“O, that my tongue were in the thunder’s mouth! / Then with a passion would I shake the world.”
— King John, Act 3 Scene 4, lines 39-40; Constance to King Philip
“Oh, shut the fuck up!“
— The most repeated phrase by drivers after the person behind them honks their horn
There is a time after being really angry that you deflate like a balloon. You simply sink, unable to hold the anger as if it had never been real. It brings an exhaustion that can not be rivaled and you no longer wish to gripe or yell and you are willing to just let things be…*
*(coughs the word ‘bullshit’)
I have been able to carry anger in a bucket for the majority of my adult life. Red hot, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. An anger that was self stoking and with a supply of ethereal wood for which the supply was inexhaustible.
Make no mistake, it is tiring to be angry and it does take a toll. A big toll, but it can still burn hot for decades, and that is why you should avoid it when you can.
You can’t avoid it altogether; don’t ever think that you can. It’s a natural thing of course, but that doesn’t mean it’s super good for you. Captain Ahab chased Moby Dick a little too hard, for example. He was, aside from being fictional, also mentally unhealthy as hell .
Sure as hell doesn’t look any less angry, does he?
There’s also different kinds of anger and frankly, I’m not going to go into all of them as I am a horror writer and not a fledgling therapist. I don’t want to be a therapist, but I want to be well.
Part of being well is what my friend Sluggo says is a hill she’s willing to die on; (For those keeping score, I’m the only one who calls her Sluggo. Subsequently, she calls me Alice.)
Again, as I often do, I digress.
There is a whole level of anger that’s starting to ramp up and it is, to be frank, stupid rage.
What kind of rage?
“Let me tell y’all what it’s like/being male, middle class and white.” Ben Folds, Rocking the Suburbs
That song was written and sung with tongue firmly in cheek, but that’s the sort of rage that’s increasing. White guys being angry that their voices aren’t being heard anymore. I mean, who can blame them? Damn near elected a black Asian woman a few months back. Whew, that was a close one huh?
I say it is a stupid rage because it is absent of mostly truth. It’s people buying into the bullshit. People accepting what they have been told as fact by the person they are deciding to believe. This is not a problem for just one political party.
Reread that if you stare at it in disbelief.
Everyone has a reason to do things. Republicans lost their fucking minds when Biden pardoned his son. Why did he do that? Two reasons.
One, Harris lost and couldn’t pardon him herself.
Two, it’s his son and even though he said he said he wasn’t going to pardon him, he did.
Cos he’s a dad.
Republicans went absolutely ape shit, like they’d never heard someone backtrack on a promise. Almost like you can’t say shit and then do something else, right?
How’s that ended war in Ukraine doing?
Or the price of fucking eggs?
I digress…
There is so much stupid rage all over. And we keep forgetting the worst part is that we, as a country have always been filled with stupid rage. We do shit like redefine words to match what we think they mean.
We collectively lose our shit when the news starts pointing out things when whoever is in charge starts doing anything. Anything. Anything at all.
This is how it always goes and it pisses everyone off.
And right now, the guy running stuff is really good at a few things.
Mainly, pissing people off.
He is a lot of things and reviled for a lot of them but he is undeniably brilliant at one thing; infuriating the hell out of people.
Steve Bannon explained part of this super power as “Flooding the Zone” which is simply put, overloading the press with a ton of bullshit to the point where it saturates the left with so much egregious crap that it essentially breaks the spirit of everyone watching as a lot of crap get suggested en masse. (More info at that link, kids.)
It’s been a while since I started this part two and the main reason is just how quickly 47 is getting settled into his repositioning of power. The early reports are terrifying for rational folks and might just start bleeding into (or, trickling down as it were) the very folks who voted for him.
It’s angering, isn’t it? I’m sure there’s folks reading this and, shaking their heads sadly, smirking and saying “Aw, he’s really drinking the Cool Aid isn’t he? Poor bastard. I’ll pray for him because he just doesn’t know any better.” Or my favorite one I’ve been hearing a lot “We didn’t elect him so he could be nice.”
Well, you elected him under the auspices that he was at least smart enough to get shit right at least sometimes. Right? And this whole America First “mandate” being co-opted by a South African Nazi who indeed was not elected and is now running…well, whatever he feels like. But make no mistake while you’re watching that goon, the Orange Powder Keg will be getting away with shit all over the place. Most recently, blaming the helicopter airplane collision on DEI hires when in fact, the bloody trail goes back to when he started firing people in the TSA, FAA and other departments probably to just look cool.
Or, this was the intended consequence. This is going to keep going.
In retaliation, I’m limiting my media intake all over. I’m still paying attention, but he’s the monkey in the zoo, flinging his shit everywhere and it really won’t affect too much until he hits something you care about and you probably will not have to wait too long.
He’s already hit me where I live in a lot of ways and friends as well.
I don’t think there’s a lot of room for debate when you watch people Nazi Salute right out in front of the world and it’s explained away with bullshit and have it swallowed whole.
There is no debate to be had with people who refuse to believe their own eyes and ears.
You didn’t vote for him because he was nice. He’s always been a dick, and you know what?
You’re just getting to see how much of a dick he is and there’s so much to come.
So, when the bottom falls out and you get angry, don’t despair too much. I won’t say I told you so and I won’t be smug. At that point, well, we’re going to have a lot of work to do to get back the freedom you think you’ve been losing. In fact, that part has already started.
You know, I’m less angry now.
I’m just really fucking sad.
But this will not be the hill I’m willing to die on.
Sadness will turn back into anger and then anger will turn into solutions that will make sense.
Hopefully, everyone wakes up at the same time and the same place while there are still hills we can choose to live on instead of die.
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