My friend Molly Jong Fast wrote a short piece for Vanity Fair this week whose premise is surmised in the sub-head: “Every outrage and insult can’t be a five-alarm fire, as it’s critical for the media to stay focused on the most serious threats to America’s democratic institutions.”
1 We should be outraged but what does fighting back look like. No one has seemed to define that yet.
2 I don’t think the majority of Americans want this. They voted from a place of propaganda and stupidity. This is the real problem. Until we figure out how to combat these 2 closely related issues, we really don’t stand a chance.
Oh, it's going to end badly. Worse than everyone thinks, I'm afraid.
And the reason there's no more 'normal' is because the internet's toxicity pushed centrism normal to the fringe. I suspect deep down inside, the collective actually wants to commence the end of society, because we've been so pressed under that cultural thumb since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it's almost as if we're self fulfilling our own prophecy just because we've been primed to believe its inevitability. Surely Gen Z resides at a mass point of 'fuck it, they're giving me this ending world, might as well grab what I can while I can."
A late mentor of mine, nicknamed "Fast Eddie", a stellar trial attorney, used to often tell me and a couple of other high strung lawyers in our 30's, the same age as his kids, to not sweat the small stuff. I've drastically reduced my political reading since prior to the election, for stress reduction purposes. I have to agree with Molly, and I'm a fan of hers as well.
But a person is going to just literally stress themselves to death worrying about the small stuff. Or need a daily extended release Xanax the size of a bar of soap. Which, somewhat like the size of butter sticks, has shrunken in recent years. Still, that's a healthy dose of Xanax.
I don't want to imagine what "big stuff" will arise, as I can send myself into a frenzy just imagining all of the possibilities. The sky is the limit.
So for now, after getting every vaccine I need and getting those other family members to get the ones they need NOW as Christmas presents to ourselves, I'm going to relax. I'll scan the headlines, but rest easy that my news junky friends will text me if we've got incoming ICBMs or paratroopers.
By the way, Michael, I DO think you can be the next JOE ROGAN, and I loved the shirt from that Kohl's collection. Ima get me one. I liked it. You're doing great on that TV gig!
Again, you say exactly what I've been thinking. It is all big stuff and we should all be sweating. He will get his appointments while at the same time destroying the advise and consent rule and any authority the congress has along with it. Bannon and Flynn are openly threatening every person on MSNBC with prison for the crime of honestly reporting trump's craven campaign, while maga voters are openly threatening voters who are democrats, women, the entire transgender community, Palestinians, and immigrants whether legal or not. And it's only been 2 weeks since the election and it's still 2 months before he takes office.
The small stuff is the trolling posts, like the Happy Meal crew in Air Farce One this past weekend. Elon is bored and boring so it’s a hobby horse of his. Prepare for more of that to boil our blood and distract while they make actual destructive moves.
My rule of thumb is this: the felon is not allowed to threaten
• our national security
• international security
• the health or safety of our citizens
• the health or safety of other innocents
If he attempts any of these, he must be opposed with everything we've got, because he's threatening the things needed for basic survival, and *we* can't stand for that. He represents all of us to the world, to our deepest sorrow and most profound shame. If we don't oppose his crimes, it's on us. If we don't stand up against his inhumanity, it's on us. We are responsible for this horrible person, and whatever he does is on us.
I agree with you, but how are we to resist this latest threatened mass internment and deportation of a large portion of our law abiding population, just for one example? Without being shot, I mean.
I'm thinking the main sources of resistance will be the Democrats in Congress, the military itself, and the ACLU. Write to or call all of them, donate to the ACLU. If there are any publications left that aren't craven right-wing rags, write to them, too. You have power with them: you generate clicks!
And the thing is, we don't stop contacting these people. Heck, I'm retired; I can make it my full time job.
If there are peaceful protests, we march, if we're able.
We just don't quit. Ever. If nothing else it shows the rest of the world that we object! That we're doing what we can. Because the collective "we" are responsible for his actions, and we can't evade that.
We should be given extended release Xanax the size of a bar of soap for daily administration!
I think they also call it a "sub-header" . My high school newspaper teacher, a retired worldwide AP veteran journalist, used to call headers a Lead but called this a sub-header. Occasionally she might use the term header. RIP, Ms. Devine! Your lessons taught us well.
my mind, she is blown. notes of vanilla, oak and dex.
2things
1 We should be outraged but what does fighting back look like. No one has seemed to define that yet.
2 I don’t think the majority of Americans want this. They voted from a place of propaganda and stupidity. This is the real problem. Until we figure out how to combat these 2 closely related issues, we really don’t stand a chance.
"What does fighting back look like?" is my query as well. But apparently we need to wait and see.
FWIW: With few exceptions, the taller candidate always wins.
Their intention i believe is blitzkrieg. Overwhelm our caring and empathy and outrage.
Oh, it's going to end badly. Worse than everyone thinks, I'm afraid.
And the reason there's no more 'normal' is because the internet's toxicity pushed centrism normal to the fringe. I suspect deep down inside, the collective actually wants to commence the end of society, because we've been so pressed under that cultural thumb since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it's almost as if we're self fulfilling our own prophecy just because we've been primed to believe its inevitability. Surely Gen Z resides at a mass point of 'fuck it, they're giving me this ending world, might as well grab what I can while I can."
William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming" and a center that cannot hold:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
A late mentor of mine, nicknamed "Fast Eddie", a stellar trial attorney, used to often tell me and a couple of other high strung lawyers in our 30's, the same age as his kids, to not sweat the small stuff. I've drastically reduced my political reading since prior to the election, for stress reduction purposes. I have to agree with Molly, and I'm a fan of hers as well.
But a person is going to just literally stress themselves to death worrying about the small stuff. Or need a daily extended release Xanax the size of a bar of soap. Which, somewhat like the size of butter sticks, has shrunken in recent years. Still, that's a healthy dose of Xanax.
I don't want to imagine what "big stuff" will arise, as I can send myself into a frenzy just imagining all of the possibilities. The sky is the limit.
So for now, after getting every vaccine I need and getting those other family members to get the ones they need NOW as Christmas presents to ourselves, I'm going to relax. I'll scan the headlines, but rest easy that my news junky friends will text me if we've got incoming ICBMs or paratroopers.
Y'all be safe!
By the way, Michael, I DO think you can be the next JOE ROGAN, and I loved the shirt from that Kohl's collection. Ima get me one. I liked it. You're doing great on that TV gig!
You got it. There’s no center, and there’s no bottom. The small stuff is often enormous stuff to someone else.
Again, you say exactly what I've been thinking. It is all big stuff and we should all be sweating. He will get his appointments while at the same time destroying the advise and consent rule and any authority the congress has along with it. Bannon and Flynn are openly threatening every person on MSNBC with prison for the crime of honestly reporting trump's craven campaign, while maga voters are openly threatening voters who are democrats, women, the entire transgender community, Palestinians, and immigrants whether legal or not. And it's only been 2 weeks since the election and it's still 2 months before he takes office.
The small stuff is the trolling posts, like the Happy Meal crew in Air Farce One this past weekend. Elon is bored and boring so it’s a hobby horse of his. Prepare for more of that to boil our blood and distract while they make actual destructive moves.
My rule of thumb is this: the felon is not allowed to threaten
• our national security
• international security
• the health or safety of our citizens
• the health or safety of other innocents
If he attempts any of these, he must be opposed with everything we've got, because he's threatening the things needed for basic survival, and *we* can't stand for that. He represents all of us to the world, to our deepest sorrow and most profound shame. If we don't oppose his crimes, it's on us. If we don't stand up against his inhumanity, it's on us. We are responsible for this horrible person, and whatever he does is on us.
"he must be opposed with everything we've got"
And how do owe do that? That's the source of anger, frustration, and the kitchen sink.
His even being in office is a threat to all four of those things.
I agree with you, but how are we to resist this latest threatened mass internment and deportation of a large portion of our law abiding population, just for one example? Without being shot, I mean.
I'm thinking the main sources of resistance will be the Democrats in Congress, the military itself, and the ACLU. Write to or call all of them, donate to the ACLU. If there are any publications left that aren't craven right-wing rags, write to them, too. You have power with them: you generate clicks!
And the thing is, we don't stop contacting these people. Heck, I'm retired; I can make it my full time job.
If there are peaceful protests, we march, if we're able.
We just don't quit. Ever. If nothing else it shows the rest of the world that we object! That we're doing what we can. Because the collective "we" are responsible for his actions, and we can't evade that.
This. All of this. Thank you.
Michael I'm right there with you, wishing for Xanax and going from relative calm to panic-stricken.
I also think thar sub-head is correct--for the magazine story-- but what do I know?
We should be given extended release Xanax the size of a bar of soap for daily administration!
I think they also call it a "sub-header" . My high school newspaper teacher, a retired worldwide AP veteran journalist, used to call headers a Lead but called this a sub-header. Occasionally she might use the term header. RIP, Ms. Devine! Your lessons taught us well.