I’m scared. Is this checkmate for the human race?

Years ago, when the giant conspiracy that has been revealed through the DNC email leaks was only a theory, I’d read about it on these technicolor blogs with all these hilarious details added for effect: “They must be aliens! No, no — they’re actually reptiles!”

All these details were added because the sweet, innocent blogger couldn’t believe an actual human would do this to the planet (although they would have a field day with the pictures going around today of her reptilian breathing hole). But the basic facts were right. When I read those blogs, I remember thinking to myself that if this is true, and everyone finds this out, there is going to be a mass uprising like the world has never seen.

An oligarchy, they said. That was back when the word was weird and new. I remember looking it up. All the power going to just a few, it read. Wow, I thought. If this is true, that means there’s no democracy in America, or indeed, the world. That means the planet is run by a secret faction of people whose agenda is to enslave the whole planet to their war and oil agenda.

Well, that day came. Everyone found out.

And all they want to do is make sure I vote for the oligarchy’s queen.

Touché, oligarchy, touché. I have to admit, your strategy has been brilliant the whole time, and I have no idea why I was so naive to think that your constant brainwashing of people through the media would suddenly wear off.

I find it funny that major news providers like @cnn and @msnbc don't find the death of democracy news worthy #DNCLeak #DNCLeaks — Dank Sinatra (@foopled) July 23, 2016

In one awful week, we saw everything. The horrible guts of the monster spilled out into the daylight. Contained in those emails was the entirety of their genius strategy of stealing democracy and putting it in the hands of a few powerful rich people, and the heartbreaking thing for humanity was how in that same motion they showed that it was already a done deal.

The emails showed a party run by money where political favors and government positions go to the highest bidder in a highly organized way. The media is its publicity arm, and they choose their leader from within; they view the primary “voting” process as not an election, but one giant long advertisement for themselves. We already knew the party was untouchable by the law. It was a fait accompli. Genius, really. I mean, credit where credit is due — these guys have it all tied up.

"We’ve just witnessed the death of our democratic system," said protesting #DNC delegate Paula Olivares pic.twitter.com/kfWirZUMnN — Democracy Now! (@democracynow) July 27, 2016

Their gleeful response to our horror was thus: “Oh sorry, didn’t you know? You don’t get to elect our nominee, it’s our party. Vote for the other guy. Oh, he’s worse? Hmm. Well, you could always vote third party… mwahaha! Good luck with that!” Cue maniacal laugh.

The DNC explained through their online correctors, that yes, they’ve been rigging it, along with the collusion of the media, but it’s their party, and if you have a problem with the party choosing its leader, then you should vote for a third party.

And then when you say “We’ll do that then!” they say, well you can’t do that, you’ll let our other guy win.

And instead of everyone going “Wait, what?” everyone turned on each other. Everyone started yelling at each other about which of the two useless choices we should pick.

“We should vote for her!”

“But she’s them! We should vote for a third party!”

“But that will give it to him! We should vote for her!”

“But she’s them! We should vote for a third party!”

“But that will give it to him! We should vote for her!”

You get the idea. Rinse and repeat. Round and round and round, with nobody even stopping to say “Oh. There’s no open doors here. We have no choice. Wow. Would you look at that! Checkmate.”

That’s my whole Facebook experience right now, with a few “Who cares, let’s end it all, vote Trump!” in the mix.

Touché, oligarchy. Touché. You’ve got us fighting each other still, instead of fighting you, despite you showing us your entire hand.

What’s stopping us from realizing we’re locked in here? Is it arrogance? Or fear? Or both? Who knows.

Sorry for this sad post. I know I’m usually all positivity about where to next, but until people stop screaming abuse at each other like it’s each other’s fault that they stole democracy from us, then we will never get calm enough to discuss an actual useful response.

So… I have some ideas. But they’re half-formed, I need collaborators. I’m sure there are people out there with other pieces of the puzzle. But we will all be shouted down every time we speak up while everyone continues to run in circles.

We can’t discuss anything with anyone who hasn’t fully grokked into the devastating fact that Americans do not currently live in a free country.

And, as the United States is the leader of the world, that means that the planet is not free.

No human on earth can consider themselves to be living in a free society anymore. We are controlled by a handful of very rich people who aren’t even kind. They could not even be called benevolent dictators. They’re awful, and their agenda is awful. They have no plans to fix the environment. They do not care about poverty and human suffering. They like wars, and they like oil — a lot. That’s their big vision for us. More wars, more oil, more money for them, less money for everyone else.

That’s our future, kids.

Bernie people have let this sink in. That’s why there was so much grief in the audience of the Convention. If you haven’t sat down and let this horrible truth grok into your system, you’re not ready to work out what to do next.

The good news is — this has been going on a long time now. It didn’t just happen, it was already like this; we just didn’t know about it before.

The bad news is — we have hardly any time to take it back. In 2005, we were told we had 10 years to reverse climate change. That was 11 years ago.

This week on @Medium we’re focusing on climate change and its effects. First up: 7 climate records set in 2016 https://t.co/1n1ckvZYTr — Guardian US (@GuardianUS) August 1, 2016

Come on humans! Come on, come on! Get this! Wake up to the fact we’re in a room of locked doors, and the only open one says “Hillary 2016” and that just leads us into a room exactly the same as this one, only this time, we will have been bullied into pretending to have given our consent. We know that we’re voting for the chosen head of the oligarchy, we know we’ve been played, and we know that that’s eight years of handing the keys over to the spokeswoman for the banks, Wall Street, the Saudis, Wal-Mart and Murdoch et al. to do whatever they like. And eight years of more oil and more climate change, more poverty, war, and imprisonment. It’s not rocket science. Look where your overlords make their money. Look at where their business interests lie.

War and oil and increasing wage slavery.

The first thing they will do is lock down the internet. They got such a shock that Bernie even happened, and it showed the one weakness in their game. They had the mainstream media obeying them almost completely, there was a total blackout on Bernie until the final months, when it was too suspicious to ignore him. For them, the internet was like herding cats. They weren’t used to us self-organizing and getting our information from each other and not their media. By watching their moves, you can tell that was one area that they currently exert some influence by scrubbing trending topics in both Facebook and Twitter, and changing Google algorithms etc, but it was minor. And — it’s still minor. It’s their one weakness, for now. For mercy’s sake, while we’ve still got the internet, let’s use it. Let’s collaborate. Let’s get organized. Let’s double down.

We nearly did it. We threw Bernie through the window so hard and so fast that they were scrambling to tie everything down, and in doing so, they were forced to reveal all their strategies. We’ve seen how they operate, and their strategies all boil down to this one magnificently simple concept — turn the people on each other. Divide and conquer. Have us all arguing with each other, and we never turn to argue with them.

So, let’s get this straight: Everybody knows, and there’s nothing you can do.

Singular you. There is nothing you can do by yourself.

But together, we are mighty. If we move as one, we are unstoppable.

Whatever we decide, we need to take our fight right up to them, as one harmonious and unstoppable force. How we do that, I really don’t know. I’m guessing some of us will work from the outside, and some from within. I’m tapping out for now, though. Every time I suggest a strategy, someone fights with me like I’m the one who is taking away their democracy. And I know that they are experiencing that too, from everyone else. We’re all experiencing the same thing. Let’s just admit that there are no obvious open doors right now. Our strategies are only half-formed. We need to bring all our wisdom together.

Let’s just be clear. Freedom left the room a long time ago, along with the people who stole it. It’s just us, the victims, in here now.

So come on guys, how do we get out?

[Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]