you know you are really being very solipsistic and self-centred right now. the universe is vast and you are not the protgaonist of every story. have you considered that from some prespectives, the radiator is being handcuffed to you?
I cannot trust the artistic opinions of anybody who can’t frankly admit that the vast majority of whatever’s produced in their chosen medium (books, film, etc) is unsalvageable pigslop. But also that dogshit amateur art is critical for said medium. AND that pigslop and amateur dogshit is different
Publishing is largely a machine cranking out entire forests’ worth of garbage not worth reading. AND your unedited, barely-coherent 500k word Super Smash Bros fanfiction is vital for the soul to flourish. There is no contradiction here
Look man, I don’t know. There are a lot of fascist fuckwits trying their best to ruin everything for everyone right now. There have often been a lot of fascist fuckwits trying to ruin everything for everyone. Not to downplay the pain and trauma we’re all feeling at having to struggle through this particular go-round when the future looks especially dark, but it’s not exactly a new thing in human history. Alas.
There are still many, many people telling the fascist fuckwits to eat shit. There are still long green spring evenings and slow golden summer afternoons and winter nights and autumn leaves. There are still coffee shops and weird little bookstores and small businesses on sidewalks lined with flowered trees. There are still sunrises and sunsets and blue skies and ocean shores and mountains. Oh yes, there are still mountains, which I have an especial fondness for. High up there in thin air, you can see forever.
There are still Gay People In Your Phone and texts and in-jokes. There are your blorbos. There is still fic and fanart. There are still books and music and games and art. There is a lot of art. Even with the AI beast trying to gobble and commercialize everything, there’s still art! There are still people who think using your own brain to do things is important! There are still universities and publishing houses and other places where it’s our job to think about things that matter!
There is still work that feels fulfilling to do. There are still constant little moments of quiet and beauty and rest. There are still jaw-dropping pictures of nebulae and galaxies and the great immensity of space, as we continue to learn things we never knew before. And amid all those stars, there is still a tiny, beautiful, and vulnerable blue planet which we only get to live on for a very short time, and there are still kids who are counting on us to make sure they get to inherit it in some kind of recognizable form. There is still the weird fact that when you give someone a hug and sit with them for a while and tell them over and over that it will be okay, it actually feels like it might be okay. I think that all means something.
Doomerism is really easy right now. I get it. I honestly 100% do. But I also don’t see any point whatsoever in throwing up our hands and letting said fascist fuckwits gleefully terrify us into submission and make us live in fear and act like they’re the Actual Meaning of the World (they are not). They suck so incredibly hard, but they’re also so small and so stupid and so ultimately insignificant. They will not define this particular moment if we don’t let them, and if we stick around to make sure they don’t. Fuck ‘em. I believe in you.
Courage, etc.
Some examples of fascist fuckwits eating shit in the last *checks notes* 48 hours, if that is a thing that will bring you some joy:
Everybody who’s been showing up to protest, everybody who’s been shouting at town halls, everybody who has been calling, writing, and emailing their reps: this is what you have helped to do.
When they try to pull this shit and we stand up and scream at the top of our lungs “not today, Satan,” it works. It may not work immediately and it may work slower than we’d like, but it does work. When we push back hard on their bullshit, they falter.
Things are still scary, yes. I’m not saying we’re out of the woods. But there are battles we are winning.
Make your calls, write your letters, show up for your protests, and always, always remember to take time to enjoy the beautiful things in your life, whatever they may be for you.
They are more scared of us than we are of them. And they should be. We are more powerful than they are. And we will prevail. Stay strong.
We HAVE to push back. It works. Like said above, it won’t happen immediately, it won’t happen as fast as we’d like, but it will happen. Little drips.
when I tag things as “resist, persist, hope,” this is what I’m talking about. A lot of pebbles become an avalanche. A lot of snowflakes become a blizzard. Fascism didn’t happen overnight and neither will defeating it. But we will defeat it.
ALT
ALT
ALT
