“Gotta keep all of us docile and fit, gotta keep everyone buying this shit.” — Roger Waters.*
Here it is 2025 and, like many people, I am on the lookout for good news. This requires a creative stretch but
I’m confident I’m up to the task. Thanks to the re-election of Trump, I can
confidently say “Things suck” and most people (I know) readily agree.
That wasn’t always the case. Back in the good old days when a dozen eggs cost $5, my misanthropic grousing about
government (and society as a whole) was viewed askance. “At least we got rid of
Trump” was the standard subtext my bitching bumped up against. Hey, Taylor
Swift is now a billionaire!
Griping, kvetching, bellyaching.
That’s all good and well when
evil Republicans are in power but let’s cool it when it’s the evil Democrats
at bat. Anyone notice how BLM fizzled soon as Biden got in office? Sorry if I
wasn’t properly placated. Artic melting continues, military expenditures
increase, corporate handouts never cease and literacy keeps falling.
Legalizing grass doesn’t impress me
one damn bit.
As I said at the time (and, sure,
these words have come back to bug me), getting rid of Trump was easy enough but
how the hell do we shake off Zuckerberg, Bezos and Musk?
For my part, I buy as little as
possible. Withdrawing from the fascist economy is a living protest, enacted
daily. I use the library for internet. Never eat out. Public transportation;
hell, I’ve never owned a car. Christmas trees? Valentines? For chrissakes…
The more stuff we buy from the
capitalists, the more time we have to work for them. My political position:
Don’t Buy It. Fuck those fuckers!
See? I’m feeling better already.
Grouchy old bastard, my wife more
or less left me because of that. “Always at war with the world” she said (on
the way out). Plus she was pissed I voted for Trump.
What?
True. Back then, I was a utopian
socialist at Twin Oaks where The Very Hungry Caterpillar and his cronies impacted
my life far more than the White House.** Immature I admit, supporting Trump was
an unambiguous up yours to The Man.
One day, Trump was a bad-hair laughingstock,
the next he was a Nazi. That sounded like jive. What did get my
attention were Trump’s promises to withdraw from military actions, repatriate jobs
and sock it to those Silicon Valley jackoffs.
Plus sack those NEA aristocrats (who reject my literary submissions like clockwork)!
I chose to disregard all the sinister stuff. Who am I to trust the news? Or have fond memories of the Clintons (back when I was a card-carrying member of the CPUSA)? Sure enough, another angry, under-educated, white, old, male vote!
By the time Trump said, “There’s very
good people on both sides,” I wised the hell up. Before, I figured Trump wasn’t
responsible for the nutjobs that got behind him. I was wrong. I was a rube.
Here’s an observation made by Jaron
Lanier. Trump didn’t start out evil (just a douche) but his constant use of
social media, warping perspective and priorities downward, turned him evil. I
believe it had a similar effect on me.
Now that I’ve confessed, I feel
better. Not that my ex-wife will ever forgive me. Then again she was the
one who binged Game of Thrones, twice. Those were ugly times.
And they got uglier. Although I couldn’t see how anyone could vote for Trump — except tax-cut pigs — in 2020, I stayed out of it. I hate voting for jerks and I hate being told that one is 1% better than the other. I hate it even if it’s true.
Then Trump lost. Then he said he
won! For me, that went way beyond everything. Delusional, right?
Dictator megalomanic stuff. Back to being a laughingstock I figured. I mean, who
in their right mind would consider voting for that nutjob again?
You bet your ass I voted Harris.
But here we are again. History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce. Things suck and when I say it, most people (I know) readily agree. You may say that I’m a misanthrope but I’m not the only one.
It seems to me — and I am fully aware that nobody on the planet gives a flying fuck what I think — all the better to say what I think — as a 2016 Trump voter and a 2025 Trump hater, I am an outcast. A pariah. A grinch. ***
My art has always been clearer and more honest in terrible times. My art always comes first. And these are the best of times.