“HATE AND BAIT CANNOT BOTH LIVE IN AMERICA. THEY BOTH MUST DIE.” JOHN JOHNSON II O2/ O2/26
By John Johnson II
America is confronting a familiar and dangerous pattern: a population repeatedly told it is a victim, then invited to act like a conqueror. This is the essence of Hate and Bait Syndrome—a psychological and moral trap in which grievance is weaponized, lies are normalized, and cruelty is justified as self-defense.
The bait is always the same: You are under attack. You are being replaced. Your suffering is intentional. Once that lie is accepted, hatred becomes permission. The individual no longer sees himself as accountable, but as entitled—even authorized—to violate the rights of those he has been taught to see as enemies.
History offers a chilling precedent. Adolf Hitler mastered this syndrome by convincing ordinary Germans that they were victims of a Jewish conspiracy. Economic hardship was reframed as racial theft. National humiliation became moral justification. Millions of people did not pull the trigger—yet they turned a blind eye while it happened. Silence became complicity.
America is not immune to this disease. It has simply updated the language.
Today, angry white supremacists are routinely told—by officials, media figures, and political movements—that they are the real victims. Demographic change is described as invasion. Equality is recast as persecution. Lawlessness is excused as patriotism. Once convinced they are victims, they believe they have the right to punish anyone labeled an enemy.
This is not new. During Jim Crow, white men raped Black women, lynched Black men after Sunday church services, and posed proudly for photographs beside charred bodies. Those images were mailed north as souvenirs of dominance. Terror was not hidden; it was celebrated.
What has changed is not the impulse—but the packaging.
For years, Black Americans said they never thought they would live to see a Black president. Today, many say they never thought they would live to see white Americans claim they are being treated as “fifth-class citizens.” That narrative—absurd on its face—has real consequences. It fuels fear-based enforcement, dehumanization, and abuse of power. When federal agents can detain, assault, or kill with perceived immunity, Hate and Bait Syndrome is no longer theoretical—it is operational.
The syndrome does not create bigotry; it activates it. Those who fall for it are already carrying the rotten seeds of bias. All that is required is a leader willing to harvest resentment and redirect it toward a target.
The late Elijah Cummings once said, “America is better than this.” It was a hopeful declaration—but hope is not evidence. America has often proven itself frighteningly efficient at becoming worse, not better, when hatred is politically profitable.
Even dissenters are punished. Reverends are silenced. Whistleblowers are dismissed. Public servants receive termination letters or cryptic calls. Fear replaces law. Loyalty replaces conscience.
This is what Hate and Bait Syndrome looks like in real time: grievance elevated to virtue, cruelty framed as courage, and silence mistaken for safety.
Voters must recognize this pattern—not after the damage is done, but while it is still being sold. Democracies do not collapse from invasion. They collapse when enough people are convinced that their hatred is justified—and that their victims deserve it.
The cure begins with refusing the bait. Remember, Tuesday, November 3, 2026, IS the day of ‘RECKONING.”
YOU BE THE JUDGE!
