SelahSketches is Not a Patriot

These days it’s becoming increasingly difficult to live in the United States as a patriot. Mostly because not a whole lot of people understand what that means. In the late 1700’s, when we were still a loosely-connected set of poorly-defined territories under the rule and colonial influence of an imperial England, a patriot was not someone who zealously defended their “country.” There was no country to speak of, only the idea of one. A patriot back then was an idealist. Better yet: a traitor. A patriot was opposite of a loyalist—someone who remained steadfast in their support of the ruling class and of the current government. Back in the revolutionary days, that government was England. In these revolutionary days, that government is Trump.

Some in our time are convinced that patriotism is a blind support of our country as it is, screaming that all those “detractors” must accept everything or become the enemy. But I tell you this now: a true patriot is an enemy of tyranny. A true patriot is a traitor to the unjust and the cruel. Patriots wrote the Declaration of Independence. Traitors wrote the Declaration of Independence. In all ways, we must acknowledge that despotism is insufferable. That the rise of a “king” is unacceptable. That it is our divine duty to destroy that which is incompatible to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That is what American patriotism looks like.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — The Declaration of Independence — 1776

Those who have mischaracterized loyalism to patriotism are those who cheer for the despot and his cruelty. They are those who celebrate the force he exerts unregulated over those who know a better world—a better America—is possible. In 1770, a small cluster of British soldiers who had been stationed in Massachusetts to support the implementation of unpopular legislation opened fire without orders into a crowd of protestors, killing several. Though they were arrested, they did not face suitable accountability and the event, The Boston Massacre, worsened the already tense relationship between ruler and ruled within the colonies. As expected, there were some who lauded the actions of the soldiers, who blamed the protestors for their actions that day and claimed that they got exactly what they deserved.

This close to the 250th birthday of the United States of America, we find ourselves again under the tyranny of a despot and we, as patriots, must live alongside those who suffer happily: the loyalists to the regime who would sacrifice their freedoms for petty harm upon their neighbors. Though we must live among them, we need not accommodate them. We need not allow them peace. We need not allow them our acceptance or our patience or our hospitality. Though some of our number can hold grace in their hearts and welcome those who have changed their minds, it is alright if you can’t. It is alright if you won’t. Many now have recognized their error and have withdrawn and become silent, embarrassed and tucked into their ironic little safe spaces, lamenting their lost family, friends, or romantic relationships…but others? Well…

Twitter artist SelahSketches (not to be mistaken for the BlueSky artist of a similar name who seems to be a different person), known for her cute art style and charming original characters, has recently found herself in the common controversy of today: that of a loyalist in a sea of patriots. Keeping herself to Twitter has insulated her from the worst of it, as Twitter is known now for being overrun by Russian bots and foreign pro-Trump accounts who serve only to prop up the ailing emperor’s ego and bolster the confidence of his dwindling Yes Men. Selah, being 22 years old and already a wife and mother, has recently placed herself in the line of fire, so to speak, by producing fanart of a member of the wildly unpopular Trump Regime’s secret police. Specifically Jonathan Ross, who has been identified as the murderer of another wife and mother: Renée Good.

Much like the loyalists of 1770, those today blithely claim that it is the protester’s fault that they were brutally gunned down, lying blatantly and arguing in bad faith that Good tried to hit Ross with her car or Alex Pretti shouldn’t have been carrying his legally owned and holstered firearm. These people are not patriots, and no amount of flag waving can erase the truth beneath the blood—SelahSketches is on the wrong side of history. Claiming to be Pro-Life but celebrating broken families, the rapes of women, and the spread of disease among incarcerated children doesn’t seem to go down well among most normal, well-adjusted people in America today and Selah isn’t doing herself any favors by posting through it. Though you might say “gosh, JD, she never said all that,” I will tell you this: if you are making fanart of ICE, you are in open support of this.

So what was the fanart in question? Brace yourself. Buffalo News political cartoonist Adam Zyglis posted a strip which turned ICE agent and murderer Jonathan Ross into a skull-faced monster, depicting the popular sentiment of today—that this rogue agency has become the face of fear and death, the skull an obvious callback to the totenkopf of the Third Reich’s most feared military entity: the Schutzstaffel or the Gestapo. Selah, who did not respond to my request for comment on her motivations for the artwork, redrew the image of the skull-faced agent, explicitly stating on Twitter that her work was “pro-ICE.” Of course, for anyone who is even mildly artistically aware, one does not generally associate skulls with the good guys, making this certainly a…choice…

In criticism of Selah’s questionable political affiliations and regime loyalty, Twitter artist Elilexus posted how they imagine Selah as a person, depicting her holding a sign saying “Protect (White) Kids” in one hand with the “Poser Edition” of the Holy Bible in the other and a burning LGBT flag in the background. As if to only make this image worse, Selah remade it to depict herself with even more flags grouped together in a stinky trashcan and carrying a firearm and a child (at the same time) while wearing the American flag as a cape. The inclusion of the firearm is certainly questionable since Trump recently seemed like he would rather the American people not legally carry and right wing mouth-breathers claimed that having a gun in a holster was apparently a bad idea now despite having made a hero of Kyle Rittenhouse who infamously gunned down unarmed men in 2020 during the Kenosha protests. The depiction made Selah into an even less sympathetic character, her trash flags including Black Lives Matter, the LGBTQ flag, the flag of the Soviet Union, the Third Reich’s swastika flag, and the flag of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (very strange inclusion here, in my opinion). Conspicuously, she did not include the battle flag of the Confederacy, often utilized by southern Americans to dogwhistle their “southern heritage” otherwise known as covert racism. Does that flag not belong in the trash, Selah?

Remaking her image into a gun-toting, toddler mom who would rather cosplay as a patriot than admit to loyalism hasn’t been going all that well, and the controversy has managed to break containment into spaces where Selah doesn’t even have an account. Even users on BlueSky have been talking about the rancid sewage seeping out from around Twitter’s gaskets, pointing out that just because you’re good at art and making money at it doesn’t mean you’re a decent human being. Not to mention, absolutely none of us need to be graceful when the leopards eventually eat their faces, the policies they voted for becoming the very aspect of their lives that send them into poverty or misery. Should Selah continue to have children, it’s likely that her prenatal healthcare will continue to deteriorate under Republican control. If she lives in a rural area, she may face closing hospitals or clinics. In red states, infrastructure may begin to crumble around her and the cost of living may rise to the point where art as a stay at home mom is no longer feasible. If she refuses to vaccinate her kids, she may lose a few, or one may be permanently disfigured or handicapped by easily preventable disease. Personally, I found the measles (had them in my mid 20s) to be utterly miserable and my eyesight and hearing have been permanently damaged. Yes. Forever.

It might be too much to ask that a brainwashed, 20-something, barefoot and pregnant chattel slave of the evangelicals somehow break through a lifetime of indoctrination in the face of cruelty when all the zealotry of her upbringing has convinced her that this is what is righteous and good and patriotic, but it’s been done before. No matter how many flags she draws, no matter how much of scripture she quotes, what Selah does and says is not patriotism. It is not honor. As I’ve said before: “It is the honor of men who know nothing more than the vacant compliance of trained dogs.” It is the honor of Nazis. That of loyalty and that alone. Meine Ehre heißt Treue.