This was the first morning since the election when I woke up feeling well-rested, no hangover at all, no pain in my teeth. (I had a few days of generalized dental distress, most likely brought on by anxiety-related tooth grinding.) Katie left for work, the house was quiet, and I was suddenly hit by a wave of Sartre-style nausea that almost knocked me off my feet.
The circus has been bringing me down, man. I’m sick of their side with its hate and lies. I’m sick of our side with its namby-pamby pollyanna bullshit. I need a break.
Here are a few last thoughts on The Clusterfuck, then I swear I’m going to get back to thinking and writing about music or something else less awful than the current political situation, like tertiary syphilis or the heat death of the universe.
It’s agonizing to think how close we came to being spared all this back on July 13. For the record, I do not condone assassination as a means of political change. But if you’re going to do something, do it right. In the end being shot at only helped him. Thanks for nothing, Thomas Matthew Crooks.
I keep cycling through the stages of grief and keep ending up at anger. It’s the best of them, really, other than acceptance, which is still not an option. Anger at least is motivational.
So for what it’s worth: Fuck Donald Trump. Fuck J.D. Vance. Fuck Elon Musk. Fuck Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his brain worms. Fuck Jeff Bezos. Fuck Stephen Miller, fuck Steve Bannon, fuck Tucker Carlson. Fuck Don. Jr. and Eric and Melania and Ivanka and Jared and Lara and Kimberly. Barron is an adult now and apparently helped, so fuck him too.
I wish I believed in hell so I could anticipate them all burning there for eternity. I take some small comfort in the knowledge that they are hollowed-out husks of human beings without souls, and therefore incapable of experiencing real joy. Hopefully they will experience this victory as but a fleeting respite from the knowledge that they are worthless and unloved, which will soon return stronger than ever and follow them to their graves.
Lord Vader was right about the Dark Side.
Because everything eventually becomes a playlist, I have been putting together this collection of songs that are appropriately angry or cathartic or helpful in some way. Your suggestions are welcome.
The ultimate challenge here is to admit how bad this is — and it’s really, really, really, really, really, really bad — while still maintaining some shred of optimism.
So:
We are in for a dark time, make no mistake about it. With MAGA in charge of all the branches of government, right-wing nutjobs are going to try to fulfill their wildest fantasies. After all abortions and birthright citizenship, they’re going to come for contraception and gay marriage, and who knows what other rights may be in danger. A year from now the USA will likely be a full-on Christian theocracy, in reality if not in name.
Even as we speak, all the worst people in the country are being coaxed from their crypts and put into positions of power. Oil companies will be running energy policy, Elon will be running around firing everyone he sees, and don’t get me started on Bobby Jr. I wouldn’t be surprised if he finds a way to bring back smallpox.
The only bright spot I can see is that it will be such a horrifying shitshow that in two years, assuming elections are still a thing, the pendulum is likely to take a big swing back the other way. And by 2028 who knows what kind of world we’ll be living in, what kind of crises will have come along for That Fucking Guy to mismanage. Assuming, again, that democracy still exists, there will be real opportunities for change.
It’s not much but that’s what I got.
Hopefully in 10 or 20 or 30 years we will be able to look back and laugh and say, Whew, that was a real low point. It’s worth remembering that Nixon got halfway through his second term before the chickens (Checkers?) came home to roost. There’s no reason to think that’s going to happen again, necessarily, but also no reason to think it won’t. Indeed do many things come to pass.
I will leave you, once again, with the wise words of Dr. Thompson.
I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness. But as long as I know there’s a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots.
it’s so enraging that rising from the ashes of the smoldering heap of what’s left of our democracy is the silver lining.
tea & sympathy…I don’t know how you feel about tea but there are a world of people who sympathizewith your plight and feel your despair. Personally I have embargoed all news and only look at insta British garden sites where the big crises are slugs eating the hostas and box blight. Also cat videos. Cats have never believed political parties were a good idea and would never join one.
This will do for awhile. But I support all my friends and relations who feel the urge to rage against the machine, the man, the dying of the light. And appreciate the raging music, cutting humor, and icy wit of those refusing to go quietly into the abyss of fake normality. The body snatchers have invaded (1976 version) and pods are littering the country.
“the arc(whip) of the moral(agnostic) universe (space time continuum) is long(infinite) but it bends toward justice(the light)”
I was just thinking about that arc of justice quote earlier today. It’s a lovely phrase but I’ve never quite believed it. Your version is more plausible though.
I’m working on a new album, trying to just keep my head down and avoid the news, although I keep slipping up in that regard. I’m seeing a lot of buyer’s remorse already. A certain Schadenfreude in that, TBH.
A perspective I’ve never considered: even though he is a total loser whom they all laugh at, they all stick together at the end of the day.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trump-musk-victory-america-elites-boring-psycho-1235162920/