Column
No One Should Want a Return to Normalcy
A return to safety? Sure. But things haven’t been ‘normal’ around here for a very long time.
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I try to save my anger exclusively for the daytime. If I’m angry only while the sun shines, then I can eat my dinner, watch shitty TV to get my mind a foot or two away from thoughts of the coming New Depression, and then go to bed in relative peace. But of course, all it takes is one reminder — from someone else in the house, or from me reflexively opening Twitter and regretting it, or from my mind going astray — for the anger to bare its teeth again.
“[If] we have between 100[,000] and 200,000, we all together have done a very good job.” That was the president on Monday. If you thought the president wouldn’t see this moment as a chance to practice a little bit of indirect genocide, well, then you’re probably one of the lemmings who voted for him and will do so again. There’s no one to stop him. I would tell you to pay attention and be properly outraged. I would tell you to RESIST, indulging in a bit of spiritual Poe Dameron cosplay. But that accomplishes roughly as much as, if not less than, actual cosplay. What is resistance anyway? It means you TRY to fight back. It doesn’t mean that you succeed.
And now it’s clear that you haven’t. Nor have I. Resistance was futile and perhaps always was. You now live in a nation that has been conquered from within. More than 3,000 people have died here from this virus, with multiples beyond that to come. And you’re supposed to be optimistic about it. If America lived up to its horrifyingly inflated self-image, our leaders would have reacted to the threat of this disease swiftly, compassionately, and effectively. Instead, both Republican and Democrat leaders alike saw an opportunity to loot and pillage at will, and they’re going to indulge as long as you’ll allow them to, which probably means forever.
We’re long past the realization that Democratic passivity is a feature and not a bug. As with the GOP, they’re all bought and paid for, which means YOU are bought and paid for. These people don’t serve you. They rule you. And now they’re gonna deprive you of oxygen until you have no choice but to submit to their collective will. Once you do, they’ll clean out…
