Tuesday Thread: How are you coping?
I realize the header picture is a bit grisly, and I apologize, but it sort of fits my mood today. It’s a photo montage, made up of one image I made of hornets feasting on a rattlesnake that had been killed by a car, and another of a Patek Phillipe ad. Patek Phillipes are luxury watches costing, on average, about $47,000, though some models can go for ten times this amount. Mark Zuckerberg reportedly has a few in his collection of ultra-pricey timepieces. I see them as one of the many symbols of the tech broligarchy that is rapidly seizing control of the country.
Musk and Trump fired more government workers — including about 2,000 from the Interior Department — over the holiday weekend, many of them younger folks who were just launching their careers with the park service or forest service. And that’s just one piece of the havoc being wreaked on the federal government, society, and, yes, democracy.
I cope by turning off the phone and walking my dogs up and down the hillsides near my house and by making images like the one pictured here. How about you? What are your coping strategies? And what do you think should/can/must be done to push back? (And if you’re excited about what Trump and Musk, tell us why).
Walking everyday. Planning and prepping for a Grand Canyon trip early March. The descent through time there tends to put our immediate world order into perspective. Actively staying connected to local community and civil disobedience efforts. Not exactly excited about the young tech bros raping everyone’s privacy but I think something like this was inevitable. My mom’s 94, I’m 70, my kids are 36-40, I’m close with 20-25 year olds. What America was for us is not what it has been for the younger generation. Our government and main stream media has been corporate and corrupt to them their whole lives. They may not want this insanity but they didn’t want the boomer reality either. Maybe once it’s all torn down they will build a better house. But I think we will be experience tremendous chaos and suffering in the next few years.
I’ve been talking to my brother a lot. He’s retired Navy and worked in NATO command for 20 years, and formally identified as a moderate Republican. He’s just as disgusted about everything going on as I am. I usually share with him a piece by Anne Applebaum from The Atlantic or Ezra Klein from NYT, and it’s interesting to see the lightbulbs go off in his head. I figure if Rob and I can find common ground, maybe there will soon come a day when people who used to disagree with each other about politics are out in the street peacefully protesting, demanding accountability. I also take heart about Poland’s peaceful revolution in 2023, wherein they overcame their far right autocratic government. It’s going to take a long time to rebuild institutions to work for the people, but they’re doing it.