from charlottesville with ‘very fine people, on both sides’ to ‘Please don’t be too nice’ when arresting folks to pardoning convicted war criminals like Eddie Gallagher to the attacks on the press to the dehumanization of families in ICE concentration camps and the inflation of domestic spying powers and on and on and on.
year after year, the assaults on public health have allowed a virus to flourish, killing more than 105,000 people. a pathogen invisible to the human eye kicked out the legs from our already fragile economy, because it turns out, building a financial framework around debt, wage slavery and exploitation isn’t sustainable. it collapses about once every decade, gets propped up with more debt and ‘recovers’ for those at the top, then collapses again. we were overdue for a crash. but instead of actually addressing the problem, the trump admin allowed the 1% to pilfer the treasury yet again and gave scraps to the rest of us.
our entire nation is in crisis. for many folks, however, especially poc, their communities have been in crisis long before 2020. the pandemic isn’t exactly new to them, but now a lot of you know how it feels. either way, it has become cover for white supremacists to deploy racial violence with impunity.
and…. that’s how you get riots, folks. it’s not rocket science. everyone has a breaking point. but i am far, far less concerned with any of the vandalism than i am about the unprovoked police brutality that is erupting across the country. i think you should be, too.
buildings don’t cry when you smash their windows. stores don’t feel pain when they burn. but journalists and non-violent protestors have literally been blinded, pushed into fires, shot in the neck with ‘less than lethal’ ammunition, arrested without cause, pepper sprayed in the face, run over with police vehicles, or worse. there’s far too much to list here.
we know which side the cops and the trump admin are on. labeling antifascists ‘terrorists’ says it all. if you don’t understand, read that last sentence again. but there’s much more than that: the president is now demanding governors ‘dominate’ protestors, while rep. matt gaetz asks if we can ‘hunt them down’ and sen. tom cotton calls for the military to do ‘whatever it takes to restore order,’ tweeting, ‘No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters.’ (no quarter here means shoot first, ask questions later, sorta similar to the racist echos of ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts.’)
but on top of all this is an everest-sized mountain of bullshit. we already lived in an age of great disinformation, but the covid-19 outbreak turned a trickle of bullocks into a firehose. now, with the protests, it is a tsunami of bullshit and i don’t know how any one person could possibly filter through it all.
this is a time for hyperskepticism—that is, skepticism of your skepticism. be doubly critical of everything you hear or read. a lot of the rumors out there are meant to intimidate and terrify people who are demanding recognition of their humanity. things like blackouts in d.c. (fake) or tigers/hippos/dragons escaping from zoos (also fake.) these canards are meant to keep you at home or too scared to do anything.
but some of this crap is believable, isn’t it? because in general these times are absolutely unbelievable (unless of course you’ve lived in any country the u.s. has helped destabilize over the past century—then it’s all probably somewhat familiar to you, unfortunately) so it is more important than ever to stay vigilant, not spread rumors but also pay attention to the very real way in which your rights are evaporating. this is not a drill.
i hear folks saying ‘this is the revolution!’ or ‘this is the collapse of the system!’ but when do you really know that’s what’s happening? i don’t think we’ll be receiving a letter from hogwarts on this one. things are so chaotic, it’s really hard to know what to make of this moment. a lot of folks are constructing it as they see fit to take advantage. be aware.
people have warned that this kind of thing was possible for decades. we said, don’t give obama more surveillance powers, don’t keep extending the patriot act, don’t militarize the police and on and on and on. because this is what happens when that power gets into the wrong hands.
i don’t pretend to know what happens next, all i can say, based on the evidence i’ve just presented, is that this was inevitable without actual leadership. the orange pustule’s governance lately has been stoking violence, beefing with social media companies and hiding in bunkers.
there will be no election this fall, not in any meaningful sense, not with the attacks on the postal service and vote-by-mail, not with a raging pandemic, not with a known criminal authoritarian in the white house who will be arrested the moment he is a regular citizen again. if you vote for the blue man who helped construct this police state in the ‘90s, i do not blame you, i may even do the same, but i think you are a fool for thinking a biden victory will be recognized, let alone bring change. that’s ok, i do foolish things all the time so: register to vote, please.
so i don’t think we can’t go back. i don’t think enough people realize that yet. what does that mean, though? where are we headed? i have no idea and i don’t think anyone does. i’m highly skeptical of anyone that says they have the answer—but i’m also skeptical of my cynicism (hyperskepticism) so that means i’m trying to do more listening than concluding.
i suggest openness and flexibility so you don’t get bent up by all this, but you also need a foundation and strength to not be bowled over, if that makes sense. it doesn’t get easier from here on out, at least not for a while, but if the system does finally collapse, i do hold onto hope that we can rebuild something far, far better.
hang the fuck in there. <3