The Joy of Low-Stakes Outrage
In Biden’s America, we can sweat the small stuff again
This week, the biggest controversies on the political internet have been: A Wall Street Journal op-ed deriding Jill Biden for going by “Dr.” when she doesn’t have a medical degree; whether the New York Times should have published a vaguely sympathetic piece about a well-known man who accidentally masturbated on a work Zoom; Joe Biden’s selection of South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary; and whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
So this is what it’s like to feel almost normal again.
The Trump era is, blessedly, in its last days, and as the attention shifts to an incoming Biden administration, we’re getting a little taste of what our day-to-day over the next four years might feel like. And it’s delightfully boring. The very highest-stakes problems haven’t ceased to exist, but very soon they will no longer be at five-alarm-fire levels of emergency. Donald Trump failed to steal the election and take American democracy down with it. Covid-19 continues to rampage across the nation, but a vaccine is being rolled out, and adults who take public health seriously will enter the White House in a month. A new president will mean a repeal of the most devastating and cruel Trump executive orders — which will, in turn, mean expanded…
