Note to Readers
Time for something else.
The Trump Administration is already a racist, homophobic, nationalistic, anti-secular, criminal regime flouting the Constitution and international law with deportations, ethnic cleansing, threats of annexation of foreign territories, withdrawal from global alliances, political loyalty oaths and the purging of tens of thousands of protected civil servants on purely ideological grounds.
In short, a toxic, nativist Christian Taliban feverishly bounding — not inching — toward a fascist American Reich.
Cruelty, the party platform.
I could write every week about the latest outrage. Every crime. Every lie. Every stupidity. Every hypocrisy. Every threat to democracy and humanity itself. But I will not. These evil and soulless freaks — who tragically enjoy vast support in our supposedly “exceptional” society — have managed to use right-wing outrage as fuel for their predations, and progressive outrage to spread their ugly, hateful and historically dishonest rhetoric. It’s an endless and ruinous cycle of renewable political energy.
As such, I shall not take the bait — at least, not every time it drops in the water. This week, for instance.
Not Trump Gaza, not permitting bribery of foreign officials, not the craven Saddam’s parliament calling itself “Congress” while confirming ignorant zealots to positions of power, not threatening to ignore court orders. None of it.
That’s all covered to a farethewell elsewhere. And I see no need to be a carrier. Not this week or perhaps next or at any particular interval. Over the next four years, I will choose my battles, mainly when I can offer an observation or insight not found elsewhere. Meantime, I will focus on the rest of the human comedy. There’s a lot to this world, some of it worthy of notice.
Please believe me, this is by no means a matter of fear or intimidation. MAGA is an unbleachable shit stain on our nation, and I wish for its leaders the innermost circle of hell. But I will not be an accomplice by giving them the publicity upon which they voraciously feed.
Even if you, my readers, get some solace in having your own fears, horror, contempt, disgust, disbelief and rage expressed by a third party — so that you can feel less alone — it’s a bad bargain. Of course you are not alone. And what’s happening around you is no figment of gothic imagination. It is all too real. I promise, what is insane is not you. What is perverse is not you. What is surreal and demonic is not you. But what is you is not just your horror.
Let us all work as we can to preserve true American values, but let us also preserve ourselves. We must fight the fight, but we must also live our lives. We must not be terrorized, neither by the enemies of freedom who so repulsively declare themselves patriots, nor by our own dark thoughts. Because then we are captives.
I have been out of the country for quite a while, returning in a week (provided there’s no unexpected layover in Guantanamo). When I resume, I’m not going to paper over reality. It’s not going to be week after week of water-skiing squirrels and weight-loss tips. It will just be more of the rest of our world.
Not necessarily the heartwarming world or the optimistic world or the spiritual world. Just not the fucking Trump world. Because life is too short to dwell constantly therein.
Heard and understood. I too have wearied of chasing the red laser dot this administration keeps flashing on the floor, the walls, the ceiling, and am ready to conserve the energy of outrage for a while -- to save the rhetorical bullets, so to speak -- until we see the proverbial whites of their eyes, at which point they can be more productively employed.
My challenge now is to restrain myself from throwing my half-empty glass of whiskey through the television while watching the PBS news every night. I don't want to buy a new TV, and sure hate to waste good whiskey.
Onward we march, into the mist.
Bob, you are spot-on. Let's address reality, but not get consumed. Bravo. Thanks for you insightfulness and your pointed critique of the here and now.