I’m writing this in a quiet, otherwise-unoccupied, darkened room which, metaphorically, is suited to unencumbered, truthful retrospection…a place where one might seize the opportunity to not buy into one’s own or anyone else’s bullshit.  This is a somewhat complicated endeavor for me as I attempt to temper my black-or-white natural tendencies, particularly in the light of recent recognition that I have embraced certainties, (benign though they may have been), that proved erroneous.  I’ll try to be extra careful.

As a woefully addicted news addict, I am in constant emotional turmoil, attempting to absorb, parse and otherwise evaluate a non-stop stream of dire, trivial and nonsensical information.  The “Breaking News”, “This Just In”, TV version of this data dump, complete with annoying sound effects, is peskier to navigate than a Saturday NY Times crossword, and the 60/40 ads-to-content format, (wasn’t the original idea of cable that it would be commercial-free?), is just one more angst-driven reason to yell at the non-responsive screen.  Yet, I return too often for my next fix, attempting to lessen my rage by muting the audio during the endless lists of pharmaceutical side effects, in expectation of something…anything…that would signal a ray of hopefulness for the planet currently ill-managed by my species.

It’s not just me, right?  Things are way more fucked up than ever.  Problem solving, a most natural human endeavor, is no longer a process of honestly discussing a dilemma with an eye toward potential solution(s) and the consequences thereof.  Every topic seems to play out in a surreal dance between the reality of its content, (facts…science?), as opposed to a preposterous and fantastical misrepresentation of basic truth.  The two-sides-to-every-argument adage only makes sense if the two sides attempt to use fact-based logic to support their hypotheses.  We have strayed so far from legitimate debate that the least informed among us are asked to make choices rooted in pure fiction, and the insidiousness of this pervasive atmosphere is undermining our health, safety and security in ways that may be irreparably irretrievable.

We have asterisk-ly elected, (please, make it go away, Mr. Mueller), a dangerously incompetent and morally bankrupt moron to be our President.  He is as bad or worse than other world leaders we have scoffed at while thanking our lucky stars for being more civilized than that.  He has, while being unable to actually pass legitimate legislation, begun to dismantle 240 years of democratic progress.  He has surrounded himself with a cadre of unqualified, uncaring henchmen/women who are bumbling us backward to the irresponsible times of our much bleaker past.  He is engineering a runaway train of federal judicial appointments that will undermine the rule of law…maybe forever.  He is, at every available opportunity, handing the unregulated keys to the kingdom to like-minded nihilists whose salivating lust for profit-at-any-cost has us in a virtual free-fall toward self-destruction.  But, worst of all, if indeed it’s possible to quantify the shit in a shit storm, he has stoked the worst nature of his minions’ mistrust, prejudice, bigotry and abject hatred.  In a veritable blink, he has commandeered all of the oxygen and attention and neither logic, nor incompetence, nor immoral behavior hold sway with those who have accepted him as their prophet.

Ultimately, the sheer volume of lies and misbehavior could, (should), lead to his fall from grace, but the festering, exclusionary, pervasive animosity that has bubbled to the surface as reaction to the polarizing oratory of America’s Führer, and the void in moral leadership that seems to be sucking the world into the blackest of holes, may have nudged us past the tipping point of civility.