It’s happening, People.
The war on tolerance has been waged and won. The fight against liberal democracy, inclusive culture, civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrants' rights and science has brought us here. It's been brewing and festering probably since the New Deal, definitely since the explosion of progressive culture in the '60s.
We are entering a dark time politically, culturally and environmentally. I am not a political scientist or pundit. I’m just a comic. I’m not totally keyed in to much of the dialogue. I know what I see and feel and that’s a foundational dread and anxiety.
The loophole of elective democracy is that a fascist can be freely elected and then destroy the system that delivered him there. It’s not new or even unusual. It is new and unusual for us and scary. Democracy as a governing body is apparently very codependent by design. A real people pleaser. Which leaves it open to abuse by assholes, gaslighters and domestic terrorists.
There is an us and them when it comes to much of what drove us here. We are going to have to deal with a lot of douchebaggery coming down from the top and into passing moments with other humans in our lives.
They thrive on our discomfort, pain and fear. They fucking love it.
It’s going to suck. We don’t know how bad it will get. We don’t know how it will affect our everyday lives but it will.
I’m not sure how I will handle the dramatic shift in culture. I guess we’ll find the like-minded people who enjoy what we do. I guess we’ll learn to thrive in the shadow of a multipronged attack by policies enacted by religious fanatics, racists, tech oligarchs, hate nerds, corporate monsters and their minions.
The survival of decency and empathy is kind of on us. Individuals who have it in them to think those things are important.
The survival of American Democracy is a little less hopeful. I certainly don’t do enough. I know there are ways to get involved. Fight for what’s right on a community and state level. Believe that change is still possible. We’re going to have to get through a lot of PTSD to get to those actions. To be proactive.
Art, self expression, being who you are proudly and vigilantly is important and I believe it's going to be challenging when you feel surrounded by emboldened dummies who just want to shut you down.
There are special people that do special things with their talents. Keep doing them. We don’t have to lower ourselves and debase ourselves to appeal to the narrow-minded who would rather everything be similar or something they understand.
People are going to die because of the thin majority’s discomfort with people who are different. A discomfort that becomes disdain and then policy.
Hey, look. I hope I’m wrong. I hope I’m overreacting. I know some people are viewing this as a normal presidency in the context of how our government works and we just have to wait it out and see how the people vote the next time.
I am unable to look at it that way.
Today Bill Burr is back to catch up. Thursday I talk to comedian Sophie Buddle. Good stuff.
Enjoy!
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
Love,
Maron
