Metastasis
Posted 06 November 2024Two years ago, I wrote a draft blog post entitled "Terminal Illness of the World". In it, I talk about how, despite all the lessons I was taught growing up, the adults who taught me those lessons have continually shown themselves hypocrites. To quote:
When I was young, I was taught to be nice. Sharing is caring. Take care of the planet. I was raised in a nominally Christian household, so I was taught "love thy neighbor." Simple lessons. Then I grew up. Suddenly, the same folks who taught me sharing is caring were telling me that I too would come to hate poor people and public services once I got a job and started paying taxes. The same folks who taught me to take care of the planet were willingly trashing it because they didn't want to be told what to do. The same Christians who preached "love thy neighbor" now hate me for being queer.
If I didn't know better, I'd think it was all a test. We taught you all the right lessons growing up. Now push back. Show us you learned what we taught you. Show us you deserve to take the reins and make the world a better place. But it's not. It was all just a sham. If they ever wanted us to make the world a better place, they've decided to take it all back. It's sickening.
I go on to describe it as a cancer that's metastasized and pontificate on whether it might just be time to pull the plug on humanity and let it die out.
As I sit here writing this, it's 02:36 CST on 06 November 2024, election night in America. While the race has yet to be officially called, a Trump victory looks basically certain, as he sits with 266 electoral votes. While many of the remaining states typically go blue, Alaska, with its three electoral votes, remains, as does Maine, which typically has at least one of its votes go red. A number of other states currently see Trump in the lead with varying amounts of the vote tallied.
America has chosen fascism.
I honestly feel kinda nauseous, sitting here writing this. It's yet to be seen whether Trump will win the popular vote, but, even if he doesn't, no fewer than 68 million people went "Yeah, that's fine" and voted for him.
Sickening.
This year held a lot of hope for me. Personally, sure, but also on a grander scale. In France, a left wing coalition beat off their own fascists. In the UK, the Tories were resoundingly defeated in a historic victory for Labour. And, well, while I had little hope going into this presidential election, once Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, that suddenly changed. Maybe, just maybe, the USA would follow those trends and elect its own at least nominally left wing government.
What a fool I was.
Granted, it was more of an uphill battle here in the States. My understanding of the French situation was that Macron was largely a centrist, maybe a tad right-leaning, and his ilk lost with an uncertain determination of whether the left or right would replace him, with the French ultimately going left. The UK is coming out of over a decade of Tory rule. Frankly, the fact the Tories managed to stay in power this long is something of a…I'd say miracle, but that has too many positive connotations. Is there a word like that but negative? Regardless, it was about time the Tories got booted. Meanwhile, here in the States, Democrats are the party currently in power. Regardless of how much of it is their fault, they get to take the blame for any perceived negatives of the past four years.
But when your choice is "more of the same" or "outright fascism", there's an obvious answer.
Really, those 68 million fall into one of two camps. Let's be clear here: a not insignificant number of them are outright fascists. It's hard to say exactly how many, but a large chunk see the rhetoric Trump uses, see the goals laid out in Project 2025, and fucking cheer. They don't care in the least for democracy. They want to see their perceived enemies thrown into concentration camps and killed.
The rest are what I can only charitably describe as dumbasses who haven't been paying attention. Maybe they're "lifelong republicans" who don't really like Trump but "can't imagine voting for a democrat". Maybe they think switching parties will make the price of things go down. Maybe they're idiots who think that the leopards won't eat their faces. Whatever the case, they were willing to vote for the fascists.
Of course, let's not forget those on the left who helped get us here. Jill Stein, perennial Green Party candidate, undoubtedly got some amount of votes that could have otherwise gone towards stopping the fascists, perhaps even managing to flip a state in the electoral college (though I can't say for certain right now). But, then, at least those people went out and voted. Regardless of if their vote meant anything, they had their say. Then there are those who refused to go out and vote. The fucking numbskulls who somehow think a democratic presidency would be just as bad as a republican one. Well, dipshits, hope you're happy with your choice. I hope you're happy with all possible progress in this hellhole of a country being put on hold for four years while we desperately try to avoid backsliding. All I can say is that if you were one of those idiots promoting "direct action" over voting, I better see you out there doing something once Trump starts establishing his dictatorship.
In that draft, I say that maybe we can still pull things back and save this planet, but to do so, we'd have to wrench control from those malignant elements. Not only have we failed to do that, but they've been given carte blanche. Lovely.
I'm sure there's still hope in here somewhere. While the state of things will definitely get worse over the next four years, maybe we've jumped to pessimism too soon. Maybe American democracy will survive, limping on through the next midterms and presidential election. But, at the same time, perhaps it's not such a bad idea to take the would-be dictator at his word when he spouts fascist rhetoric.
In "Terminal Illess of the World", I talk about how I've resigned myself to fate. How I don't expect to live past 40. And how my plan is to be here, amusing myself and trying to make the world a better place, at least locally. The cancer may be terminal, but at least I can provide palliative care for my little part of the world. The extent to which this remains viable is yet to be seen. But, at any rate, the world will go on, at least for a little while. And I'll be here in it. As for you? Well, I'll just leave this quote from that draft:
Whatever you do, be kind, take care of the planet, comfort the afflicted, and share what you can. Love one another, and love yourself. And remember that I love you. <3