politics
Thursday Read
I found novelist Catherynne Valente’s newsletter from another newsletter and oh my god this essay about fascism. The title pretty much sums it up—“There’s No Such Thing As a Smart Fascist”–but the points she makes explain everything about how we got here and how Trump is probably going to get reelected. Is it depressing as hell? Yeah. Is it an essential read so your brain can finally stop protesting, “But they can’t DO that!” Oh yeah. Because they can. That’s the point.
But none of them are smart or capable or gifted with understanding and foresight. That’s not the great talent of fascists. They don’t need—or want—to be those things or have those talents. They only need one… Fascists, and their larval form, conservatives, simply do not give one single lonely fuck for rules or conventions or the system in which they flourish.
That’s it! I read that and everything made so much sense.
Definitely read the whole thing, though, because it’s enlightening but also grimly funny [emphasis mine throughout]:
McConnell never had to have a strategy. He just had to not give a fuck. Denying Obama a Supreme Court nominee and then shoving every blogger with a reasonable facsimile of a law degree onto the bench wasn’t strategy. It was just not giving a fuck about the rules, sitting on his hands like a smug little frog-goblin, and saying no. McCarthy is doing the same thing, risking the entire world’s stability because it makes the zombie hyena brigade laugh. Just sticking out that pugnacious Mussolini-chin and donkey-barking: no no no.
That’s it. There’s no clever handling of the system, no scrying out of loopholes, no incisive interpretation of the law. There’s just ignoring it and daring someone to do something about it. SCOTUS’s new motto is basically Lol What Are You Gonna Do About It? in Latin. We all know precedent, standing, ethics and arguments mean nothing anymore. Six of them are just going to chortle and preen and smoke each other’s farts in the finest of pipes and pull the big novelty rope for whatever hurts people the most for the foreseeable future.
I mean, this!
It’s not a coherent belief system, it’s just government by narcissistic personality disorder. A narcissist is never wrong, never a hypocrite, never at fault. A narcissist changes reality around them and bulldozes others into agreeing with it to save their sanity and their skin and then turns around and changes that reality on a whim to avoid ever having to feel anything at all, least of all the dreaded responsibility. There’s no such thing as a smart fascist because smart people, by definition, think about things and fascism is terrified of letting anyone think about what’s happening for more than a second. Just throw up some new pain porn on the captive media and give it bright colors until people are so angry they can’t think, not even about what they’re angry about.
This!!
Evil doesn’t win because good is dumb. Evil wins because evil is easy. It’s so damnably easy to be stupid and hateful and ignorant and mean. It’s effortless. It’s easy not to regulate your behavior or your emotions because fuck everyone else that’s why. It’s easy to just go through life the way your parents told you to and hate anyone who lives differently. It’s easy to fear and lash out and buy a bunch of guns and puff up your chest on the internet and just shriek a tantrum into your phone’s camera that amounts to nothing more complicated than waaaaa but I’m supposed to get everything I want all the time! It’s easy to vote for a guy you’ve seen on TV for 30 years because you think it’s funny when he says things you think but your kids get super mad at you for saying. It’s easy to hurt others from a safe position. It’s easy to be a sack of shit. It just is. All you have to do is never think of anyone or anything but yourself.
Eeesh. Definitely read it. I think I have to subscribe so I can read her follow-up.
It’s Morning In America
…and a gun or a corpse has more rights than I do! (No, I hadn’t read the news when I posted Friday.) Here are some memes and links to enjoy if you, too, have been reduced to a vessel. But guess what? If I can’t be a person, I can be a problem.
View this post on Instagram
And some things I read over the weekend that gave the tiniest glimmers of hope:
AOC’s thread on what Democrats can do now
The NY Times on how to discipline a rogue court
Mass online volunteer training happening July 17
A few questions you can ask yourself on hopeless days
Tell Us We’re Overreacting Now
Remember when Trump and the Republican-majority congress appointed three Supreme Court justices? And liberals worried that it would mean the end of Roe v Wade? And conservatives said we were just being dramatic? Yeah. That same Supreme Court just upheld Texas’ extremist abortion law:
This isn’t about saving the lives of children. If it were, they’d mandate masks and stop school shootings. They’d make childcare happen, and school lunches, and give kids clean water and some hope of a climate future. This is about control. This is about keeping people in poverty. Because the wives and daughters and mistresses of these conservative men will still be able to access abortion.
I’m used to the cruelty at this point, but the hypocrisy is just breathtaking.
(Once your rage simmers down to a manageable level, donate to Planned Parenthood or the ACLU. Share Plan C’s link about abortion pills by mail widely. Call on your representatives to end the filibuster, protect reproductive rights at the Federal level, and expand the court.)
“But her emails!”
Slow news day yesterday, huh? Just kidding, I didn’t do any work after about 2:00 pm here and was glued to Twitter yesterday. On one hand, I’m not surprised at all–this is what liberals were worried about in 2016 and we got laughed at and called snowflakes–and on the other hand I’m still shocked at the utter confidence of white men not even trying to disguise who they are as they attempt a fucking coup.
Absolutely unbelievable footage in this Vice article: Storm the Capitol as a White Man and You’ll Get It (A Selfie With a Cop)
Hey Alexa, what is white privilege?:
‘White privilege is storming the capitol building and not getting shot’.
— Francis Maxwell (@francismmaxwell) January 6, 2021
(Not only did this guy somehow not get attacked or killed by the police, he get a fucking interview with the New York Times)
2016: it’s only four years, how bad can it get
2021: are the armed insurrectionists storming the Capitol aware that there is a plague ravaging the land
— Owl! at the Library ????????‍♀️ (@SketchesbyBoze) January 7, 2021
But guess what?
“Welcome Back, America”
The bar was LOW but we made it over. Yes, we still have so much work to do, but the relief is…really astonishing. And having the world share in that relief kind of reinforces just how bad the last four years have been. Here are a couple moments that got me all teary over the weekend.
Van Jones’ reaction on CNN:
“…this is vindication for a lot of people who have really suffered […] It’s easy to do it the cheap way, and get away with stuff, but it comes back around. It comes back around.”
The bells of Paris ringing for us Saturday night, with the mayor saying “Welcome Back, America”:
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The bells are ringing in Paris. Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris says welcome back America . ????
And this random post, from a Brit in France. The fact that so many people STILL VOTED FOR A RACIST–especially white women–shows us just how much work there is to be done, but getting rid of a would-be despot is hard. And we did it.
“Character matters. The truth matters. Being a good person matters.” It comes back around.
Mood
How’s everyone doing? I’ve eaten half of a three-pound bag of candy corn and can’t focus on anything, but, as I keep reminding myself, this is still better than 2016. (Please let that sentence remain true.)
This is pretty much how I’ve been since Tuesday (sound ON):
Me today pic.twitter.com/kNE4v8Xx0k
— Brad Sams (@bdsams) November 4, 2020
Tuesday Project Roundup: Small Pretty Things That Distract Us From The Large Terrible Things
GOOD MORNING! SHALL WE LOOK AT SOME PRETTY UNDERWEAR WHILE WE ARE INCANDESCENT WITH RAGE ABOUT WHAT THE GOP IS DOING TO OUR COUNTRY? AND OUR HEALTHCARE?? AND OUR BODILY AUTONOMY??? AFTER THEY DELAYED A SUPREME COURT VOTE FOR NEARLY A YEAR???!! SOUNDS GOOD!!
Hi! Everything is terrible! Here are some piles of underwear with vaguely Japanese prints and more lace than I would ever have dreamed I’d be wearing three months ago!
There’s something to be said for the small focus of lingerie sewing–especially with lace, which needs extra attention. There’s something to be said for practice, too, since I think this batch is my best yet in terms of finish.
The Spoonflower print bras are Cloth Habit Watsons, the orange lace bra is the Studio Costura Mara, and the pink lace bralette is my first attempt at the Hanna, also from Studio Costura. (All the undies are my current favorite giant undies, the Noelle from Madalynne.)
Laces came from a grab bag from Tailor Made Shop and from Queen Lace Studio. Orange findings were from Bra Builders (before they changed up their colors) and the narrow lace trim on the black print undies came from Surge Fabric Shop.
Small soothing details:Â Findings that match perfectly ,tiny flowers in the lace.
Deep breaths: Perfectly mirrored fronts and a strap that shows off that extravagant scalloped edge. (Studio Costura patterns continue to be great–this fit fine but next time I make it I will use a more supportive lining than bamboo jersey.)
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed these pictures of my crafts while the country is literally and figuratively on fire. I’m putting my hopes in the youth and in AOC and in the fact we’re all gonna vote to fix this. Right?
Thursday Reading
Are you getting Anne Helen Petersen’s new independent newsletter? It’s consistently great, especially last week’s on anticipatory grief, worry about the election, and the privilege of worry about politics because you’re safe otherwise:
For white, liberal, middle-class people whose jobs are secure — and for whom the COVID recession is effectively over — a lot of that grief centers on the president, on politics, on fears that the election will be contested, that we’ll fall into constitutional crisis, that QAnon and Proud Boy militias will fill the streets.
This is a real and existential fear, and I don’t wish to diminish it. It haunts the corners of my mind. Sometimes I realize my stomach has turned on itself — as I did just one minute into the debate this week — and it’s just that now familiar psychological cocktail of dread, fear, and sadness. That’s grief! It’s just that it’s for society! …
It’s a privilege, albeit a twisted one, to be able to grieve on such a philosophical level. I’m able to do so in part because I’m not currently bereft by personal loss. My family is isolated and lonely but able to remain physically safe and economically stable. I’m effectively floating through my year but also have the wherewithal to figure out how to change my address on my voting registration. I feel pretty consistently untethered but have not lost members of my close community and extended family to COVID. I am so angry at how dysfunctional every corner of our government has proven itself but I am not warding off eviction.
Emphasis mine, but god. Why isn’t it like this? “I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care about other people.”