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Donald Trump has coronavirus and huge swathes of the internet could not be happier. After spouting off nonsense and dangerous treatments for the virus, lying about how deadly he knew the virus was, mocking his presidential opponent for wearing masks too often, and overseeing the deaths of over 200,000 Americans, you’ll forgive a momentary relishing of the irony and sharp sense of schadenfreude felt, not just in America, but around the world.
“Sic semper tyrannis”, a phrase tied and sullied by American history, translates as “and thus to tyrants”. It predates America, and goes back to ancient Rome, but is best associated with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Actor John Wilkes Booth claimed to have shouted the phrase as he killed the President for abolishing slavery.
“How can we claim to be morally sound and wish people harm and death?”
The association with violent white supremacy aside (it is also used on the state seal fo Virginia and it was the motto of the United States Colored Troops, who fought against white supremacy in the American Civil war), the phrase expresses the universal desire to see tyrants get what is coming to them. The more tyranny they enact, the greater the desire to see punishment.
