History Main / OppressiveStatesOfAmerica

** In the Confederacy, meanwhile, Union sympathizers (especially in Appalachia) found themselves terrorized by the secessionist governments, to the point where northwestern Virginia (a solidly pro-Union area in a Confederate state) [[RebelliousRebel counter-seceded]] and formed the pro-Union state of West Virginia. The Confederate central government also put down any attempts to increase local autonomy (basically stomping down the "states' rights" they were allegedly fighhting to preserve) and, of course, continued practicing slavery.

* Leading up to the First Red Scare, the US' entrance into WWI was marked by a sharp increase in repressive measures towards pacifists, organized labor, socialists, Communists, German-Americans, immigrants, and other perceived subversive or disloyal elements. The Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 led to raids and prosecutions. The German language was excised from public life, with German classes stopped and German books burned. Some states even outlawed speaking German on the phone (ostensibly to stop spies from doing so). The "Committee on Public Information" (Creel Committee) fed the public propaganda and helped direct repression and harassment towards perceived enemy sympathizers or pacifists.

** Italian- and German-Americans were interned as well, although in much smaller numbers. However, they were free to leave the camps as long as they proved their loyalty to the U.S. and were able to get a job or go to school outside the defense zones, and many joined the military to prove their loyalty. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Unfortunately, these camps pushed many Germans who were not previously sympathetic to the Nazis into the arms of what would eventually become the core of the modern neo-Nazi and White Power movements.]]

* Before the ruling of ''Loving vs. Virginia'' in 1967, numerous states [[MalignedMixedMarriage had laws that banned whites from marrying non whites,]] and breaking these laws often resulted in the guilty parties serving time behind bars.

* ''Animation/SquirrelAndHedgehog'', a cartoon from North Korea has this in ''spades''. Yet what drives the point home is that the show has a huge fan following of [[MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales Americans who think the wolves are awesome.]]

* The second arc of ''Anime/BlueCometSPTLayzner'' (episodes 26-38)

* Quite a few of the ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'' are set in these sorts of futures, often with the dictatorship being aligned with the Vatican.

* Creator/FrankMiller's ''ComicBook/GiveMeLiberty'' intersected this with DividedStatesOfAmerica.

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* The corporation-as-government or MegaCorp in ''Franchise/RoboCop''.

* In ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', all of Earth is an oppressive state to the lunar colony, but "North America" is the most vocal and aggressive.

* The Series/{{Sliders}} visited several examples of this, such as an alternate-history America in which [[RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman J Edgar Hoover had become president]], leading within a few decades to a totalitarian US in which the government was woefully underfunded, organized criminals ran the economy, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the police wore kilts]].
** Those are skirts, thank you very much.
** And the worst part is, there's no rock 'n' roll.

* ''VideoGame/LiberalCrimeSquad'' begins with US either heading this way or already there (if you begin with nightmare mode on). [[BigBad The Conservatives]] are to blame, of course.

* ''VideoGame/MetalWolfChaos'' has the United States turned into a dictatorship after a takeover by the Vice President.

* The first half of ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' has the United States [[FallenStatesOfAmerica turn into]] an [[PoliticalOvercorrectness overly politically correct]] and repressive state where people are sued heavily for something as simple as smoking and other people being nearby. This leads to riots in the streets, militia uprisings, and roving gangs in big cities and ends with a very suspicious-looking terrorist attack that blows Washington D.C. off the map and kills off a majority of the Presidential line of succession. The second half is about the aftermath, following the ([[DesignatedHero supposedly]]) heroic successor state of Victoria as it conquers rival successor states with its militia forces and sheer unpredictability. They then proceed to create their own version of this trope, though theirs is on the opposite side of the political spectrum, being a right-wing fundamentalist state. [[AuthorTract The narrative paints this as a happy ending]].

* ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'': Before the [[WorldWarIII Great War]], the United States government had become increasingly paranoid and militaristic in the face of the resource shortages and the Sino-American War. When the Canadian goverment refused an ultimatum from their American counterparts to allow unrestricted military access through their territory, the US Miltary instead shiftly annexed all of Canada under the pretext of national security, and subjected the population to a brutal occupation. Back on the home soil, the civilian population weren't treated much better, as several gas riots broke out across the country, with the government cracking down with several draconian measures like a ban on protests and severely limiting free speech, effectively turning the US into a PoliceState. Meanwhile, the Enclave (the éminence grise of the federal government) nationalized several large companies, exacerbated geopolitical relations, and freely ignored the Constitution of the United States, put into motion a series of unconstitutional, inhumane, and war criminal projects; (for example; the Robobrain manufacturing process -- where factories were set up to extract the brains ''from living prisoners'' to be used for [[WetwareCPU expendable robot processors]], the various Vault experiments, the Forced Evolutionary Virus experiments, the various bio weapons programs, et cetera). [[AfterTheEnd After the war]], they were willing to cause global genocide to achieve its goals of wiping out communism and becoming the sole heirs of the planet.

* ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'': Before the [[WorldWarIII Great War]], the United States government had become increasingly paranoid and militaristic in the face of the resource shortages and the Sino-American War. Going so far as to censor speech and secretly nationalizing companies. The Enclave (the éminence grise of the federal government) exacerbated geopolitical relations and ignored the Constitution of the United States, put into motion a series of unconstitutional, inhumane, and war criminal projects; (for example; the Robobrain manufacturing process -- where factories were set up to extract the brains ''from living prisoners'' to be used for [[WetwareCPU expendable robot processors]], the various Vault experiments, the Forced Evolutionary Virus experiments, the various bio weapons programs, et cetera). [[AfterTheEnd After the war]], they were willing to cause global genocide to achieve its goals of wiping out communism and becoming the sole heirs of the planet.

In a political work that is left-leaning, expect to see this trope overlap with The Boorish version of {{Eagleland}}; an America where [[TheTheocracy separation of church and state no longer exists]] and in which the [[EveryManHasHisPrice government is in the pockets]] of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive crooked businessmen]] and [[GeneralRipper warmongers]] - or [[WarForFunAndProfit a combination of both]]. Right-leaning works will favor a CommieLand America, with shades of either old-style Stalinism or '60s radicalism depending on the period the work came from. Or, since the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror radical Islamists]] imposing [[TheTheocracy ''Sharia'' law]], [[IllegalReligion banning Christianity]], and revoking all rights of women and ''kafirs''.[[note]]Which isn't even accurate to actual ''Sharia'', but there certainly have been Islamist groups that act like that.[[/note]] Libertarian and centrist works will often take elements of both of these portrayals. In any case you're sure to see a PresidentEvil at the top of the whole thing.

TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, or perhaps an AlternateHistory gone wrong, the United States is no longer the shining beacon of democracy that it once was. Perhaps [[DividedStatesOfAmerica civil war]] and/or an [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica invasion]] has turned the country into TheDictatorship, [[MegaCorp corporate influence]] or [[CorruptChurch a theocratic religious movement]] has undermined the ideals the nation once held, or democracy has been [[EmergencyAuthority suspended in order to fight off]] external or internal threats, real and/or imagined. Whatever the reason, the nation is [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny a democracy only in name]], or sometimes not even that if [[AtLeastIAdmitIt the regime is painfully honest]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series: Before the [[WorldWarIII Great War]], the United States government had become increasingly paranoid and militaristic in the face of the resource shortages and the Sino-American War. Going so far as to censor speech and secretly nationalizing companies. The Enclave (the éminence grise of the federal government) exacerbated geopolitical relations and ignored the Constitution of the United States, put into motion a series of unconstitutional, inhumane, and war criminal projects; (for example; the Robobrain manufacturing process -- where factories were set up to extract the brains ''from living prisoners'' to be used for [[WetwareCPU expendable robot processors]], the various Vault experiments, the Forced Evolutionary Virus experiments, the various bio weapons programs, et cetera). While [[AfterTheEnd after the war]], they were willing to cause global genocide to achieve its goals of wiping out communism and becoming the sole heirs of the planet.

** In the Confederacy, meanwhile, Union sympathizers (especially in Appalachia) found themselves terrorized by the secessionist governments, to the point where northwestern Virginia (a solidly pro-Union area in a Confederate state) [[RebelliousRebel counter-seceded]] and formed the pro-Union state of West Virginia. The Confederate central government also put down any attempts to increase local autonomy and, of course, continued practicing slavery.

** The AlternateUniverse that the [[EvilCounterpart Dark Judges]] hailed from was at first depicted ambiguously, but more recent stories have set it in a clear analogue of the United States. Somehow the fascist police state created there was even WORSE than in Judge Dredd's world, with the judges ultimately deciding to just wipe out their whole population in the name of law. Since the publication of "Fall of Deadworld" it's become clear that pre-Judge Death this universe was effectively the MirrorUniverse for Dredd's. In the Dreddverse the Judges are harsh but intended to be fundamentally fair and are trying to preserve civilization in the midst of a post-apocalyptic world (DependingOnTheWriter). On Deadworld they are explicitly out for their own power, take drugs to suppress morality and corruption is not only endemic but expected. It's telling that the local Judge Child (who in the Dreddverse is EvilAllAlong) is a fundamentally good person and Death's prophecised last obstacle to his evil dream.

* ''Film/EscapeFromLA'', the sequel to ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'', has the U.S. going fascist when the Big One hits Los Angeles, and a religious nut uses this as a platform to get himself promoted to PresidentForLife, even relocating the Capitol a little ways south to his hometown of Lynchburg, VA (a TakeThat to Jerry Falwell, the founder of the "Moral Majority", whose Thomas Road Baptist Church is in the town). Anything he considers to be against his new "Moral America" laws (read: anything he doesn't like -- tobacco, alcohol, red meat, guns, profanity, non-Christian religions, atheism, non-marital sex and more) is banned, with those who break the laws having to choose between getting deported to Los Angeles Island, which is every bit the hellhole that Manhattan Island Penitentiary was, or being executed in the electric chair. Snake lampshades it when he sarcastically calls the new states "the land of the free". At the same time, the country's military has degraded to the point where a ragtag force of Latin American countries has a legitimate chance of invading the US.
** The situation doesn't appear to be very much better in the prequel, what with the whole "the entire of Manhattan Island is now one big concentration camp" thing, but other background details suggest the US government is [[FallenStatesOfAmerica too close to imploding completely]] to be doing much in the way of effective oppression.
* Similarly, in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' an alternate timeline is created where Richard Nixon is still President in the 1980s following the repeal of the 22nd amendment, the Vietnam War rages on and crime and corruption are at endemic levels as Casinos spread nation wide.

** In the North, meanwhile, segregation was carried out through means that were less blatant, yet arguably more insidious and harder to root out through government action. Most often, it was economic segregation, with black people being forced into ghettoes through discriminatory housing and real estate policies, and a thick glass ceiling preventing them from getting decent educations or careers. Affirmative action policies were created in TheSeventies in order to mitigate the effects of this 'soft' discrimination, but they weren't without controversy, to the point where a conservative-led Supreme Court eventually outlawed the policies in 2023.

** In California, the only reason the education department did not adopt draconian policies similar to those in [[TheDeepSouth Southern states]] was because beginning with the the ruling of the [[http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/1986/april/lemongrove/ ''Lemon Grove'' case]] and culminating with [[https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/05/16/312555636/before-brown-v-board-mendez-fought-californias-segregated-schools "Mendez vs. Westminster",]] the California Supreme Court declared that racially segregating schools was illegal under their constitution. They also overturned an anti-miscegenation law before most of the US did.

* The passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 effectively halted Chinese immigration to America. This stemmed from violent pogroms against Chinese laborers and various policies imposed by states. After the law was passed, large-scale riots such as the Rock Springs and the Hells Canyon Massacres forced many to leave for other areas or return back home. It wasn't until the 1960s that the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 restored mass immigration to the States from China.

TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, or perhaps an AlternateHistory gone wrong, the United States is [[BrokenPedestal no longer the shining beacon of democracy that it once was]]. Perhaps [[DividedStatesOfAmerica civil war]] and/or an [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica invasion]] has turned the country into TheDictatorship, [[MegaCorp corporate influence]] or [[CorruptChurch a theocratic religious movement]] has undermined]] the democratic ideals the nation once held, or democracy has been [[EmergencyAuthority suspended in order to fight off]] external or internal threats, real and/or imagined. Whatever the reason, the nation is [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny a democracy only in name]], or sometimes, not even that if [[AtLeastIAdmitIt the regime is painfully honest]].

Expect to see FEMA, DHS agents, cops that are always clad in riot gear, or even the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks military]] patrolling the streets, [[PoliceBrutality harassing innocent citizens for arbitrary crimes or by virtue of simply "being there"]]. Civil rights have been suspended for the "greater good", and political dissidents are [[ReleasedToElsewhere shipped off to concentration camps]] or made to "quietly disappear", [[FinalSolution never to be seen again]].

A LaResistance of sorts will usually be featured, made up of fed-up citizens, and sometimes [[DefectorFromDecadence former]] or [[HeelFaceTurn dissenting]] military or police personnel that are following their oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign '''and domestic'''. Regardless, they'll be dismissed as terrorists by the American government, and will usually be used to justify the oppression.

How they are portrayed depends on the work. Some may have them as [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified plucky heroes that still believe in idealistic American beliefs]] and are willing to die to restore them, whereas if the scale goes further towards cynicism, may have them portrayed as [[WellIntentionedExtremist well meaning rebels that commit some atrocities to fight against the system]], or even {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s (who turned out to be ProperlyParanoid after all) who [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized are little better than the system they are fighting, and often become much worse]].

In a political work that is left-leaning, expect to see this trope overlap with The Boorish version of {{Eagleland}}, an America where [[TheTheocracy separation of church and state no longer exists]] and in which the [[EveryManHasHisPrice government is in the pockets]] of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive crooked businessmen]] and [[GeneralRipper warmongers]] - or [[WarForFunAndProfit a combination of both]]. Right-leaning works will favor a CommieLand America, with shades of either old-style Stalinism or '60s radicalism depending on the period the work came from. Or since the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror radical Islamists imposing Sharia law]], [[IllegalReligion banning Christianity]], and revoking all rights of women and ''kafirs''.[[note]]Which isn't even accurate to actual Sharia law, but there certainly have been Islamist groups that act like that.[[/note]] Libertarian and centrist works will often take elements of both of these portrayals. In any case you're sure to see a PresidentEvil at the top of the whole thing.

Can overlap with FallenStatesOfAmerica, if the nation's slide into dictatorship was a cause or result of the fallen status. DividedStatesOfAmerica or a SecondAmericanCivilWar is also a possible trope, as the remaining US government may be trying to keep what is left of the nation together by any means possible, if the oppression was not the cause of the CivilWar to begin with. (Of course, [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized The revolution may not be civilized as well.]])

'''No Real Life Examples past the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement of the 1960s please.''' Needless to say, many ideologues and {{conspiracy theorist}}s on all ends of the political spectrum believe this trope to be TruthInTelevision, some tropers and readers could probably write an essay complete with citations about how there are at least some elements that are truthful, let's just leave it at that.

* In ''Literature/BlackBullet'', the light novels mentioned many countries that treat cursed children much worse than Tokyo. United States happens to be one of them, as cursed children are hunted down and captured like wild animals, forced into slavery (usually either sold into sex slavery or to civil security companies), and used as experiments to unlock their superhuman abilities and implanting Varanium parts in their bodies.