Basic Trope: The United States is portrayed as an authoritarian Police State.
- Straight: The US government reigns with violence, have abolished democracy (or "indefinitely" postponed all elections), severely limits the rights of their citizens, and kills or incarcerates anyone who voices criticisms of the government.
- Exaggerated: The US is even more totalitarian than the People's Republic of Tyranny, and is a Democracy In Name Only that gives Those Wacky Nazis a run for their money.
- Downplayed: The US government, while not openly fascist, puts restrictions on who is eligible for office and able to vote and passes several laws that many people feel are limiting their rights.
- Justified:
- The US was conquered and turned into a colony by an oppressive dictator, and their brutality towards their citizens was part of the brutal colonial policy.
- The US is One Nation Under Copyright run by Peace & Love Incorporated and their Obstructive Bureaucracy, and they have Social-Darwinist policies that serve the rich and oppress the poor.
- Inverted:
- The United States becomes more and more libertarian, to the point the government is very limited in power, just a formality, and/or no longer exists.
- As every other country on earth descends into tyranny, the United States alone holds out in allowing its citizens to live without undue governmental interference.
- Subverted: Many of these laws go largely unenforced.
- Double Subverted: ...by the police, anyway. Once they call the military in, everything starts going as they expected.
- Parodied: The United States aggressively enforces laws requiring citizens to do polka dances in chicken costumes at noon every day. Failure is punishable by life imprisonment.
- Zig-Zagged: The United States has succumbed to demagoguery and elected a President Evil to the office ... except that the US is as liberal as ever. Except that Congress and the rest of the old governmental body was brutally executed and replaced with a totalitarian regime, though the citizens are largely unaffected and even get more purchasing power. Except that the US' land was generously sold to hardworking and pliant citizens and immigrants while the US government secretly Kill the Poor (and Un-person rebels and political dissidents). Also, possession of guns and robots, along with emigration, have been made punishable by death in the United States.
- Averted: The US is a democratic nation, just like it is in Real Life.
- Enforced: An anti-government or anti-American group wants to show problems with the United States.
- Lampshaded: “Hey, Bob! Isn't it a wonderful day to worship our president?” “Of course! I don't want to disappear like Alice!”
- Invoked: President Evil stages terrorist attacks in Chicago and Los Angeles to scare members of Congress into writing and passing a law that will make America into this trope. (At least he leaves New York City and Washington, D.C. alone.)
- Exploited:
- A Conspiracy Theorist uses this trope to show people how evil and self-serving the US government really is.
- A Bomb Throwing Anarchist uses this to justify why any type of government is bad.
- Defied: President Evil urges Congress to pass a bill that would make America into his trope. Not only does his bill die at second reading (with every member of whichever chamber is considering it present and voting against it), but this causes massive outrage among the American populace, leading to his impeachment and conviction.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- The government takes away everyone's rights one at a time, as subtly as possible, so only the best-informed and most observant will notice.
- The government's increasingly oppressive regime ends up becoming more expensive and resource-consuming over time. Eventually, it starts to have serious trouble sustaining itself.
- Implied: Annie's trip to the US happened offscreen, but when she returns home to the United Kingdom, she says, "I didn't expect America to be such a tyrannical nightmare."
Back to Oppressive States of America
