They're not kicking in the doors, they're just changing all the locks
They're not burning all the books, they're just redesigning the blocks
Of text until the meaning's gone, until the truth is blurred
Until the revolution is a misremembered word
The evil's not a monster, it's a memo and a pen
In the hands of tired, smiling, ordinary men
Who draft a thousand pages of a scripture of subtraction
A quiet, slow, and legislative, terminal transaction
It's a gospel of nostalgia for a time that never was
And it justifies the cruelty with a paragraph and clause
They're turning back the clock, not with a bang, but with a tick
A quiet little poison that is designed to make you sick
'Cause the devil's in the details, and the devil's in the fine print
In the footnote of the law that's got a malevolent glint
They're not stealing your whole future, just the parts that let you choose
It's the slow and steady victory of those who love to see you lose
Yeah, the devil's in the details, the comma and the date
The bureaucratic patience of a well-constructed hate.
They're not building any prisons, they're just making smaller cages
By redacting all the hope from history's most sacred pages
They are experts in the art of making freedom look like sin
And makin' you believe the walls are there to keep the danger from within
They will tell you it's for safety, they will tell you it's for grace
While they're engineering the extinction of a time and of a place
Where a person could be complicated, messy, and alive
Now the only thing they ask of you is that you quietly survive
It's a gospel of nostalgia for a time that never was
And it justifies the cruelty with a paragraph and clause
They're turning back the clock, not with a bang, but with a tick
A quiet little poison that is designed to make you sick
'Cause the devil's in the details, and the devil's in the fine print
In the footnote of the law that's got a malevolent glint
They're not stealing your whole future, just the parts that let you choose
It's the slow and steady victory of those who love to see you lose
Yeah, the devil's in the details, the comma and the date
The bureaucratic patience of a well-constructed hate.
So read it all twice over, every single word they write
The darkness is not coming in the middle of the night
It's arriving in the daytime, with a lawsuit and a smile
And it's asking for your patience, just for a little while.
'Cause the devil's in the details, and the devil's in the fine print
In the footnote of the law that's got a malevolent glint
They're not stealing your whole future, just the parts that let you choose
It's the slow and steady victory of those who love to see you lose
Yeah, the devil's in the details, the comma and the date
The bureaucratic patience of a well-constructed hate.more