Day

I’ve ever celebrated Independence Day. Sure, I’ve gone to see the fireworks a few times but they were never my thing. They're just a lot of big, mega annoying noise with not enough color, awe, and wonder. Also, I’ve read and lived through enough history to  resent, hate even, all the cheap, rah-rah-rah, unthinking patriotism. This year in particular July 4th feels like much more of a wake and not just because today’s the 9th anniversary of The Amazing Bob’s final death either. 

Today doesn’t feel like the joyous sort of celebration of a long, full tilt boogie life, now complete. This is the wake of someone (a nation) who had a troubled existence, fraught with a shit-ton of nasty-ass addictions and mental illnesses (our out of control egoism, greed, extreme shortsightedness, callousness, cold cruelties and indifferences). BUT there was always the possibility, the spark, a slim thread, a flickering glimmer that the US could be so much more, so much better than it actually was. It never reached its potential though.

This is a day of mourning before we get back up and battle those fuckers some more.

Jesse Duquette

Author Geraldine DeRuiter posted this question on Threads yesterday and I can SO relate. 

Can someone tell me what to do? 

I vote. I donate to candidates. I give money to orgs that do good things. I march. I amplify other people's voices who aren't being heard. 

I honestly don't think any of it matters. This feels hopeless. People with a hell of a lot more power and influence than me aren't able to do a damn thing. 

What do we do here when our government isn't beholden to human decency, the constitution, or its own people?

Writer/comic/actor Tara Jepsen replied:

My thoughts: volunteer for those in need in your neighborhood or city. Remember that many Americans have NEVER been included in the American Dream, yet persisted in asking for more and better. The culture was dire, cruel, and unrelenting in their persecution. (I know you know these things, this is just how I re-orient myself when feeling grave despair.) Let go of thinking it’s your job to fix it. It’s not. We can only act from our means and capabilities, and we’re part of a bigger story.

This helps me. I want to do more...something. I feel so helpless but we all play a part. We can all take steps toward creating change.

Some books that may offer a bit of enlightenment, assistance, tips, what-have-you:

• The Art of War by Sun Tzu was written 2,500 years ago and is still relevant today. Also, you don’t need to buy a copy – it’s available free online. Click the linky. 

One does more to damage an opponent’s potential by undermining their scheme than by merely killing their soldiers. (source) 

• Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger. Basically, how ideas spread and influence culture. If you want to get a revolution going, you gotta make it go viral, eh?

• Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky

 The Citizen’s Handbook notes that:

For Alinsky, organizing is the process of highlighting what is wrong and convincing people they can actually do something about it. The two are linked. If people feel they don't have the power to change a bad situation, they stop thinking about it.

Yup! What’s Rule 1? Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have.

This book can also be downloaded for FREE. Click on the linky. 

From a novel I just finished (Zoey is Too Drunk for This Dystopia Jason Pargin) and I’m paraphrasing a bit:

Celebrities are an idea. If you want to stop one, you can’t kill the person, you have to kill the idea.

The ideas that need to die are authoritarianism, racism, misogyny, anti-intellectualism, avariciousness, callousness, malignant narcissism. Trump is the celebrity embodiment of all this and more. He may succumb to a combo of Big Mac clogged arteries and hairspray fumes but the ideas will persist through other avatars like Couchfucking Jimmy Bowman, Cosplay Kristi, Nazi fuck Stephen Miller, and on and on. The Heritage Foundation billionaires will never run out of soulless slime balls to shill their shit.

So, amongst other things, the insanity that Stinky and his puppet masters are hyping needs to start giving wicked trash vibes, with all the personality and smell of a gas station toilet at midnight. Make MAGAts as radically uncool and unpopular as they are and deserve to be.