A New Day
It is January 24, 2025, and Donald Trump has been president (again) for four days.
I went to bed on election night feeling a hollow kind of hope. Kamala Harris tagging in for Joe Biden was a scary possibility, one that I didn't think would work, and when it finally happened, the response was thrilling. To the average observer it appeared as though the Democrats were falling in line, mobilizing behind our new candidate with something that looked a lot like competence. Over the next 3 months, all of that goodwill, all of that verve, leaked out of the campaign like a month-old birthday balloon. Harris answered question after question with a nonspecific "I'll be a president for the poor people." This lack of detail, lack of a grand vision, did more to temper my hope than it did to build my excitement. Still, I thought the majority of Americans were in agreement: this would be better than nothing.
Anyway, I saw some folks I was friends with on Facebook celebrating the Trump inauguration and decided that was enough. It's been a long time coming. I have always hated Zuckerberg, an anti-social loser whose entire career is founded on that fact. I have long hated Musk, whose one true skill is having Apartheid money and an overinflated sense of self-worth. I have always hated billionaires, a class of people that should not exist. Watching them all come together to celebrate the New American Hitler was pretty impactful. Watching them scramble to dismantle equity initiatives, gleefully gutting gender identity protections and basic accommodations for marginalized groups, it made my blood boil. We were told (not that I ever believed it) that Project 2025 was a myth, that it was debunked, but on day one of the regime, it was already arriving. Anybody who believed that it would be otherwise is not worth my time.
Alchemy
I can't spend these next four years just being pissed off (often at people I love, somehow, in spite of how disgusting and hateful I think their worldviews are). And I can't continue to give myself over to the algorithmic hellscape that has shepherded us into fascism. I've deactivated my Facebook, I've long been off of Twitter, I've canceled my Prime. What's left?
Everything. We've been lulled into complacency, into the belief that the internet can be ours if we agree to the terms set by Zuckerberg and his ilk. That's not true, and it's becoming clearer and clearer that we can't let that be true. We have BlueSky, we have the Fediverse, we have an ever-expanding selection of blogs and feeds. Some of these are already pretty accessible!
For me, I wanted to take things a step further. I'm writing this blog to create something out of the scraps they've left for us. I can't settle for four years of rage. I will continue to celebrate joy and love and solidarity wherever I can, and I'll do that for the rest of my life, because as long as we do so, hatred won't win.
Welcome to the blog. Hope to see you around 🙂