I Have Thoughts 1
This is how it’s going to work. I’m going to have thoughts. And then those thoughts will find their way here. So this is a series. Of thoughts. Published randomly. For no reason. Thank you for coming.
Living (barely) outside of the US (you can see Jay Peak, Vermont from the top of Mount Royal, and can drive to the closest border crossing in little over an hour — depending on traffic), I can’t bear to watch what’s happening. The Evil Orange Thing (not Gritty, who is the opposite of evil) is still going to get at least 40% of the vote, despite the racism and nepotism and corruption and incompetence and all around damage to actual lives, which is appalling and discouraging and head-shakingly awful on many levels. The Democrats seem like a party that a) doesn’t know how to do strategy and b) assume the other side plays by (let alone cares about) the rules. Still! (Also, the two party system has failed, I think Americans need to admit this). The media doesn’t know how to handle the reality they are facing and so exacerbates the failings of reporting in The Era of the False Equivalency.
The Evil Orange Thing lives in a world where the camera is always on, and it had better be on him, everything else be damned. It is stunning how quickly the US has fallen, both internally and externally. It’s good the world doesn’t “need” the US. Or act like it does. But it’s also bad. The US has never been (close to) perfect but it has made attempts to strive for “a more perfect union.” It’s story has always been about that struggle. Except for now.
Also: The Chinese are getting away with shit. If only we could look away from the US… But we shouldn’t. Because Chinese self-interest is different from Western self-interest (which gave us colonialism among other things) but it’s just as bad and in some ways worse.
In Canada, the indigenous people continue to suffer. Sometimes it is deadly. The indifference of both the majority of Canadians and the government overall is terrible. Canadians are good at “out of sight, out of mind.” Except when the cruelty comes close to where most people live. Then it takes a few news cycles. (Look, some people do care, I don’t want to misrepresent the situation, and they are worth supporting.) Today is #orangeshirtday and here’s why.
Social media is bad. In general. And Facebook is the worst. And the people who understand and use it the best are Russians, and right-wing blowhards in the US (and every other country). They understand that grievance and anger and fear are social media’s dynamite. Everyone else is playing catch up.
This is something else. This is the perfect art for a pandemic. It’s also high in sodium.
Montreal’s weather today hit a point of high pornography.
Our new Covid lockdown/not lockdown starts tomorrow. Oh the joy.
Greater Than
Ranch water > ranch dressing
Breeze > Wind
Print > Digital
Chinese food (pick a region, any region) > Chinese politics
Biden > Trump
