Trump’s Desperation Is Starting to Look Like a Viral Karen Meltdown
Videos of unhinged rants are now the news
Every universally shared collective trauma — and what has been more universally shared than the pandemic? — needs some comic relief to take the edge off. If we cannot find something to laugh and shake our heads in disbelief at, we will go mad. This does not always showcase our better natures: We should all strive to rise above the instinct to mock and point. But it’s hard out there. Sometimes there is relief, even gratitude, in seeing someone freaking out even more than you are. It’s not right. But people do it.
We have seen this with the Target mask-display destroyer, and the lady throwing food on the floor of the grocery store because she had to wear a mask, and the guy who had to carry his dad out of an Arizona bakery because he was screaming at the staff. The correct way to respond to these people is with empathy and human understanding, with genuine hope that they get the help they so clearly need. But it is perhaps fair if you forgive yourself for not always having that immediate reaction. It’s amusing. It’s sad, but it’s amusing. Particularly because, in the middle of this, we’re all teetering a bit ourselves. The example I always use is the woman a few years ago who started screaming in an Apple Store.
