Monstrous
How do you frame your response to monstrosity?
We are often trapped by the fact that we can barely encompass the fact that someone would utter such words. That they would be uttered by someone who has the ability to back up such a monstrous threat, that can make you want to shut down.
I well remember the fear of nuclear war that seemed to pervade the eighties, with Reagan and his talk of Revelations.
For every Threads and When The Wind Blows you had this weird punk optimism that we would all get super powers and become cool mutants. Dying of cancer seemed a very unhopeful way to approach things.
It’s been a long time since we had someone quite so nutty as Trump in power, but never had we had someone that nutty with the kind of arsenal under their command, as this particular fruitcake has.
Idiots and madmen who believe in something are at least a little predictable, but someone like this who believes in whatever serves the whims of his own ego, could literally jump any which way.
It is not inconceivable that at 8pm we might have seen an unprecedented attack launched on Iran that was designed to wipe it from the face of the earth. Although equally horrific, even Nagasaki and Hiroshima, weren’t conceived with the intent of wiping out Japan, rather forcing an unconditional surrender.
We aren’t in that same space anymore. We are dealing with someone who made a pandemic about themselves. We are dealing with someone who exfiltrated a sovereign leader from their country on trumped up charges. We are dealing with someone who has started wars with no apparent goal in order to distract from their crimes against children. Reopening the Strait of Hormuz is another example of Trump having to fix a self-own and trying to pass it off as a victory.
We are dealing with someone who has legitmaized the actions of authoritarians across the planet, including especially, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
On a smaller scale Israel has been wiping out cities such as Rafah, so the notion of a country being destroyed is not idle threat, when you are Ok with what your friends are doing, and they are in bed with you on the attacks you are currently engaged in.
But monstrosity is monstrosity. That the act of stating that killing children and being willing to wipe out a race is not acceptable, has become problematic, really does show you where we are.
The lies do not work though. At least not on everyone. And for those on whom they work, one must occasionally jettison dead weight from their life.
If you find it easy to accept what is told you from the podium of the White House Press Secretary, or if you believe the words that fall from the mouth of this President, then the only explanation for your ability to respond to monstrosity by accepting it, is that you too have become a monster.