Friday, November 25th, 2016
Well, this sucks (2016 edition)
by Warren
Originally I had a half-formed blog post looking back at election night. I picked away at it and couldn’t quite wrap my head around this disastrous calamity, and frankly I’m still not entirely convinced it’s real (or at leas that’s my waking thought each morning before grim reality sets in). But I figured I had to write something.
It’s been a few weeks, but Trump’s incoming administration is already a contradictory shitshow. I’m starting to think this is the New Abnormal: pointless lurching from policy to policy with no rhyme or reason, and the only theme tying it all together is existential danger.
I also tried to make a general post about the situation we’re now in, but there’s just so much bad to go around, I think I have to concentrate on individual transgressions and phenomena. If you look at the big picture, which is a spiritually crippling to do, it’s easy to slip into a sense of helplessness and paralysis. For me, given my fascination with world history, the global slide towards authoritarianism is particularly disturbing, and while I know HAVE to pay attention to it…that may have to occur in fits and starts, at least for now.
On that, read this excellent summation of the current rotten state of the globe by Charles Stross, scifi author and all around smart fella.
Essentially I, and I suspect many others, were caught unawares by this horrific right turn, the fault of which lies with ourselves. We’ve been in our liberal media bubble for a long time, and though it’s tough not to dismiss the ravings of the alt-right, since they are frankly crazy, wrong and dangerous, it behooves us to at least be aware of what they think, in order to counter it.
I’m not relishing the inevitable troll-flood that writing about alt-right media will induce, but I guess that’s part of the package if you want to discuss little things like the truth and multiculturalism being, y’know, a good thing.
Here’s an article from Politico about the rise of alt-reality.
Finally, and this is personal, and not a little bit selfish…this blog has sat moribund for quite some time. Much as the next four years will likely be awful (and that may be an understatement), I have to say there’s a renewed sense of purpose around these parts, that if the planet has decided to go for a hate-filled last circle around the drain, the least I can do is yell on the way down. I hope you’ll join me.