There will be many think-pieces today written about January 6th because it’s January 6th, and everybody likes to commemorate events on the date they happened because symmetry is a beautiful thing.
I sit here on the 7th, 2025, with a newly found perspective on my inability to grasp what has happened to this country that I love. How is it that so much of what I believed and held dear could have been so easily destroyed and contaminated by my fellow citizens? How did so many choose to ignore what was done, instead choosing to misinterpret facts - real facts - and instead rebuild reality, our shared past, on a lie?
To say that I am gob smacked doesn’t really come close to describing how this makes me feel.
We can blame mainstream media for whitewashing and normalizing both Trump and his sycophants. We can blame the Department of Justice for completely failing to protect us by not rigorously pursuing the rule of law. We can wonder at the billionaires who blithely put their disposable income behind whomever they believe will win and best be able to benefit them.
But what about us?
Since when…
Did artifice and materialism so completely overtake our ideals?
Did bald faced lies become our political currency?
Did the realities of leading normal lives become so tainted by dishonesty, disrespect, and disregard?
As human beings, we owe ourselves and each other so much more than that.
Losing our religion, at least the hypocrisy and parts that no longer serves us has played a role. But we better get busy reestablishing a shared moral code, because without shared truth, shared facts, and a shared reality we are not going to be able to solve our problems. And isn’t that why we’re here? Without our purpose, we sink in the mire of shame and despair. We are better than that. We are better than this. No one else can do this. We have to do it. As individuals.
Here I remain, held captive to the spectacle that began when they sacrificed our social contract on the altar of his entitlement. It's all meaningless, all for the money and the money for one, and made more grotesque by the willful disregard of our electorate.
I dull myself to the coming horrors of Trumpistan by listening to podcasts featuring tech guys predicting human annihilation by AGI/SGI in the next few years. Oh, and have you heard of the huge asteroid that will zoom by Earth (closer than some of our satellites) in 2029? That is, if some space pebble doesn't nudge its trajectory right into us. Not to mention the bird flu that is just a few mutations away from achieving human to human transmissability. Just call me Debby Downer.
As I read this I marveled at how you caught the complete Stephen King-ness of this moment. The utterly skin-crawling horror that so far we only glimpse out of the corner of our eye, but which we know is much more terrible than we can imagine. The felon is Leland Gaunt, Pennywise, the Walking Dude, and Lloyd from the Overlook all in one, sleezy, creepy, and merciless. I can't unsee this version of the world now. I can only hope this book ends with hope.
I remember seeing "Biff's Pleasure Palace" in Back to the Future II and thinking what a funny outrageous notion. Now I wouldn't be surprised if one is built right next to the White House or even in my quiet downtown area. Man we love to imitate art sometimes. And yes Back to the Future is art. Just like the "banana noises" bit is highbrow social commentary.
On that day I was moving my kid out of Manhattan and back to Jersey. (Covid, layoffs, isolation = not good). The guys moving us were recent Russian immigrants and they were watching everything unfold on their phones and *freaking* out, as in "Hey we just left this kind of thing and are hoping the rioters don't win." It was interesting to get that perspective.
I remember when I was a kid, the circus would come to town and we’d see all the animals and performers walking with them to the arena for a couple weeks of shows, before they all headed out of town to the next arena.
We all would look forward to it in anticipation of what we might witness that year. It was magical, and it was always memorable.
This year’s circus is nothing like that. It’s nothing that we all want to see, or need to see. It’s not going to be magical, it’s going to be a real life nightmare. Nobody’s going to want to remember any of it. We’re all going to wish this circus never, ever came to town, or to the big arena called Washington D.C.
I’m not looking forward to the impending doom and pain that many will have to endure… But I Do Have Hope!
Hope That This Circus Will Eventually Leave Town, AND We Will All Be Better Off Because Of It Leaving…
Great piece. I'm not in the US, but I found the whole episode deeply sad and pathetic. Sad because so many people/zombies felt empowered to get motivated by the wrong message rather than the right message and pathetic because nobody amongst them had the mental capacity to realise what they were doing. Now you've Elon. A man so far up his own arse he can lick his own teeth. We're in a fucking bad place worldwide.
Brilliant piece. Salient point: “But they’ve failed to understand something about Donald Trump – he is never happy. There’s a word for people unable to experience pleasure: anhedonia. The closest he can come is to make other people unhappy.
I sit here on the 7th, 2025, with a newly found perspective on my inability to grasp what has happened to this country that I love. How is it that so much of what I believed and held dear could have been so easily destroyed and contaminated by my fellow citizens? How did so many choose to ignore what was done, instead choosing to misinterpret facts - real facts - and instead rebuild reality, our shared past, on a lie?
To say that I am gob smacked doesn’t really come close to describing how this makes me feel.
We can blame mainstream media for whitewashing and normalizing both Trump and his sycophants. We can blame the Department of Justice for completely failing to protect us by not rigorously pursuing the rule of law. We can wonder at the billionaires who blithely put their disposable income behind whomever they believe will win and best be able to benefit them.
But what about us?
Since when…
Did artifice and materialism so completely overtake our ideals?
Did bald faced lies become our political currency?
Did the realities of leading normal lives become so tainted by dishonesty, disrespect, and disregard?
As human beings, we owe ourselves and each other so much more than that.
Losing our religion, at least the hypocrisy and parts that no longer serves us has played a role. But we better get busy reestablishing a shared moral code, because without shared truth, shared facts, and a shared reality we are not going to be able to solve our problems. And isn’t that why we’re here? Without our purpose, we sink in the mire of shame and despair. We are better than that. We are better than this. No one else can do this. We have to do it. As individuals.
"Did artifice and materialism so completely overtake our ideals?" Yes!
😩
Here I remain, held captive to the spectacle that began when they sacrificed our social contract on the altar of his entitlement. It's all meaningless, all for the money and the money for one, and made more grotesque by the willful disregard of our electorate.
Happy New Year 🎉
https://youtu.be/bcokL59jeqU?feature=shared
And somehow history did not release itself
I dull myself to the coming horrors of Trumpistan by listening to podcasts featuring tech guys predicting human annihilation by AGI/SGI in the next few years. Oh, and have you heard of the huge asteroid that will zoom by Earth (closer than some of our satellites) in 2029? That is, if some space pebble doesn't nudge its trajectory right into us. Not to mention the bird flu that is just a few mutations away from achieving human to human transmissability. Just call me Debby Downer.
Sad, stark truth right here.... :(
You dang near channeled Carlin there. Kudos.
I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised when the gladiators hit prime time
As I read this I marveled at how you caught the complete Stephen King-ness of this moment. The utterly skin-crawling horror that so far we only glimpse out of the corner of our eye, but which we know is much more terrible than we can imagine. The felon is Leland Gaunt, Pennywise, the Walking Dude, and Lloyd from the Overlook all in one, sleezy, creepy, and merciless. I can't unsee this version of the world now. I can only hope this book ends with hope.
I remember seeing "Biff's Pleasure Palace" in Back to the Future II and thinking what a funny outrageous notion. Now I wouldn't be surprised if one is built right next to the White House or even in my quiet downtown area. Man we love to imitate art sometimes. And yes Back to the Future is art. Just like the "banana noises" bit is highbrow social commentary.
Agreed: "banana noises" is Oscar Wilde level shit.
https://ohhisteve.substack.com/p/if-the-world-worked-as-it-should-f04?utm_campaign=post&triedRedirect=true
Hahaha - this is awesome.
On that day I was moving my kid out of Manhattan and back to Jersey. (Covid, layoffs, isolation = not good). The guys moving us were recent Russian immigrants and they were watching everything unfold on their phones and *freaking* out, as in "Hey we just left this kind of thing and are hoping the rioters don't win." It was interesting to get that perspective.
I remember when I was a kid, the circus would come to town and we’d see all the animals and performers walking with them to the arena for a couple weeks of shows, before they all headed out of town to the next arena.
We all would look forward to it in anticipation of what we might witness that year. It was magical, and it was always memorable.
This year’s circus is nothing like that. It’s nothing that we all want to see, or need to see. It’s not going to be magical, it’s going to be a real life nightmare. Nobody’s going to want to remember any of it. We’re all going to wish this circus never, ever came to town, or to the big arena called Washington D.C.
I’m not looking forward to the impending doom and pain that many will have to endure… But I Do Have Hope!
Hope That This Circus Will Eventually Leave Town, AND We Will All Be Better Off Because Of It Leaving…
Great piece. I'm not in the US, but I found the whole episode deeply sad and pathetic. Sad because so many people/zombies felt empowered to get motivated by the wrong message rather than the right message and pathetic because nobody amongst them had the mental capacity to realise what they were doing. Now you've Elon. A man so far up his own arse he can lick his own teeth. We're in a fucking bad place worldwide.
Don't fall asleep, whatever you do.
Couldn’t be said better than this.
Brilliant piece. Salient point: “But they’ve failed to understand something about Donald Trump – he is never happy. There’s a word for people unable to experience pleasure: anhedonia. The closest he can come is to make other people unhappy.
And that is the plan.”