A Dystopia is a society in which individuals or groups are ostracized on the basis of factors outside of their control, at the potential benefit of a dominant group.
Though potentially considered extreme, I think this is the best broad definition of a Dystopia. However, I believe that there are varying levels within this based on the extreme nature of the society. To be blunt, I honestly feel that we are currently living in what could easily be considered a low to mid level dystopia just within America itself. With the wealth gap drastically increasing, trans and queer hate crime based violence on the rise, Native American voices and history being silenced and erased, and many more, it should be clear that most communities other than the white judo-christian, cisgendered, heterosexual community, have been pushed to the fringes of society and been deemed as the societal “Other”. Though harsh, I believe that this definition of dystopia doesn’t allows for the same leniency that the Merriam-Webster dictionary accepts. That definition is too extreme and too broad for my taste and allows for too much to fall between the cracks of what is deemed a “dystopia”. To that extent, I think that by forcing ourselves to recognize the dystopian characteristics we hold, we can push ourselves closer to actually becoming more of a utopia. By setting a higher standard for ourselves we are able to grow in ways we could never imagine before.
