Category: The Gray Plague

‘Truth Tellers’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of my far-more-conservative relatives, whom I love dearly, has been ranting about how fucking old Biden is. This person kind of got worked up about it more than once. And I, too, have admitted that Biden is really old — and acts it — but I simply hate MAGA too much to use Biden’s age as any sort of excuse to vote for…ugh…Trump.

Now that Biden appears to be about to leave the race, it seems like it’s time to contemplate the OTHER thing my far more conservative relative has gotten worked up about — the COVID restrictions of a few years ago.

Is my far more conservative relative right about all that? Should there be “consequences” — even criminal — for the people responsible for those restrictions?

Nope. I keep thinking about what happened and why and I just can’t agree with such severe political views. And, what’s more, there just isn’t any political will all these years later to do anything like arrest the CDC en masse. I suppose Tyrant Trump might do it, but…I don’t know.

That’s a maybe. He might have bigger issues to contend with going forward. Anyway, I just don’t see the point in going after the people who did the COVID restrictions. It was a time without any leadership and no one had any idea what to do.

We can just hope the Fire Next Time will be handled better — hopefully because Trump won’t be in charge.

The Power Of Right Wing Podcasts Is Very Real

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It is interesting how my far more conservative relatives — who I love dearly — often go out of their way to note that they don’t watch Fox News. What they fail to say by stating this is they DO listen to Right Wing podcasts that pretty much echo all talking points found on Fox New.

The thing that a lot of smug Twitter liberals are oblivious about is the fact that there are a lot of people who aren’t dumb or ignorant but who support Trump’s policies — if not the man. That cold, hard fact is probably one of the most dangerous issue floating around the American body politic as we careen towards the 2024 election.

All the Right Wing echo chamber — podcasts included — do is give Traditionalists an extensive permission structure to do what they probably were inclined to do anyway — vote for Trump.

I Haven’t Felt This Uneasy Since The Very Beginning Of The COVID19 Pandemic

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I can remember the dread I felt in really early 2020 about how bad things might get with COVID19. I really, really overestimated how bad things would get, but I was spot-on that everything was about to change for a few months.

And, now, we have a potential insurrection 2.0 / civil war on our hands.

For the time being, I think this situation is just going to simmer. The late night talk show hosts haven’t weighed in, so that’s a good sign that my fears about an escalation happening because of a combination of political pressure, misjudgment and momentum haven’t been realized yet.

I think we’re probably more likely to just have a lot of smoke but no fire. I would be stunned if my absolute worst fear — a secession crisis — happened before Election Day. I have political faith in Biden. I think he’s wise enough to hold off on escalation for the time being — until the political pressure just gets too strong and he has to do something, anything to prove he’s listening.

It definitely will be interesting to see what happens next, though, I have to say. We live in strange, surreal times.

An Astonishing Number Of People Will Have To Die Each Day During The Next Pandemic For Us To Have The Political Will To Do Anything About It

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I can tell you from what the conservatives in my family — whom I love dearly — have told me that a massive number of people will have to start dying each day for any sort of political response to a new pandemic to happen. It could be as high as 10,000 people a day before we can get our act together.

I don’t know, it might even be more — 20,000? 30,000? 50,000?

There is now a strict orthodoxy within traditional conservative ranks that under no circumstances can there ever be any sort of lockdown or restricts imposed because of a health emergency.

So, things will have to grow rather apocalyptic before there is any collective action when we have the next pandemic. I have this on my mind at the moment because I’m growing nervous that this fall and winter might be really bad in regards to COVID.

At the moment, it definitely seems as though, lulz, we’re just going to let people die needlessly, no matter how bad things get this COVID season. Ugh. Everything is so dumb.

‘Do Not Comply’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of my conservative relatives — who I love dearly — continues to be enraged by the COVID restrictions of several years ago. They talk about how much they think they were “lied to” by the elites, yadda, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah.

Whenever this relative mentions grievance –which is often — I note to him that that is not how Republicans will win the 2024 election. Unless there is a significant uptick in COVID cases that leads to an attempt to bring by COVID restrictions, people in 2024 are going to want 2024 solutions, rather than someone who looks back at what happened in 2020.

Apparently, there is some belief within Righwing Twitter that those restrictions are coming back this fall. I find this fear delusional for a number of reasons, the chief of which is there just is no political will to do such a thing. Thousands of people could be dying a day from COVID this fall and winter and, lulz, there will be absolutely no political will to do anything about it.

It does make you wonder what will happen if some sort of pandemic happens in the future that is far, far worse than what we experienced with COVID. There is a real risk that if some sort of Big One happens that it could be that not until 10,000 people are dying a day will we manage to have any sort of political will to lock the country down.

I’m Growing A Little Uneasy

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have a very conservative, very partisan Traditionalist relative who is still enraged over what happened with COVID policy. He has totally bought into simplistic Right Wing podcast talking points to an absurd level. The more I think about it, the more I realize it’s not COVID that he’s angry about.

His rage comes from being a white Christian male who, on a macro level, is flabbergasted at the rise of women’s economic power as well as some of the more exotic policy demands of the “woke cancel culture mob.” Things are moving too fast for him on a social level and because we have non-functioning politics he stews in his juices.

He’s a well meaning person who is not being served by the conservative agenda. If Republicans would do what parties in their situation typically do, he would be fed new, more popular talking points on Right Wing podcasts instead of believing that the United States is a “constitutional republic” not a democracy and fuck you, lib.

But the point is — I’m growing alarmed at how easy it would be for people to being to believe all these people dying a relatively young age has something to do with the COVID vaccine. All it would take is one study that somehow, someway “proved” that and…oh boy. People like my relative who grab a pitchfork and charge the Capitol.

I think some of my concern comes from the innate need to make connections, to see patterns. So, hopefully, we won’t have to have The Debate about how “right” the fucking Right wing nutjobs were about the safety of vaccines. I mean, millions of people have taken the COVID vaccines and nothing has happened to them. They’re safer, in real terms, than The Pill.

But because of hyper partisanship and negative partisanship, even a hint that some of these younger middle age people dying are dying because of the COVID vaccine will be enough to potentially cause violence.

Well, If Nothing Else, The Second Draft Of My First Novel Is Getting Really Good

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After years of work, the novel I’ve been working on is finally beginning to take shape. The second draft that I’m working on at the moment is really, if nothing else, intriguing. I’m really pleased with what I’ve managed to come up with. No one cares and no one takes me seriously, but I will now how good this thing is even if literary agents all ultimately think I’m a drunk crank.

I’m futzing with the name of the novel after having the same one for a really long time. This happens every once in a while. I’ll find myself totally revamping some element of the novel that has been stable for a long time for no reason.

I continue to be on course to query this novel this novel during the fall 2023 querying season. I keep saying that such a thing exists, but, lulz, I need some sense of order to this huge project.

All I know is — I’m going to be (hopefully) finished with this novel in late spring. Then I hand it over to the Beta Reader process. Maybe, hopefully, find an editor in the summer….then query in the fall.

That’s the vision I have in my head, at least.

I Haven’t Forgotten Your ‘Spooky’ Resignation Right Before The Pandemic, Bob Iger

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock (9241938da) The Walt Disney Company CEO Robert Iger attends a special screening of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” at Alice Tully Hall, in New York NY Special Screening of “Beauty and the Beast”, New York, USA – 13 Mar 2017

This is total idle speculation, but I still find it very “spooky” that Bob Iger quit Disney….right before the COVID19 pandemic struck the West. You could not have timed it better.

It almost makes you think that he knew how bad things were going get. As if, maybe…FIVE EYES in SPOOKY places might have given him a tip? I know it sounds crazy…but why would he quit out of the blue like that at the top of his game….then come slinking back to Disney now just as the pandemic is wrapping up?

Very, very curious.

Very, very SPOOKY, if you will.

Ron DeSantis — American Autocrat

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If Trump will just get out of his way, Ron DeSantis will become president and, as such, become America’s first true autocrat. It will be, as they say, all over but the shouting for American democracy. But for Trump being a narcissistic ding-dong who doesn’t realize he’s served his political and historical purpose, DeSantis being our autocrat in waiting would now be an immutable fact of psychohistory.

Ron DeSantis

But.

There is the issue of Trump. The man has proven that not only is he lazy and stupid, but he always, always does the wrong thing. So, there’s every reason to believe that Trump either politically cockblock DeSantis or he will leave the Republican Party for the Patriot Party.

If the former happens, then the other two choices we face — civil war or military junta — continue to be very real possibilities. And if Trump bounces to the Patriot Party because he loses to DeSantis, he will split the Republican vote and we punt our existential problems down the road another presidential cycle.

Now, let me be clear — I want to be wrong. If somehow Republicans stop being fascists and we pull ourselves out this death spiral we’re in at the moment, great. But at the moment, the only way that happens is space aliens land on the White House front lawn.

Anyway, the point is — things are not quite sorted out yet. But should DeSantis end Trump politically, the United States is going to slip peacefully into autocracy.

What If Democrats Manage To Pull Off An Upset In The 2022 Midterms?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I woke up this morning to Axios telling me in breathless terms how fucked Democrats obviously were in tomorrow’s 2022 midterms. For anyone who is a fan of the Twitter account New York Times Pitchbot, it was yet another example of how what should be a parody account pretty much is reality at this point.

I don’t know why, but the mainstream press, far from being in the bag for Democrats, seem to believe the only way they can be “objective” is to shit on Democrats every chance they can get.

This does not, however, stop your typical conservative from being hysterical in their belief that one of the reasons they want to burn the country to the ground is the “media elites” won’t give them a fair shake. The fact that Republicans lie so much about things that we can all see not to be true is yet another sign that Something’s Gotta Give.

We can’t keep punting this shit down the road forever.

But let’s go back to the issue at hand — what if Axios is wrong? What if somehow Democrats manage to keep both the House and Senate?

The reason why it’s difficult for me to believe this is possible is macro trends indicate that MAGA and the associated slide into autocrat fascism is very, very popular within the American electorate. To be a Republican in good standing is to not believe in democracy at all — or at least not believe in any election where they lose.

But, just for the sake of argument, what if Democrats manage an upset?

I think if that happened, the first thing that would happen is Republicans would scream bloody murder because they would point to all the polls going into the election that indicated THEY were going to win. Which, given that they funded these flood-the-zone polls, this whole argument will be bullshit.

One apparent flashpoint is going to be Pennsylvania, specifically the area around Philadelphia. Apparently, we’re at risk of another Brooks Brother Riot in that area if things don’t go Republican’s way tomorrow.

The one thing that is not going to happen is Republicans suddenly having a come to Jesus moment about democracy. Rather than doing the obvious — changing their views so they’re more popular — Republicans are going to double down, triple down on their love of autocratic fascism.

They will see any defeat at the polls as a sign that their efforts to steal elections haven’t been aggressive enough. They are determined to strangle American democracy once and for all at any cost.