Last week, I laid face up on my T.J. Maxx yoga mat. I heard my instructor listing off the studio's upcoming events. Normally, I don't listen — I go to yoga mostly as an excuse to nap, but I suddenly found myself very tuned in: “One of my fellow instructors said this before her last class, and I wanted to hold space for it. We are living in a fascist regime. We'll meet in a downward facing dog."
So I blink, and try to figure out if I should say something in response? Do something? It feels very unclear, and no one else seems to have a better reaction — so we meet in downward facing dog.
Between the news of civilians being killed in Minnesota by ICE, the extraction of Maduro from Venezuela (with Trump's assurance that he will personally take care of their finances) and the United States’ desire to annex Greenland, there is a lot that can be seen in the U.S. today as a rise into a considerably un-democratic state. I thread the needle with my left shoulder and try to understand what this means for me, as a young person, but also as an American and global citizen overall. Does my day to day change? Do I drop everything and take to the streets immediately? Is there some way to revert what has already been done? Right leg up now.
My yoga instructor is not the only one to think this, The Atlantic's Jonathan Rauch made a similarly poignant statement last week. So, yes, it's fascism, but now what?
At this point I'm on my stomach, elbows out, chest up in cobra. I've spent a majority of my college career studying critical theory, reading the likes of Orwell and Arendt who have painted in clear, bold bright letters what the dangers of a fascist state are. Let me summarize if you aren't familiar: death (check), loss of journalism (check), infringement of free speech (check, yet again!), deportation. … I think you get where I'm going here. Back into child’s pose now.
But we also live in an age of complete desensitization. I open my phone and I get 360° live coverage of homicide by law-enforcement, videos of a snake and a baby becoming friends, Heated Rivalry edits and news that Iran has declared war on the U.S. all within five seconds of each other. So when I'm lying on my back in savasana at the end of yoga, I am trying to clear my mind of all of these happenings. And yet, is this okay? Should I be allowed to have a moment to rest and forget about the fascist state of the U.S.? Maybe my knee-jerk reaction of annoyance when the yoga instructor says that we’re all doomed is just another moment of complete desensitization.
This desensitization seems to be all encompassing in college, or perhaps just particularly at Cornell. Attend any lecture here and be sure to hear this one sentence read before all speakers. The full statement can be found here, but the most frequently read statement is simply this: “Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ (the Cayuga Nation). We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ people, past and present, to these lands and waters."
While I agree that this is knowledge that should be shared with the Cornell community, is a simple muttering of words going to fix the underlying issue? I'd rather see the money going back into the Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ nation, or a scholarship that fully funds Indigenous students’ tuition to attend Cornell. So will the speaking of the term fascism become as trivial as this land acknowledgement? It seems that everyone involved knows that it is not accomplishing anything tangible, and the fate of our country and democracy appears to be headed in the same direction. If fascism can be thrown around off-handedly during yoga classes, it doesn't feel real, or like something that we should, or can fix as a society.
Now, as I roll up my mat and try to parse through the mix of anxiety, indignation and annoyance that is running through me, I try to think about the actual consequences of simply acknowledging what a messed up situation we are in. Cornell students, myself included perhaps, have had a tendency to be quite passive when it comes to political issues; we are, after all, up on our hill. But, if acknowledgement is the first step towards solving issues, what comes next? Ideally we will all continue to do our part to honor the lives lost in the fight to be on the right side of history, and continue to move towards a society in which Orwell's 1984 doesn't seem like a user's manual for the world we are living in today. We are not living in this ideal, maybe reconsider the book.
So, yes, it's fascism — what are we going to do? Step into Humble Warrior, bowing down.
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Nina Davis '26 is an opinion columnist in the College of Arts & Sciences. She served in the 142nd Editorial Board as photography editor. Her column Making Meaning is interested in asking questions that do not have easy answers. She can be reached at ndavis@cornellsun.com.
