I finally understand

I saw this statistic recently, something like 37% of Americans would like a “strong leader who does not need to bother with getting approval from congress or the courts.” This is where we are now. More than a third of the population wants a dictator. And by the way, this isn’t just conservatives, though it’s primarily conservatives, liberal ideologues to a lesser degree want this kind of authoritarian power as well. So how did we get here? Lack of civic engagement would be my guess. We stopped asking people to step up for the national good and encouraged people to focus on selfish pursuits. The right would say this is evidenced in diminishing church attendance and the rise of unmarried households. The left would say this is corporate entities fracturing us, encouraging systemic powerlessness so they can swoop in and grab control. I suspect, and I say this as a far left atheist, both are kind of right. I’m not churchy,  but if you’re so inclined, it’s not a terrible thing provided your faith doesn’t sully itself with politics. I also like marriage because it puts more locks on the door and makes a married couple more likely to work out their issues if they can. I also know for a fact that corporate interests are ruining the planet. Just witness Charles Koch’s recent “whoopsie, my bad” interview with the Wall Street Journal. After decades of poisoning the world with his brand of Libertarian Randian Virtue of Selfishness bullshit he says, “hey, yeah, maybe it was a mistake to trick voters into voting against their own interests because now they’re starting to realize what I’ve done and the pitchforks are coming out and guillotines are being erected in the town square. Anyhow, gotta run, my jet to the Seychelles Islands is here.”

All that to say, I finally get why trump voters were so adamant against Hillary in the first place. The NAFTA, duh. Yes, there was a good dose of racist fear but across the board, the sense that globalism had diminished them (and the US) was there. It was, frankly, hard to parse this out because they kept saying shit about her being a Satanic cannibal pedo who had more confirmed kills than Ted Bundy. The hysterical fear mongering wasn’t necessary to be honest. If they’d made a coherent economic argument they might have been more influential in the democratic primary process. But really, Sanders? I mean, look, I’m down with some kind of Star Trek socialist utopia but without massive, massive spending in education we’re never going to get there. Most people are just too dumb. Combine this with the 37% who don’t want to study the fine details of representative democracy and you get trump voters showing up in droves to protest counting and/or not counting the votes fast enough, claiming up is down, the sky is red and two plus two equals 11 to the 2nd power. It’s easy to be frustrated with trump voters because they’re aligning themselves with someone who is irrational and racist — but if you drill down into it you understand the unconscious forces that motivate them: fear and shame. I’m afraid of a world I don’t understand and I’m secretly ashamed of my failure to do the hard work of preparing for the future.

What else is up over here? Super busy week with work. Lots of meetings. I’m exhausted. My neck and shoulder hurt all the time. I was doing 100 pull ups a day as recently as August but that’s over for now. Pandemic lethargy is setting in. The looming lockdown part 2 is a bummer (sort of). My boss is a social distancing scofflaw. She plays fast and loose with masks, and always wants us to gather on her patio for socially distant meetings. It’s because she hates Zoom and is a socially outgoing person but I don’t love being a human Petri dish. I have started wearing for real K-95’s when I go over there because obviously she is not taking this shit seriously. I don’t do it all the time but sometimes I’ll tell her, “you know, I’m sure I’m fine, but I have a cough that’s probably just allergies, but out of an abundance of caution I should probably just zoom in.” How many times can I use that line, though? It’s weird to me. Shes’ 71 — like, you’re in more danger than me. Hanging out with people isn’t worth it even without Covid. I will never understand extroverts.

Finally watching Pen15. Late to the game, I know. It’s good, really good. I kind of thought it would be funnier. It’s one of those unfunny half hours. Like “Transparent.” The concept has irony but the episodes are very earnest. This sounds like a criticism. It’s not. I just wanted more laughs — this isn’t the fault of the series creators, they set out to do the show they wanted to do and are doing an Emmy award winning show. It’s kind of the same issue I have with Shrill — another fantastic series that is not funny and yet each episode is sit-com format. I’m envious of unfunny half hours. I had to bust my ass on joke machine half hours and now everyone’s like, “never mind — we’re not doing funny anymore.”