There comes a time when you look up from your constant work and open the windows to let the spring breezes of current events in and take a deep fucking lungful only to say:
What the fresh hell is going on in this country?
Trayvon Martin gets shot to death by a neighborhood watch who stalked him, decided his bag of Skittles was threatening, shot him through the kid’s tears and screams for help, claims self-defense, and the police don’t so much as arrest him? They don’t intend an investigation even though the shooter has fled the city, most likely the state, and disappeared?
NYPD just straight up beat OWS folks into the ground while hissing obscenities at them because they dared show up at Zucotti Park after a rally? Obviously no charges filed, because fuck those hippies.
Rick Santorum–RICK SANTORUM–the senator with the most notorious surname in politics, the one so crazy and mean the whole internet got together to make him no longer viable as a political entity, is winning primaries and might actually be the Republican candidate.
And apparently, APPARENTLY, all of that lovely talk about how American feminists should shut up because the battle is won and everything’s SUPER COOL and happyfunequalitytiemz now is just so much wishful thinking, because we are returning to fucking VAUDEVILLE levels of woman-hating right now. Want an abortion? Well, we’re going to need to violate you with this penis-shaped, condom-covered instrument then, just to remind you of the devil’s work you did to get into this situation in the first place. Nobody knows how birth control or a goddamn uterus works, we seem to be having an actual discussion about whether it’s appropriate to be on birth control as an adult woman, and though conservatives want to frame it as a health insurance issue, it’s really about taking contraception away entirely, as evidenced by the Arizona bill that wants to make it legal for an employer to terminate a woman because she’s on birth control. (No word on Viagra, of course. That’s for a serious medical condition! It must be covered!) Since women already get fired for being pregnant, the logical solution is don’t hire women anymore, and PRESTO CHANGO WE’RE BACK IN 1957 WHEN EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT AM I RITE.
And now, NOW, this asshole in Georgia wants to make it illegal to remove an ALREADY DEAD fetus from a woman’s body until she “naturally passes it” because “that’s what cows and pigs do.”
WHAT. WHAT?
It’s not even an abortion, it’s hazmat removal. To say a woman should risk death and incur obvious psychological trauma from carrying around a corpse as long as possible because cows and pigs do it? Ok, you’ve done it, you’ve actually blown my mind. It seems pointless to say a woman is not a cow or a pig, that anatomy is not identical across the animal kingdom, that it is cruel and beyond the pale to deny necessary medical treatment to a woman because it kind of sort of reminds you of abortion, that the default state of the universe is not Men = Human, Women = animals. That oh my god now not only are women’s lives not as important as fetuses, they are much less important than dead fetuses. And some people will vote for this! They will look at this thing and say: sounds good to me. A pig can make bacon, maybe we should start rounding women up for meat, too.
Is it seriously just that we have a black man in office, so conservatives cannot cast their reality-blocking bubble spell as completely as they did during Bush’s years? Because at least when Bush was around they weren’t telling me not to take birth control on the very flimsy excuse of supporting the Catholic Church, which most American far-right Christians think is a wretched hive of scum and villainy and also witches and idolatry. Is it that the very notion of reality including a black man in power so totally destroys the decency centers of conservative America that all their oldest, ugliest, most ridiculously old-timey sexism and racism comes flying out like psychic vomit? Men who can’t even bring themselves to say the word vagina are deciding what I can and can’t do with mine, and it’s not because the government should stay out of health care, it’s probably not even because babies are so sacred, it’s all about putting those whores in their place, which is not in the office, it’s not in college (else why keep calling women in college co-eds like it’s 1920 and they just let a woman into Oxford for the first time, whatever will the menfolk do? They’re students, you unbelievable jerks), it’s in stirrups, it’s in the kitchen, it’s out of sight and out of mind, with their icky, icky parts hidden away.
I get in trouble when I talk about politics on this blog. Back when McCain was running I posted a paragraph about how grotesque I thought he was and got a rash of comments and pingbacks about how authors should shut up about politics and stick to writing about elves. So most of the time I just don’t say anything, because I don’t want the grief. But things are getting unreal. The level of cognitive dissonance it takes to insist the Republicans are the party of small government while supporting their desire to legislate every aspect of the sexual lives of everybody (think straight men’s sex lives won’t be affected by women not being able to get birth control? Think again) actually hurts my brain to contemplate. Yet half this country blithely spouts it–and quite a lot of geeks, who would never call themselves conservative and certainly would like to get laid a whole lot, gleefully support Ron Paul, who’s so libertarian that he supports practically no government regulation EXCEPT ON THE LADIES AND THE GAYS YOU GOTTA REIGN THAT SHIT IN.
And all the while the only people who even want to talk about the mass financial crimes of Wall Street or the crises facing young people as the economy circles the drain are being beaten like dogs for opening their mouths in the same place that some tents were pitched last fall.
Oh, and it’s 75 degrees in March in Maine and we’re running out of oil and just about everything else. But the Bible doesn’t say that can happen so we should be fine. Don’t even think about researching alternative fuel! That’s not how we powered our Cadillacs in 1957! Therefore it’s suspect!
I don’t get it. I fundamentally don’t understand how in 2012 this is the country I live in. I want to believe it’s the last death throes of the old world, of the terrible, toxic ideas of the 20th century finally spasming out, but these people control a significant part of our governement, and Santorum isn’t even old. We can’t just sit back and say they’ll die off eventually. The earth will never run out of assholes. And this obsession with the essential goodness of the past, the need to not just live life by conservative principles but force everyone else to do the same so you don’t even have to think about anyone ever being any different than you…I can hardly think of an uglier instinct in humans. Rather, I can, but they all come from this same one. And we’re hip-deep in it–but anytime someone gets angry enough to speak out, they get a can of pepper spray to the face. (Seriously, who is training the police these days?)
It’s so much more fundamental than a single election. Hell, it contaminates other countries–the UK is considering, for some kind of insane reason, to scrap their NHS and adopt our system, a system that doesn’t work for us at all and harms our populace. A system so bad it’s the punchline of jokes. But it’s more than that, even. A huge part of the country I live in wants to silence and crush people like me–and that “like me” has multiple vectors. Female, queer, young, liberal, artist, techie. It goes on. I once thought you simply couldn’t put the genie back in the bottle when it came to a lot of these issues. You can’t force a nation to re-shackle itself. But maybe, if your hate is strong enough, you can do it piecemeal, bit by soul-killing bit.
We need an It Gets Better campaign for America–except I’m not sure it actually will.
That was marvelous, thank you.
I spend a lot of my time having conversations (in person rather than on line) about how we manage to have an intellectual and cultural life once the crazies have completely taken over. The general gist of what I/we intend to do and are doing is building the infrastructure of our local intellectual culture and preparing for that to be an export product.
This doesn’t fix what to do about our medical lives, though I imagine living close to the Canadian border helps.
One further thought: this is the era when all that money that campaign finance law used to disempower really gets to talk, and we are not liking what it has to say.
Well said well written and a beautiful summary of how I feel including the missing hope to turn to for a stop to this rapidly growing rampant insanity.
I apologise for using quotes, but I was thinking on very much the same line this weekend during a LOTR marathon, and these resonated so strongly:
Frodo: I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
Theoden: I will not risk open war.
Aragorn: Open war is upon you whether you would risk it or not.
Theoden: So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?
Aragorn: Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them.
All we can do is fight, counter and spread the hope that things will get better, for all of us. This is not the end, not even the last battle. Where will we rally? Where will we end up? I have no clue, but there has to be a way through.
Thank you for putting the words to my anger.
Well stated. I sometimes look around and wonder just how in the hell anyone can take conservatives in this country seriously anymore. Yet, the evidence clearly shows that a sizable proportion — large enough to constitute a plurality if a third party candidate skews an election — is borderline bat-shit insane.
I hope this is just a last death throes and that in the process it doesn’t take the country down with it.
Thank you for voicing what I believe – and – unlike you, I am old, I am a cop, I am a minority in the place where I choose to live, I am hetero, and not a geek despite having many degrees and certifications. I also hope that this may be the last gasp of Fundamentalist Christian Rhetoric in the USA, but, deep down worry about the vast numbers of people who apparently do not believe what I believe and are electing their own like-minded-politicians that they are forcing to enact laws and enforce laws that are anaethma to any educated people. It almost feels like the far right, conservative, supposedly Christian, narrow-focused/minded white men of the USA who are saying these things do not see their resemblance to the far right, conservative, supposedly Muslim, white men of the Middle East who also suppress women and have no tolerance for anyone who just might not believe the same dogma.
Thank you.
Thank you for this. Well said.
We left.
Six years ago I saw this darkness in what was once the light of my patriotism. I questioned the authority not superficially like I did in High School, but deeply. I questioned the pyramid of power that exists in every social hierarchy and I saw something that kept me up at night.
I saw The United States of America.
This nation in which the majority of people unflinchingly believe they live in the best place on the planet. They take it on faith because they never actually visit any other nation. I’m not saying this is a particularly bad thing. From a propaganda point of view it’s entirely correct for a ruling class to have the masses believing this. Helps curb insurrection.
But the fact that I saw the darkness could only mean that the powerful and elite had dropped the curtain. Perhaps the ignorance of the internet. Perhaps the impunity that comes from generation after generation of hereditary wealth. Perhaps it was just plain sloppy management.
There they were. The elite, sitting well and laughing at the disparity. Mocking the masses they leached from openly. I saw this and I knew where it would end.
I planned then because I knew I had a decade, perhaps two before the masses found their voice, their verve, and there vengeance. I didn’t want to be there when it happened. As much as I wished to be part of the narrative I knew the consequence too well. I knew my history and it’s repetition. Rome and France were enough evidence for me to fear being present for the spectacle. Being too close to the flame that would burn bright enough to draw me into a fight and then burn me as it laughed that I knew it was fire.
I met a woman who thought like I did. We married. We had children and the entire time we planned. We were smart, some would say “the intelligentsia” and we knew enough of the world to pick well. We studied books, labored in histories, scrutinized financial conditions and in the end we picked a new place to be happy.
We left.
I wish the best for all those who lack the courage, freedom, or luxury to do the same. Stay safe.
I do not regret.
Lewis Black said it best. “American political races have come to the point that we get a choice of two piles of shit and we have to decide which is the smaller pile and vote for it.”
I think politicians, GOP in particular are an evil bunch. Remember this: people who go into politics may have other nasty habits.
Welcome to Karl Rove’s America. he is the behind the scenes architect of all this insanity.
I say to all the women out here, if we withhold the sex, they sure as hell would want to be nicer to us!
If we can’t get birth control, they should not be able to get Viagra. if we can’t get birth control, they should not be able to get sex.
Think Medea. the Greek one, not Tyler Perry.
What evil lurks in the hearts of men? Now we know.
Honestly, I think you’re an optimist. Because if you sit down and actually look at some of what the most credible climate scientists are saying it’s damn grim. They’re saying the human race is skipping down the primrose path to extinction.
These crazy bastards aren’t just cheering it on they’re staying up late nights trying to figure out how they can make more families homeless and force more women into unwanted motherhood. Because nothing says “Christian Nation” like hordes of homeless scourged through the streets every evening by stormtroopers lest a poor person sleep on a park bench or inside of a vacant shopping mall.
I will recommend not to wait until you earn enough cash to order goods! You should take the personal loans or just collateral loan and feel fine
“We need an It Gets Better campaign for America–except I’m not sure it actually will.”
Oh my. Now I have visions of “inspiring” youtube clips from like all the Grand Old Nations. Start with the Roman Empire and Old Egypt, follow with the Golden Horde, Byzantium and Charlemagne and on down to those players of The Great Game.
Worst for last, of course. Ozymandias.
Thanks a lot. Sometimes for Europeans it’s easy to forget that not every American stands behind that Right-Winger BS.
Very few of us actually. For the most part, Americans prefer to live and let live. The less vocal majority (or at least the less “newsworthy”) are more concerned with just getting by these days than with what strangers do in their bedroom. It is disconcerting that a few wing nuts have found themselves in a position to influence the civil rights of all of us. Personally, I am in favor of any policy that prevents rights from being restricted, even for those whom I would normally never associate with (e.g. Faux News fans).
For the person who posted that they chose to leave, I respect their decision, but I have chosen to stay. It is my homeland, and I feel that I have a responsibility to fight for our freedoms, whether they be assaulted from within or without. when it is all said and done, we’ll keep a light on should you decide to come back home.
At this very moment, although we’ve never met nor are likely to, I love you even more than I love your books.
I just wanted to let you know you are not alone. I keep hoping this is a nightmare and I’ll wake up to a world that isn’t turning into the one Margaret Attwood described in Handmaid’s Tale, or Kamazotz from A Wrinkle in Time.
I have been at times angry and disturbed by our nation’s direction. Now I’m scared.
Very well said. I just wish I knew what to do. Of course vote and show my support against a right-wing model of gov’t, but what can I actually *do*. How do we organize and mobilize the “quiet people just trying to get by”, so that the voice of reason is heard loud and clear. I feel at a loss, helpless, and I don’t think I/we really are either; at a loss or helpless, but what to do?
There aren’t any simple answers for this, or at least not any besides the tripe being spoon fed to the masses by the politicians and media. I wish I could say that there were. We are at the bad end of the political pendulum swing, and unfortunately we were not given enough time swing back to centrism before we swung back to the right. To be honest, I am a little less worried about the presidential race than I am about the congressional races. Romney will almost certainly get the nomination, and we saw with Dukakis what happens when a party is forced to nominate the “least bad choice”. The advantage that we have with congressional races is that our voices will carry much farther across a state than across a nation. If we see corruption, expose it. We have more grassroots media access available now than at any time in history. We need to “Politifact” every misdeed and fascist opinion (looking at the Ron Paul who isn’t in front of a bunch of college students). The tone of our exposure must be civil and we must broadcast facts, not simply our own opinions. It is much harder to dismiss hard facts as “more liberal rhetoric”. We must actively and aggressively pursue those who would seek to strip us of our freedoms. We have months until the elections, and we can make a difference if we make a concerted effort now. We cannot simply wait for them to out themselves in airport bathrooms, or get caught with money in their freezers.
Dig it. I’m awake. Thing most of the fella’s forget is women like to talk…it’s scientifically proven – we respond to words…and I think I’m more stubborn. Word is spreading.
Everything you say is true, and there is more besides. And this has happened before. That means we now have to fight old battles all over again, but in some respects that’s because they weren’t won when we thought they had been.
I grew up in the 1950s and early 60s, and was politically active in the civil rights and peace and freedom movements. I thought that we weren’t done (that was made obvious by the fact that racial injustice never really went away, that gender discrimination still existed, that sexual orientation was still a very dangerous topic of conversation, and that class barriers still existed) but that progress had been made, and that we were going forward, if slowly. The last few years have shown me that I was wrong to believe that progress couldn’t be rolled back by a concerted effort on the part of the most conservative elements of US society.
That’s what’s really happened: it’s not that America has become more conservative, it’s that the most conservative elements have waged a long-term campaign to restore their world as it was, and to take control of our society so they don’t have to worry about it changing again. The marriage of conservative Republican classism with Southern Confederate revanchism has brought forth a new breed of wingnuts who are determined to reverse the result of the Civil War. They want blacks to be slaves, Hispanics to be field workers and gardners, women to be wives and mothers, non-Christians (and their definition includes a lot of people who self-identify as Christians) to be second-class citizens at best, gays to be monsters in scary stories about prisons, and poor people to just fuck off and die. And on top of all that, they want to coerce the rest of the world into doing things the same way, by warfare if necessary.
The situation seems pretty bleak, I know, but there is one bright spot that makes me hope for a better outcome. The fact that when they pushed hard enough a lot of people were willing to stand up and be counted as opposing them in the Occupy movement, and that the media was forced to admit they had done so. And a lot of those people were young; people who weren’t willing to accept the media’s dismissal of them as being apolitical and self-absorbed. As long as there are people willing to stand up, I have hope that we’ll somehow turn this country around and start it back in the right direction. Or at worse, the country may fragment into Blue and Red countries, so those of us who don’t want things to be this way will have somewhere to go.
Thank you for writing this – you’re right, America is scary and getting scarier! I lucked out and temporarily live overseas where I don’t have to pay much attention to what’s going on – but what makes its way to me is disheartening, to say the least.
Just came across this article (http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/15/greg-smiths-resignation-are-wall-street-traders-psychopathic/#ixzz1plx28nsT) that ends with this note:
“The thing about psychopathic values is that they’re contagious. We pick up the values of our leaders and often mirror their behavior. But determining what to do about it is a lot harder than making the diagnosis.”
The more attention that gets paid to misogynist/psychopathic/***
“leaders” the more everybody starts copying them and getting more attention for it etc. etc.
(pls insert one of your awesomely creative loltech names at ***).
To hell in a handbasket on a friggin’ luge track!
Wow!!! I think I’m gonna have to find some of your books. I never heard of you before today, when 1 of my fb friends posted a link to this article. I like this “rant”. I agree with you. I’m assuming that I might not be in 100% agreement all the time. People are more interesting if they are not “carbon copies” of yourself. I like this article. I like the 1 about the $900 coat that the woman in Calif. “locally sourced” (NOT). & several others. I’m gonna have to expand my horizons. I’m not a fantasy/sf fan. Guess I gotta change…Thanks to you & my friend, Heather. Live & be well. Thanks also for the idea about “Abbey night”. Granny Tanny
Women the other white meat! I doubt most Republicans want to farm raise women lately. Seems sort of like a straw man to me. It is interesting that Santorum’s poll numbers have been going down since his diaria of the mouth episodes as regards to social issues. Don’t forget this whole conversation started when Our President decided Catholic Institutions need to pay for something they find morally objectionable. No one is saying that they are making Birthcontrol illegal, just not Free.
Tanstaafl
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