I’ve been struggling to find the motivation to write anything lately so, in the interim, there have been a surprising number of behind-the-scene changes and tweaks that will probably amuse no one but me (If you’re looking for a way to use an audio file as your Google voice greeting, I think I have that sorted).
I didn’t want to return like this, but today will be me letting off a little steam.
You could tell right from the beginning that the appeal of Donald Trump was that he could be as greedy, as cruel, as hateful as he wanted and he wouldn’t be held responsible for it. For some people, that is a really powerful positive and I’m not being facetious. He gives his followers license to behave the same way, to act as though their bigotry and selfishness are somehow noble or at least not something to be ashamed of.
You can argue that he’s a symptom and not a cause and I get it. These traits have always existed in lesser or greater quantities in all of us. But, if he’s not a cause, he’s a catalyst. A friend of my family argued that Jesus would want immigrants arrested and punished because of the Ten Commandments. The one about coveting, which, coming from a Trump supporter, was deeply ironic, but mostly, it was just sad.
I bring this up because of something that happened today. My wife went to the grocery store by herself just after noon. There shouldn’t be anything special or unusual about that, but today was different. She was shaking and in tears. She wore a mask because COVID-19 is on the rise again and the store was packed. This was too much for many of the shoppers to bear. They circled her. They leaned in and coughed at her. They squared up to her and stared. There was more, but she wouldn’t talk about it.
This wasn’t the dickish mockery we saw when COVID was busy killing more Americans in 3 years than were killed in every war the US has been involved with (I’m not counting those who fought against the US). This was aggressive. This was threatening. This was not OK.
I hope this is a temporary uptick in scary assholery. The debate certainly seemed to fire up the “Yee haw obey the law” contingent (seriously, Texans of yore would be appalled). Perhaps it was, ironically, just the church crowd. Maybe I’m overreacting to a single day’s events. I hope so. But…if this is the new normal, the new normal is a serious problem. I can’t and won’t ask my wife to put up with that shit.
Now, here’s where the privilege check comes in. This is a new feeling for us. Some people live with worse every day of their life. I don’t know how. And, I won’t kid myself: The option to leave is another sign of privilege. So, we’re looking. Maybe things will get better. But, we need to be prepared in case they don’t.