Recs of rage

"Maybe I should try heroin."

I was listening to a random Spotify playlist a couple of mornings ago, staring blankly into my closet because decisions have been hard this week, when Velvet Underground's song Heroin came on and that thought popped into my head. So that's where I'm at.

Don't worry, I'm not starting a heroin habit. Yet. I reserve the right to if (when?) detention camps start appearing on the horizon.

I spent a brief eight hours being sad and have now moved into anger, and it appears I might be living there for a while. I am angry at the millions of people who decided that me and my children are worth sacrificing because they think Trump is going to put a few more dollars in their bank account. (Spoiler: he's not.)

I am angry at the Democratic party for willfully ignoring the steady outflow of working-class voters over the years. I'm furious at the party leaders who pushed Bernie to the back in 2020, instead muscling through a bland candidate nobody wanted, presumably on the premise that it was "his turn."

I'm mad Biden even ran in the first place this time around. I'm not that mad at Kamala. She should have distanced herself from Biden more, but the woman had 2 months to do so, for god's sake.

I think, though, I'm most angry at the devolution of our society to the point that few people understand the long game anymore. As AOC said in an email this week, "This comes down to political education, of race and class consciousness, and people understanding that these billionaires are not looking out for us. They are grinding us to a pulp and eating us for breakfast. They are burning our planet."

Public education of political systems, financial markets, capitalist structures, labor unions, tax shelters—this is what we need now. We need to go back to the drawing board and explain how deeply and irrevocably we are being screwed by the 1%, because it is clear that very few of our citizens understand that. They've been hoodwinked into believing that the billionaires know best.

We need education because a sizable portion of the population didn't even know Biden had dropped out. Voter turnout campaigns filled with celebrities and cute hats and memes are clearly not the answer. Those Taylor Swift and Beyonce endorsements are downright embarrassing in hindsight. Travel to one of the thousands of abandoned company towns across America and ask their citizens how much sway Taylor Swift had over their vote.

What lies ahead is terrifying for me, as a woman, as a mother—hell, as a human being. I weep for what you wished for, America. Because it's going to hurt.

My recs this week:

"Misogyny isn’t about hating or discriminating against women because they are women and thus attract suspicion and consternation. Misogyny is about exposing women to harm because our gender makes us beneath full consideration."
That's from writer Kate Mannes, and you should read the whole piece.

Read through this thread and make a checklist of everything you need to do in the next 2 months.

Make time to laugh because we're still human:

Alexandra Petri in The Washington Post: "Don’t ask me what year it is, because I am no longer certain. Triumph for the forces of Explain to Me Again That Your Lives Matter! Triumph for the forces of Rolling Their Eyes, Waiting for You to Stop Talking! Triumph for the forces of Don’t Believe What Any Woman Tells You; You Are Absolutely Entitled to One Woman Just for Existing! The forces of Can’t You Take a Joke? The forces of No, That’s Not Your Body; That Belongs to the State."

Men Yell at Me: "A real testament to the American dream that if you barely work, you are very unattractive and you’re also racist, you too can be president. I’d say he’s really broken the glass ceiling for male blowhards, but let’s be real about who our founding fathers were. Also Andrew Jackson."

From Choire Sicha's Dinner Party newsletter, advising us to exercise more: "A lot of the problems for people In The Handmaid’s Tale could have been solved if people just had better mile times. Or at least more endurance. There was just so much running for your life and people were not prepared! Less Pilates, more treadmill. Either run longer or run faster but pick one. The abortion underground railroad is going to be on foot, and you don’t want to hit that cold."

Lastly, a poem:

If Adam Picked the Apple
Danielle Coffyn

There would be a parade,
a celebration,
a holiday to commemorate
the day he sought enlightenment.
We would not speak of
temptation by the devil, rather,
we would laud Adam’s curiosity,
his desire for adventure
and knowing.

We would feast
on apple-inspired fare:
tortes, chutneys, pancakes, pies.
There would be plays and songs
reenacting his courage. 

But it was Eve who grew bored,
weary of her captivity in Eden.
And a woman’s desire
for freedom is rarely a cause
for celebration.

xoxo,
Carla