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You know what feels weirder and more viscerally unsettling to me than the widespread lockdown?
The feeling that a huge part of the country is sort of... forgetting that almost 100k people have died and going about their business.
The feeling that a huge part of the country is sort of... forgetting that almost 100k people have died and going about their business.
I mean it, this is deep-level weird to me and it’s making me feel even more mentally and emotionally unmoored than quarantine has.
The last three years have really driven home to me the fact that millions of people in this country are like literal aliens to me.
The last three years have really driven home to me the fact that millions of people in this country are like literal aliens to me.
Like they are incomprehensible. I have no idea how they live the way they do. I have no idea how someone can see the world the way they do. Their entire worldview makes absolutely no sense. It is of the Upside Down.
I spent years immersed in literature and testimonials on Nazi extermination camps for my dissertation and I’m not kidding when I say that did not deal a blow to my belief in the reason and goodness of people the way the Trump years have done.
But it’s not just that I think they’re terrible.
It’s that they’re aliens. It’s that I don’t understand them. Not only are they terrible but I don’t understand how people are this terrible.
It’s that they’re aliens. It’s that I don’t understand them. Not only are they terrible but I don’t understand how people are this terrible.
And I don’t understand how many people who aren’t actually that terrible are just sort of... okay with it.
Also this is important context.
It’s still absolutely fucking bizarre to see it at this level. The thing isn’t new, but the sheer extremity of it is. https://twitter.com/professorisin/status/1262796506391646208?s=21 https://twitter.com/professorisin/status/1262796506391646208
It’s still absolutely fucking bizarre to see it at this level. The thing isn’t new, but the sheer extremity of it is. https://twitter.com/professorisin/status/1262796506391646208?s=21 https://twitter.com/professorisin/status/1262796506391646208
The most bizarre thing is that this is probably going to get much worse, probably many many more people will die, and while a couple of months ago I was saying it would make a difference when it started hitting closer to home...
I’m not sure I believe that anymore.
I’m not sure I believe that anymore.
I’m well aware of the ableism problem of phrasing it like this, but I don’t think we have the vocabulary to adequately describe it any other way.
This is insane. It is absolutely insane. It is deranged.
This is insane. It is absolutely insane. It is deranged.
The world has finally gone insane at a level that I can’t handle. It’s broken me.
