Cover art for The Snake Is Coiling, an authoritarianism warning anthem about propaganda, loyalty to a strongman, threatened courts and attacks on voting rights.

 Anthem · Barking Justice Music

The Snake Is Coiling

The snake is coiling, but we are not asleep.

 

About this anthem

The Snake Is Coiling does not describe a coup. It describes the quiet before one: the loyalty tests, the discrediting of judges and journalists, the decent people who look away because they are too tired to keep score.

This anthem is a watch log set to music. It names the mechanism stage by stage: fear before force, loyalty demanded before law, propaganda that feeds on what people already fear. It refuses to let any of it pass as normal politics, and it refuses to let the warning curdle into panic. The refrain does not end in fear. It ends in naming the lie and guarding what must be kept.

It is featured on Righteous Fire, Barking Justice Radio’s refusal block, anger with a conscience aimed at cruelty, corruption, and betrayal. Where that segment insists anger is not the enemy of democracy when it is aimed at injustice, this song is the alarm bell it was built to ring: something sacred is being tested, and the people still know the way.

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Lyrics

Verse 1 — It Came Dressed Up in a Suit

It didn’t come marching down the street, it came dressed up in a suit. It came with flags behind its back, and poison under truth. It smiled into the cameras, said only I can save. Then pointed at our neighbors, and taught the crowd to hate. It did not need a throne at first, it only needed fear. One lie repeated loud enough till truth began to disappear. And decent people looked away, too tired to keep score. While the snake moved through the open cracks and waited by the door.

Refrain

The snake is coiling, can you feel it in the room? Around the law, around the vote, around the words we use. The snake is coiling, but we are not asleep. We name the lie, we break the spell, we guard what we must keep.

Verse 2 — Loyalty Tests

First it asked for loyalty, not to country, law, or creed, but to the man who wanted more than any soul should need. It tested every servant, every judge and every pen. Will you stand beside the truth, or will you kneel to him? It called the brave disloyal, called the cruel ones strong. It made a crime of conscience, and a weapon out of wrong. And those who would not bend the knee were threatened in the light. That is how a strongman builds the machinery of night.

Refrain

The snake is coiling, can you feel it in the room? Around the law, around the vote, around the words we use. The snake is coiling, but we are not asleep. We name the lie, we break the spell, we guard what we must keep.

Verse 3 — The Theater of the Blame

Then came the flood of shouting, the theater of the blame. Every hour a new distraction, every wound without a name. They told us not to trust our eyes, they told us facts were fake. They buried us in noise and smoke, then called confusion fate. They said the press was poison, said the courts were rigged, said mercy was a weakness, said the strong should never bend. But propaganda has a hunger, it feeds on what we fear. And if we do not answer it, it makes the darkness clear.

Refrain

The snake is coiling, can you feel it in the room? Around the law, around the vote, around the words we use. The snake is coiling, but we are not asleep. We name the lie, we break the spell, we guard what we must keep.

Verse 4 — The People Know the Way

So wake the tired neighbors, call the frightened by their name. Tell the ones who feel alone they are not alone in shame. We do not fight with panic. We do not bow to rage. We carry memory forward like a lantern through this age. We stand beside the threatened. We protect the right to speak. We hold the ballot sacred. We defend the bruised and weak. And when the strongman points his finger, we will not turn away. The snake is coiling, yes it is, but the people know the way.

Final Refrain

The snake is coiling, can you feel it in the room? Around the law, around the vote, around the words we use. The snake is coiling, but we are not asleep. We name the lie, we break the spell, we guard what we must keep. The snake is coiling, but we still know what is true. No king above the people. No fear can own the room. The snake is coiling, but we are standing here. With courage in our voices, and the republic in our care.

Related program

Segment Banner Song For

Righteous Fire

Barking Justice Radio’s refusal block, anger with a conscience aimed at cruelty, corruption, betrayal, and impunity a country cannot afford to normalize.

Listen live to more music like this — original protest anthems, playing around the clock on Barking Justice Radio.