Not Quite Writer's Block, But Close

I’ve been trying to write a post about politics lately.  It’s not going so well.

Oh, I’ve got most of it mapped out in my head and I’ve even figured out how it should start, which is usually the hard part.  There’s more evidence to back up my points than I know what to do with – politics these days being an embarrassment of riches for those who wish to rake muck.  And muck there is to be raked, let me tell you.

But you know, I just can’t seem to get motivated to write the thing.  It’s been nearly a month since I had this idea, and there it sits. 

Part of it is that I am just burned out on the crypto-fascism of the right wing these days.  And yes, I make that statement with a full historical knowledge of what Fascism actually means, i.e. not “ideas I strongly disagree with,” but an actual concrete set of principles and policies that has been dusted off the ash heap of history and is being loudly foisted off on the American public today under the guise of patriotism. 

Even thinking about it makes me want to start setting fire to things, which is not healthy for anyone.  My doctor has already told me to start watching my blood pressure as it is creeping toward the upper end of normal and does not need to creep further, for one thing.  For another, I was a volunteer firefighter once and I’d feel obligated to put the fires out.  Old habits die hard.. 

I’ve ended up in several political discussion on Facebook recently – a friend of mine often makes political posts, and he has several commenters of the “blind right winger” variety who can be trusted to respond with the most ideologically rigid and defiantly evidence-free stance possible.  They shout loudly about how everyone else is a zombie and they are the only people who know The Truth and if you don’t agree completely with them then you are a traitor, which strikes me as a bit of projection, honestly.  I’m waiting for them to use the word “sheeple,” which will make their degradation complete. 

I used to enjoy baiting the stupid – my friend still does, and he’s very good at it – but it has lost its charm for me.  I finally had to block one of those commenters because his entirely disproportionate and ranting response to what was a throwaway joke (one I have used many times without incident on people who make irrelevant arguments) struck me as mentally unbalanced and possibly threatening.

Who needs that?

Part of it is that I am also rather burned out on the ineffectiveness of any responses being made to the said right wing.  You’ve got one group doing its level best to destroy the republic and replace it with an authoritarian and theocratic state while another stands idly by and tries to appease them.

Who needs that either?

So it all sits in my head, waiting.  I suppose eventually I’ll write it, and then it will be exorcised and I can move on.  It’s going to be a long couple of months until the election is over.

It was nice to be away from the US for a while this summer, away from the hothouse atmosphere of batshit insanity we have substituted for political discourse for the last five or six years.  I’d like to continue that immersion in a world where people can disagree without taking leave of reality or descending into kindergarten-level invective.  I’d like to stay away from what politics has become here in the Land Of The Free-ish.

But in a sense that’s what the screamers want – to drive off those who are smart enough to see through their nonsense and to have the field all to themselves, to be able to implement their policies without opposition, without anyone calling them on their assaults on the fabric of this nation, without being forced to explain themselves.  To hell with that.

So eventually I’ll get to it and make that post here, and contribute my mite to the opposition of such things.


But not today.