On Saturday, Nov. 1, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will not be renewed for Americans across the country. As the federal government enters its 30th day since it first shut down on Oct. 1, leftover funds for social programs like SNAP are starting to run out. Now, the program which currently helps feed one in five children nationwide will be inactive for the first time since its creation in 1964.
As this looming threat draws closer, it is easy to see how panic has set in as communities come together to find whatever resources they can to outlast this crisis. But we know the government has the money, so why isn’t it choosing to use it?
To answer this question, it’s time to reexamine the current government shutdown in the context of other federal actions across the country. When taken into consideration with President Donald Trump’s rapid seizing of power and his goal of setting the American military upon the people, these cuts take on another significance. This lack of funding is not an accident; it’s a strategic play meant to manufacture consent for fascist action.
SNAP Cuts & Propaganda
On the official U.S Department of Agriculture website, which hosts the central SNAP Directory of Resources, there is a notice on the top of the screen which blames “illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures” for the government shutdown. In short, the U.S. government is directly attempting to propagandize and make a connection in the public’s mind that marginalized people are the cause of their suffering. This is a very typical example of “manufacturing consent,” a term that refers to the process by which governments and elite figures attempt to rule not through force, but by public permission. It is a strategy used to act against the people without directly forcing them into submission, instead convincing them that this is what they already want.
But this raises the question: If the government is attempting to make people blame minorities for SNAP cuts, what is its goal?
For the past several months, the government has been trying to paint a picture of large, predominantly liberal cities as being overrun by chaos. These cities, like Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, Chicago and Seattle, are all the sources of the most powerful resistance to President Trump’s extreme surge in deportation efforts. It is clear that he wants to do whatever it takes to subjugate these communities by whatever means necessary. However, it would be generally unpopular to just send in the military, as he has expressed interest in doing, without any significant justification. This is where the SNAP cuts come
When people are starving, especially given the already abysmal economic conditions right now, working class and minority communities will become overburdened and placed under incredible stress. Then, as Howard University professor Dr. Stacey Patton writes, “[the federal government] will weaponize the fallout by pointing to hunger’s consequences, which will be crime, ‘urban decay’ and dependency as proof that more policing, punishment and austerity are what’s needed.” They will scrutinize every shoplifter, homeless panhandler and angry protestor to make the claim that these cities need to be saved by military intervention. Once this happens, there will be a gross centralization of power within the federal government and severe repression of civil liberties to follow.
The Imperial Boomerang
To understand why these events are likely to occur, it’s important to look outside the United Sates at a similar example of the tactical use of hunger as an expansion of fascist violence.
The easiest example of this comes from the recent actions from Israel and their starvation of the Palestinian people. When looking back at the past few months of Israel’s actions and blockade of food in Gaza and the West Bank, there is a similar chain of events to what is described above. In March, the Israeli government put in place a complete blockade that prevented any food or aid from reaching Palestinians. Although there was immense international pressure to release this pressure, the Israeli government was able to sustain its overreach by drumming up claims of looting and violence within aid zones that demanded their continued involvement.
The similarities between this situation and the SNAP cuts are clear to see, but become even more clear when taken in consideration with an understanding of the “Imperial Boomerang.” This theory examines “the way in which empires use their colonies as laboratories for methods of counter-insurgency, social control and repression, methods which can then be brought back to the imperial metropolis and deployed against the marginalized.” As Israel has been for many decades, in effect, a client state of the U.S., and its genocide of the Palestinian people was fully funded and defended by the American government, this makes the U.S. the imperial power and Israel a colonial extension of it. It is equally violence flowing from the Israeli and U.S governments, who have been in alignment on this policy since the beginning.
If the U.S has already been facilitating this same type of tactical starvation against the Palestinian people, by proxy of the state of Israel, it follows that it would be willing to do the same to its own internally marginalized communities as well. So, when looking at the current situation with SNAP cuts, it is important to recognize that this is not a random occurrence. This must be treated as a deliberate and intentional form of violence from the government against its people. It is the beginning of a plan that we’ve already seen fully played out elsewhere; it has just come home to roost.