by the tide, no part of this wave was going to try a new path.
Us and a handful of others— maybe 30 people —broke off and dug out our own path up to the highway entrance. Unsurprising to me, the majority of the faces who marched up this road were brown and black. We formed a line in front of the cops, we yelled and organized ourselves. Eventually sitting down to show that we were not going anywhere.
We sat there for awhile, taunted the stupid cops about wanting to kiss one another, before finally our group lost its energy. Without the manpower to prove anything substantial, we fizzled out and headed back with the rest.
White Privilege and the Stench of Ignorance
When people ask white persons to use their white privilege to help minorities in this country, I think part of the problem is ignorance through lack of examples.
What does it mean to use your white privilege? How can I make a difference? What does it mean to get uncomfortable?
A great example is this situation, where I and another brown man were literally begging for help from the oceans of whiteness. We needed help and they refused out of discomfort. They saw permission from other white people to ignore our plights, an “out” so to speak, and took it with glee.
Contrast this with the murder of Renée Nicole Good, earlier this year. That is an example, to me, of a white woman using her privilege for the sake of others. During the incident, Good was allegedly acting as a legal observer. Someone who attend(s) protests to monitor interactions between law enforcement and demonstrators, documenting any confrontations or potential legal violations,” (3).
Good put her life on the line to ensure the safety of her neighbors, specifcally her black and brown neighbors. She was watching to make sure that no one was mistreated by law enforcement, and in the process was mistreated greatly herself.
This kind of danger is expected by black and brown people who are looking out for their own. It is not abnormal by any means, the only difference here is that a white woman was willing to face it for our communities.
What is my point with all of this?
The way things are right now are frustrating. The movements that are organizing the most people, are stuck in white hegemony. This refusal to confront the truth isn’t going to lead to ANYTHING for ANYONE. Just like those poor, confused, white people at the march looking for an out from making a stand, I see so many people looking for an out from paying attention to anything important.
Instead, there’s this very blasé “fuck Trump” vibe that most white people bring to the conversation.
Unfortunately for them, just a milquetoast “fuck Donald Trump” sentiment is not enough to do away with these centuries old systemic inequities. Just like a fair and a parade is not enough to get people to pay attention to a protest movement.
It takes real courage to put yourself between supposed “authority” figures and minorities. It takes actual understanding of our struggles and plights to care. I saw at that protest, how few white people are actually engaging in allyship. How few of you want to do the work and engage deeply in something that might get you in trouble, hurt, or even killed.
For someone like me who grew up in poverty, is queer and not heteronormative, and is a part of a minority racial group— it feels like no one else cares.
No one cares that I have to do the work regardless of if I want to.
No one cares if my family is taken away.
No one cares if I can have my medicines, or surgeries, or general healthcare.
No one cares if I feel safe in my own home, or country, or world, or ANYTHING.
No one fucking cares about me.
Panem et circenses—
—This Latin phrase meaning “bread and circuses” is about two-thousand years old and originates from the poet Juvenal.
The general meaning of the words in context is “Offerings, such as benefits or entertainments, intended to placate discontent or distract attention from a policy or situation,” (4). At the time, those being quite literally, bread and circuses. It has been used in media like Farenheit 451 and The Hunger Games as a critique of dystopian governments (even where the nation of Panem gets its name).
As long as the masses are fed and entertained, they are happy. So long as the political sphere doesn’t interfere with their brunch or their TikToks, they are pleased.
We will not organize, or truly protest, or riot, or revolt because we have our bread and our circuses.
Especially for white readers, I need you to understand that you are at the precipice of a very important time. It is getting bad for those of us who can’t pass for a part of the majority. If you truly want to be antiracist, or an ally, or any of these things that you claim to be for the sake of your minority peers, friends and family: You have to use your power.
You have to get angry. You have to stop being so fucking complicit in everything and then calling yourself radical.
As things keep getting worse, I beg of you to consider:
What is keeping you happy and distracted right now?
What are you ignoring with your 6 hours of screentime?
Why is it so hard to give up that damn phone?
Whose plights are you uninterested in?
Who is already being deprived of their bread?
What will it take for you to care about someone like me?
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