How to fight today's Inquisition
Small individual acts can counter the cruelty that characterizes Trump's return
A 19th-century depiction of Galileo Galilei before the Holy Office during the Inquisition (Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury)
There’s a silly Monty Python sketch from a half-century ago that spawned an enduring meme — though we didn’t have that name for it then. In the scene, a hapless character annoyed about being asked a lot of baffling questions complains, “I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition,” at which point a trio of red-caped cardinals bursts into the room, with one exclaiming, “No-o-o-body expects the Spanish Inquisition!” The sketch became a recurring segment and the farcical phrase took hold, so that it’s used even now, sometimes by people whose grandparents must have laughed at the original show in cannabis-fueled delight.1
Back in 15th-century Spain, the actual Inquisition was no laughing matter, of course, and a lot of people actually did see it coming. Plenty of direct statements foreshadowed what rulers were about to do to groups of people they considered infidels and heretics, and once Pope Sixtus IV gave his blessing to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (yes, she who commissioned Christopher Columbus to seek the New World), the campaigns of cleansing began. It must have been shocking and terrifying. But few people in positions of influence stepped up to speak against the abuses, and those close to the throne asserted that things would turn out better in the long run.
And so, using threats and torture in the name of God, agents of the crown forced hundreds of thousands to convert from Islam and Judaism and to embrace a rigid set of beliefs that remains the core of today’s Christianity. Perhaps 150,000 people were prosecuted and 5,000 executed during what became an enduring drive by a string of Spanish monarchs, each following their predecessors’ plan to impose Catholic orthodoxy on the country. There were other inquisitions, too, as military power in many nations demanded allegiance to a particular code.2
This reign of terror eventually drew to a close, especially owing to the expansion of knowledge and growing respect for individual liberty that flowered during the Enlightenment and from the political currents it spawned. As people pushed their leaders to respect the rule of law and welcome freedom of thought, punishment for individual views came to be seen as anachronistic. The Inquisition quietly ended in 1834, after more than three centuries of terror — a long time to wait for decency and humanity to triumph over the excesses of piety and power.
Perhaps you’ll think it a stretch to draw an analogy from the Inquisition to the Reign of Horror launched by Donald Trump three weeks ago (really — not yet even a month?). Yet consider this: Trump and his acquiescent mob are similarly taking aim at individuals, institutions and practices that aren’t in step with current orthodoxy — in this case, with the MAGA principles that have overtaken contemporary conservatism and obliterated the old Republican Party. He has called the main U.S. agency providing humanitarian aid worldwide “corrupt” and echoed enemies’ claims that its aid is “fraudulently spent.” He has moved to restrict the medically necessary treatments for gender dysphoria by decrying “the toxic poison of gender ideology,” insisting that he was acting to support God’s plan for two distinct genders. Immigrants, in Trump’s view, are “animals,” “stone cold killers,” and the “worst people.” Those who disagree are “radical left lunatics” who make up “the enemy within” — terms he has seemed to apply to anybody who disagrees with him.
And, like the people of 1478, we’ve known that it was coming. Nobody should be surprised by what Trump is doing to the MAGA-skeptical, with the eager sign-on of partisan sycophants and many of the richest people in the world. He told us exactly what vengeance he would wreak, what powerful interests he would serve, even what foes he would mark for death (a real threat now facing former officials whose security details Trump has recalled).
Like the avid supporters of both civil and clerical power centuries ago, millions of Americans now back Trump, thanks in part to powerful media channels that function as propaganda outlets. Even so, millions of others consider him a madman, and worry about the danger of his brash actions — some clearly illegal, many destroying norms that have always protected America’s democratic system.
So are we now launched into a contemporary version of that bloody three-century purge? And if we are headed in that direction, what can we do? It’s a question many of us hear all the time, alongside complaints that people are losing sleep, worrying about their financial security and terrified for their loved ones’ safety. These are difficult days.
Yet if there’s fearsome history to note in the Spanish Inquisition, there’s also some comfort to take from the story, because it was the advance of human thought and the determination of masses of people that brought a better day. The MAGAfication of America might similarly be fought by both high notions and by simple acts of subversion. And here’s some good news: Given the speed of life in the digital age, we probably won’t need to wait three centuries for relief — if, that is, we adopt our own simple subversive tactics now, and get the resistance going. There’s no time to waste.
The attack on the government that launched with the beginning of the 47th presidency is breathtaking in its scope and speed. People who watched Trump’s first term remembered his recklessness, but also his team’s persistent incompetence, and perhaps assumed his second term would proceed similarly. Yet this time around, well-sourced journalists had revealed the agenda for his new administration’s quick action, which was especially found in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. With characteristic disregard for truth, Trump insisted while campaigning that he hadn’t read the 926-page policy outline and wouldn’t have anything to do with it; in fact, CNN reports, 36 of the 53 executive actions in Trump’s first week in office flowed directly from Project 2025.3
In just these first weeks, then, the people of the country are under an assault waged with the same zeal that the monarchs of the 15th century brought to the Inquisition.
He has assumed extraordinary and unconstitutional presidential power, blocking funds authorized and appropriated by Congress and firing officials who are legally independent. In some cases, such as in programs shuttered by the now-demolished U.S. Agency for International Development, his moves (if they withstand court review) will unquestionably lead to disease and death; and, with USAID’s programs shut down, to a loss of good will for America in corners of the world where our strategic opponents will gladly step in.
He has put unqualified and even dangerous people into key positions of authority — leading history’s most powerful military, overseeing our border and airline safety, supervising our national security and intelligence operations.
He has decimated efforts to save our planet from the worst effects of climate change and to reverse some of the effects of environmental degradation, even as the toll of earth’s warming — which he has directed federal agencies to ignore — is increasingly visible in the natural disasters that now threaten every corner of the country.
He has turned over authority for much of the vast federal bureaucracy and the national treasury to an unstable multibillionaire and his privately-funded cadre of young technology hackers, none of them elected by citizens or confirmed to any role by Congress.
He has placed the health and safety of every citizen at risk by withdrawing us from the World Health Organization and putting an opponent of science in charge of the nation’s sprawling health and human services agencies.
He has put forward bizarre notions that threaten to undermine international stability: evicting the people who live in Gaza so it can become a U.S.-owned resort? picking fights with our best trading partners, Canada and Mexico? bullying our small NATO ally Denmark in a ridiculous claim that America should buy Greenland?
He has turned the White House into a fountainhead of falsehood — no surprise there, though the happy hypocrisy of Trump’s 27-year-old press secretary renders her worthless as a source of information for any journalist on the White House beat. The Washington Post Fact Checker found that 11 of the 12 claims the White House issued about USAID were misleading, flat-out wrong or lacked context.
There’s more, of course, but the recitation of the toll of the Trump presidency so far invites only more distress and, again, the plaintive cry: What can we do?
Of course, we can hope that the opponents of Trump regain their footing. Congressional Democrats are only slightly outnumbered, but they’re badly out-maneuvered, because elected Republicans have been bullied into lockstep with Trump, so there’s little effective pushback from officialdom. But our individual actions aren’t similarly disabled. With an eye to making America sane again, then, we need to keep three things in mind, in particular.
First, Trump’s reach can be limited, in part because he isn’t really all that popular. It’s worth remembering that for all his braggadocio, Trump didn’t rack up a big win: His margin over Kamala Harris was 1.62 percent, and of the 17 presidential elections since 1960, only three were won by smaller margins.4 A new Pew study finds that while 41 percent of Americans say Trump will make government better, 42 percent say he will make it worse. So here’s the good news: It’s not a stretch until a majority of voters conclude that Trump has set us on a wrong course — and majorities can’t be ignored altogether.5
Second, our voices can make a difference, because even a Congress captive to Trump can be forced to pay attention. The Washington Post reported Friday that the U.S. Senate’s phones were receiving 1,600 calls each minute, compared with the usual 40 calls each minute — many of them from people worried about what Elon Musk is doing. “It’s a combination of fear, confusion and heartbreak,” said Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent.6
Third, and most importantly, the inhumanity of Trump’s initiatives — the cruelty of attacking gender-fluid children, turning career government officials onto the street, and imposing inflationary tariffs that will raise families’ cost of living — invites us to consider the power that acts of humanity can have as tools of our subversion. The Roman philosopher Seneca offers this notion: “All cruelty springs from weakness.” Our strength, then, can come from acts of humanity.
Here are some I’d suggest, with an invitation that you sign in below and offer some of your own ideas:
Volunteer today for a program that helps your community, even if you’ve never done anything like that before.
Donate to an organization supporting LGBTQ+ individuals, especially uncertain youth.
Give some money — even a little bit — to local arts organizations.
Support not-for-profit media (Trump surely will kill public funding for PBS and NPR stations) — and, heck, subscribe to for-profit media, too, if it still exists in your community.
Sign up for political activism, even if you’re not much of a partisan, because the only way to beat Trumpism is to challenge his enablers with viable alternatives.
Support your local schools and hardworking teachers with letters to the editor and with your votes when school budgets are on the ballot, and show up at school board meetings when the book banners and history deniers try to squelch what’s real.
Join in community activities aimed at demonstrating that the opposition to what Trump is doing is broad and energized (but stay safe, please).
Finally, here’s the key act of humanity that can subvert Trumpian cruelty: We can practice acts of kindness constantly. The ugly selfishness that fuels Trump’s success does not, in fact, characterize our nation. His behavior is easily mimicked by millions, but we can collectively set a different model in place. Our fellow citizens will follow.
Pushing back against Trump’s Reign of Horror should be easier than stopping the Inquisition. This is a democracy, not a royalty, and we are less than 633 days away from midterm elections that could place a congressional check on Trump. The very fluidity of American opinion and the closeness of elections in this century — in what’s often called a 50-50 electorate — means that a rogue president can be reined in. We just must hope that the courts hold firm until the voters can do their part.
And we need to be ready to embrace those who might lead us out of the dark days of the second Trump presidency — a day that, yes, will come. Half the nation is in search of some brave leaders who may provide inspiration and a course forward, as charismatic figures have throughout history. Consider: Galileo Galilei was tried by the Roman Inquisition in 1633 for his then-heretical view that the sun was the center of our solar system, and while he officially recanted to avoid execution, his bravery in asserting and publishing his position set a standard for scientists who followed. Martin Luther was excommunicated in 1521 after refusing to renounce writings that conflicted with Catholic orthodoxy, a stance that launched the Reformation. We are in search of our Galileos and Luthers in America.
Ultimately, it was the triumph of the ideas of the Enlightenment — fueled by the passions of ordinary citizens and championed by their thoughtful leaders — that brought an end to the Inquisition’s abuses. That formula is what will rescue us eventually, too, though certainly not as soon as we would wish. It wasn’t until 2000, after all, that Pope John Paul II put on mourning garments and offered a public apology for the church’s millennia of persecution and violence, including the Inquisition. Even then, he hedged by saying that the offenses were “in service of the truth,” seeming to suggest that his murderous predecessors deserved somewhat less blame because they were more ignorant than malevolent.7 Perhaps history will record this era’s leaders similarly. Or maybe not.
Just now, though, coping with today’s reality requires that each of us undertake some small but consistent subversive acts — that is, acts of humanity, which in sum can begin to counter the recklessness and inhumanity that has swept the corridors of power in this land we love. It’s only a start, but it might give us each some comfort in knowing that we are doing our part to change today’s reality. And being subversive in the midst of such iniquity is what we can do now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spanish_Inquisition_(Monty_Python)
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300180510/the-spanish-inquisition/
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/31/politics/trump-policy-project-2025-executive-orders-invs/index.html
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-size-of-donald-trumps-2024-election-victory-explained-in-5-charts
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/02/07/public-anticipates-changes-with-trump-but-is-split-over-whether-they-will-be-good-or-bad/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/07/musk-congress-doge-angry-calls/
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/13/world/pope-asks-forgiveness-for-errors-of-the-church-over-2000-years.html
WHAT’S YOUR VIEW?
This essay suggests acts of humanity to counter the institutionalized cruelty of the Trump administration. What ideas to you have to add to the conversation? How should we respond to today’s challenges?
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MORE FROM THE UPSTATE AMERICAN
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-Rex Smith
As an educator from Texas, I wanted to thank you for including teachers in your suggested actions to combat the direction we are headed. In our area we are seeing school board grossly overstep to change curriculum (none of the board members are educators), drastic funding cuts due to Gov. Abbott's temper tantrum over school vouchers, and most recently a mandate that says teachers must alert parents if their child uses a pronoun that does match their gender at birth. I am horrified that this is what we are living through. The way that I fight against it is by raising two open-minded, compassionate boys. Because they are white males who live in suburbia, they have much less to fear than their friends who are minorities, non-Christians, or gender curious. But they will be their allies.
Cruel candidate becomes a cruel president (2x!) and has a cruel administration. Who could have foreseen that? 🧐🤷♂️🤦♂️