It has been a while since I've written anything for this site. I have still been writing, though not as much as I would like. I have also released a podcast every week for almost a year, covering a variety of topics with guests I feel blessed to chat with. Over the summer was my very first public lecture, traveling to Gettysburg to speak at the Paranormal Research Symposium. I think I've done OK for myself, considering all that is happening in the world, but still when I meet someone and tell them I'm a writer in response to the unavoidable question "What do you do?", I immediately feel sheepish for not doing more of it. I wonder if I deserve the title, if I'm kidding myself, or whether any of it matters. Therein lies the rub...
There has been an overwhelming sense that nothing in particular matters- that is to say, that the mundane reality of everyday life is just so much inertia towards an inevitable endpoint while mad and evil monsters trample the landscape. In plain terms, shit's fucked these days, and it becomes increasingly difficult to care about the minutia of my day job and worse, that my creative endeavors are little more than momentary diversions for myself and brief distractions for those inclined to read or listen to me.
Writing, for me, is a sacred craft. It's art and it's magic. Weaving words together to convey a sentiment, to drive home a point, to wax poetic or to crack a joke, language affords us bridges from mind to mind and heart to heart. Those who have a gift with words, one supposes, have an obligation to use them. One wonders how best to do that for the benefit of all in a world with such divisions and contrasts. The world is insane, as Mr. Natural said; and I deeply resent being the one to point that out. I am content to stay in my lane, writing about Elvis and UFOs and Clowns and the Loch Ness Monster. These subjects make me happy, and I find all of the weirdest stuff so fascinating. If the metrics on my site or podcast are to be believed, plenty of others do as well and I am ever grateful for the opportunity to share this material. It would seem I'm at a disadvantage, thinking magically as I tend to do, in conveying to others just how nuts everything has gotten more broadly; and yet here I am, feeling like the only sane person in a galaxy of madness. I've been told that I have a gift for words, but if I have to confront the realities of the political world only the four letter variety come to mind. I've often thought that we're living in a story Kafka dreamed up, then discarded as too unbelievable to commit to page.
I have become less active online, and on the rare occasion I get drawn into an argument it really just feels like going through the motions. One wonders again how useful it is to even bother with opinions on social media, or to do much of anything at all. This is, of course, useful to the oppressors of the world. Hopelessness and fear work in their favor, but even as I resist these things I find myself just so exhausted from having to proceed as though everything is normal. It's hard to get into a mindset to read a book for enjoyment or research some odd topic when the inner voices just want to scream "WHAT THE FUCK" all day. In the wake of a rage-baiting online influencer's death, it has become apparent that none of us has the luxury to be quiet now and loud later. Many are already being silenced, and many more will be.
At the time of this writing, a late night show host has been suspended for one of the most milquetoast, mild, and barely insulting jokes toward a sitting president I have ever heard. The beatification process for the new martyr of MAGA is well underway, and critics are treated as heretics fit only for the stake. Some are seeing this as the canary in the coal mine as far as an authoritarian takeover of the U.S. goes, which to my mind ignores the many blacklunged, sick, dying, or dead miners who have piled up in the mine leading up to this moment. I'd argue that entire shafts have collapsed and there has probably been cannibalism, and worse, over-extended metaphor. The point is, authoritarianism is here, and it ain't going away any time soon.
The time may come when we all will be silenced, unless we pledge an oath to the orange Ubu Roi. I'm almost certain it will come, and soon.
While I still can, in the plainest terms possible, I must defer to my wizardly ways and exorcise the demons of WTF-ness clouding my mind by getting a few things off my chest. I won't say "Let's be clear", like so damned many Democrats say now. One should always be clear. What I mean is using plain words, avoiding the mire of bad faith discourse online trolls thrive on. Bad faith actors will endlessly twist words, demand definitions, supplant their own, and move away from any meaningful discussion. Most of the time the whole point is to invoke anger, confusion, and cruelty. So in plain words, we're up against bad people. Bad people are utilizing crazy ideas, stupidity, and malice in order to advance authoritarianism- and they are astonishingly adept at it.
We're in the age of the Trickster. Hunter S. Thompson said "when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." It becomes strangely prophetic in ways that I doubt he ever imagined, even in the deepest throes of the worst bad trip. The Trickster era is tricky, and terrifying, and darkly funny all at once. After all, I love crazy ideas. I cultivate plenty of them myself, and consider myself a connoisseur of weird beliefs down through the ages. It's easy to see, however, how many of these ideas lead to evil ends. "Conspiracy theory" has always been a term used as a shorthand for "crazy ideas", but these days has lost all meaning- especially as the worst and stupidest and most harmful ones have become mainstream. When the going gets this kind of weird, it turns out us weirdos are perhaps the most flummoxed. There are a multitude of old tropes being brought to the fore, dumbed down and delivered to the masses as news or as "independent research". A straight decade of this has left the average person lost, cast adrift in waters of uncertainty. In a world of limitless information and infinite distraction, no one can be sure what to believe. And there are always monsters confidently telling those people what those beliefs should be.
I love stupidity too. Stupidity is great. As a longtime member in good standing of the Amalgamated Association of Morons I'm endlessly amused by it, but I don't want it in seats of power. I feel as though fear of being perceived as elitist, or some kind of bully, has made folks afraid of calling stupidity out when it is baldly showcased. The head of the current regime is as stupid as it gets, and no one will convince me otherwise. He's surrounded by sycophantic, unqualified rubes who are either just as stupid or who just don't mind appearing to be. It's all so mind-bendingly stupid that one wonders whether we can ever recover, or if perhaps its better to get a frontal lobotomy and be done with it once and for all.
If crazy and stupid weren't bad enough, this regime channels it all into pure malice, while moralizing to us about their alleged concerns. Ghouls gleefully joking about feeding immigrants to alligators as they resurrect the concentration camp here in the States will cynically talk about Christian belief and family values; they will consider the corpse and rubble strewn area that used to be Gaza nothing more than a promising piece of real estate while they demand you shed tears for a man who made it his mission to dehumanize not just the people of that region, but all Muslims everywhere. To them, everything is transactional, and one's humanity isn't guaranteed- it must be qualified, must meet criteria, must bow down to the inflated orange pussbag. Inalienable rights are a foreign concept to these smug goons, and even when they're winning, they're miserable. They act as though they're being persecuted even as they wield all the power, using their position to demonize the most vulnerable among us. They are bad people, and they are instituting a new and innovative form of authoritarian terror that has familiar hallmarks- and for the record, authoritarianism is bad. This is all very bad, and it's exhausting watching people behave as though it's not.
So much of this feels like it doesn't need to be said. I had high hopes, and still do in some ways, that most people recognize this. I can't blame people for diverting their gaze or being willfully ignorant, as in some ways I'm guilty of this myself. Human beings are odd creatures, and all of us are complicated with our own particular blindspots, biases, bigotries, and complex emotional sets. All of us are human, all of us are of a kind. We're kin, all of us, and Christ even said as much, regardless of what these fascists cosplaying as Christians tell you. Some will argue that it is human nature to fight, but I disagree. The average person does not want to bomb their neighbor out of existence. The atrocities and horrors that occur every day on our planet all blend together into a cacophony too large and disturbing to confront, and it seems many will avoid it until it's on their doorstep. A return to the old status quo, even if possible, only forestalls the inevitable. Fence post sitters will minimize every stripping away of rights, equivocate each indignity, and make excuses for every last violation of everything good in the human race. They will say "both sides have some good ideas", or throw whataboutisms out to confuse the issue. They will say that I'm overreacting. These people are the welcome mat that authoritarianism wipes its boot on, before using it to step on the throat of Liberty.
So much for using plain language. Let's take that again- the trump regime is bad and stupid and crazy, and they are well on their way in turning the U.S. into an authoritarian dictatorship. That is bad, and you should feel bad if you support it.
No one is coming to save us and the checks and balances built in to our government have been systematically dismantled. No one can say with a straight face that the tinyhanded imbecile in charge has done anything to protect, preserve, or defend the Constitution. We, the People, are on our own. But we are on our own together. I refuse to give in, to give way to despair and hopelessness. I also will not romanticize the past or seek to return to systems that created our reality show sandwich of a nightmare hellworld. After it all burns down, we will have to rebuild, and the best time to start is now. What that looks like will be different for every compassionate person with half a brain and a functional heart. The basic principle is kindness and community. Love thy neighbor, help them out- it'll drive these "Christian" right whack jobs crazy. Think of the homeless, the transfolk in your area, the immigrants, everyone in the crosshairs of this maladjusted monstrosity of an administration, and dream up ways to help. Reality doesn't just happen. We make it happen. We made this current mess happen, and we'll have to clean it up. Assuming history books still exist for future generations, consider which side you'll be recorded as having been on.
I'm on team human. You can't join the team if you're OK with trump.
Now, maybe I can get back to exploring the workings of the cosmos...
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