I tend to laugh when I’m depressed, deeply stressed out, or even horrified. It’s a go-to that at least some people are familiar with as far as coping mechanisms go. Some people drink (been there) or get high (not for me). Nail biting, skin picking, hair pulling, pacing, meditating, eating, running. Some healthy, some not.
Writing?
As an American (and as a moral person) I haven’t been able to laugh during the last few days, and the other coping mechanism I use most readily now is broken too. Can’t think of anything to write, I’m just furious. Makes me wonder how everyone else is doing.
A bottle of wine sits in my fridge, untouched because for the moment I live in a sauna. People who can drink alcohol when it’s ninety outside with a matching humidity are some sort of magicians. I cannot stomach the concept. Tack to the end of the virtually endless list of Trumpian fuckery this crime: drove me to drink, except I can’t.
We’re watching Trump supporters dig their heels in deeper, while Mike Godwin (creator of Godwin’s Law) is watching a 2017 tweet rack up thousands of new views, undoubtedly horrified to see how much worse it’s gotten in under a year.
This isn’t a matter of sides, anymore. My team vs your team is suspended. It’s already been terrible, and we collectively keep tempting fate by earnestly believing and saying amongst ourselves that he’s gone too far this time, and can’t come back from it.
It will never, ever be too far for Trump fans. You have to know that, and fully understand it. We (the moral) were already horrified that children were loaded into concentration camps under the guise of “they’re going to take showers,” because that’s not at all reminiscent of the literal Holocaust. You have to know and understand that if Trump ever ordered these children and their parents to work camps, or even to execution chambers–an uncomfortably large percentage of our population would be gleeful about it.
All the while, Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielson cheerfully tries to dine at a Mexican restaurant after having denied any of this is happening at all… except today, magically they’re reversing the order they denied existed, after explaining that Democrats were the only ones who could fix it… and oh, by the way, Obama did it too. (Spoiler alert: he did not.)
The Department of State and Department of US Travel are actively trolling all of us, tweeting (this government’s chief method of communication) about international travel with children. A day after it’s learned that a four-year-old refugee girl was repeatedly raped in detention by an American guard and her mother threatened with deportation should she report it, the State Department had the absolute gall to tweet about their standing with the survivors of rape, and just to top it all off WE LEFT THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION.
Because of course we did.
None of this is okay. Now what?
For one, we can probably go ahead and stop wasting our time talking to Trump supporters online. At this point, involving them in discussions does nothing more than erroneously lead them to believe that whatever they have to say has any value, and we need to stop letting them have that.
This isn’t Democrat vs Republican anymore, it’s moral vs immoral. Be on the right side of history. Marches, protests, and sit-ins are everywhere–if you can, join one. If you can’t, send money.
I’ll end with a touch of schadenfreude–ICE agents at a child concentration camp surrounded by protesters complained that they were being kept from their families.
I guess I can laugh, after all.
The Catholic Mistake 