“More and more [voters] declared, if only by nonparticipation, their alientation from the political system. In 1960, 63 percent of those eligible to vote voted in the presidential election. By 1976, this figure had dropped to 53 percent.”- Howard Zinn, ‘A People’s History of the United States’
It only seems fitting that my first Wednesday column on the new website should be about non-participation, right? I mean, I was initially enthusiastic about a tech company dedicated to blogging.
Well, I’m never enthusiastic about tech companies, but you know what I mean.
Hey before we get started—listen to Burgers Or Tacos?, maybe?
So you know how there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism? You know how life in the contemporary United States is a series of compromises and tough choices? It’s hard to live a life that makes you feel “hey, when my actions in life are weighed on the cosmic scales of justice, I’m definitely coming out as ‘good guy,'” when you live in the U.S.
It’s hard to, say, buy entirely thrifted/ethically made clothes. It’s easy to recycle. It’s hard to live without a car, unless you’re in very specific area of the country (it was easy for me in Rogers Park/Edgewater, for example, it’s very difficult in West Ridge, and those are all neighborhoods in the same city). It’s easy not eat Chick Fil-A. Some things are easy until they’re not—I can happily boycott Target and Wal-Mart, but that summer I went to camp in Martin, TN? I was lining Sam Walton’s pockets. I resisted getting a smartphone until a job made not having one untenable.
That does not mean you should forget about values entirely.
I live and work on the Internet. An argument could be made that a nobler life would be going back to working restaurants and start making zines.
Substack was something I was thinking about for a while before I lost my Cracked.com contract—except, no it wasn’t. Blogging was on my mind, I first thought up “THE LAZY & ENTITLED BLOG” in like 2015 and then Brendan and I decided to use the name for, uh, something different. Anyway, I wanted to blog. Substack, as I first heard of it, meant two things: laid-off basketball writers like Kelly Dwyer or Tom Ziller, or the MattYyyyglesiuss/Harper’s Letter/BigBrainSoftHands crowd. I obviously love the former and hate the latter—those willing fascist collaborators, the Bari Weiss and Jesse Signals of the world. I’m not fixing any typos in their names, that’s how much I hate the jagoffs. But in a “why should I change, they’re the ones who suck” spirit, I figured if I shared Twitter with them, I could share Substack. Then, like Twitter, Substack became explicitly, happily pro-Nazi. Time to go!
Anyway, Substack thing became untenable. Voting for most Democratic politicians has become untenable, between the genocide support and the “should we say we want trans people dead if we want to stop Trump?” questions to the constant presence of Elon Musk-loving Rahm Emanuel. If you’re a writer who has been looking for work anytime since ChatGPT launched and you are (rightly) unwilling to work any job where you train AI, browsing Indeed dot com is almost (almost) worthless. It is an assault on our collective and individual mental well-being, how many compromises we have to make thanks to the world being designed and ruled by shitty, idiotic, and perverted monsters.
You can’t support a Congressperson without them turning around and voting to arm settler-colonialist, racist, apartheid-loving Israel. You can’t support a mayor in a big city without them turning around and offering full-tongued love sessions to police, despite cops being the 2.0 upgrade to Klansmen. You can’t love a goofy actor without them turning around and choosing Donald Trump over decades-long friendship or choosing transphobia over a dignified swan song. The United States is a bad place. We are an evil society built on genocide and slave labor in service of Mammon. This is not a society worth participating in.
And yet. There is too much to love about living. There is too much to love about our communities. There is literature and music and art and good food. There are schools full of hardworking people taking care of our kids. Doctors doing heroic shit as a matter of course. Places can be awful, but that doesn’t mean every person in a place is awful.
This miserable country has produced many great and wonderful things that come with massive downsides. Wrigley Field comes with Cubs fans, for instance.
I think the good shit is worth celebrating, worth fighting for. I think that you don’t have to go along with every awful trend. You can support the troops by wanting them brought home, for instance. You don’t have to use ChatGPT just because every half-brained loser in your office is doing so. You don’t have to join you restaurant coworkers in saying racist things about whatever group you perceive tips less. You don’t have to vote Democrat or Republican just because there’s an election. You don’t have to move to the suburbs and get an SUV because you had kids. You don’t have to upgrade your phone every year.
Here are some things you can always do: go for walks. Listen to music. Talk to your partner. Play with your kids or pets. Read a book. Donate to a food bank. Donate to an abortion fund. Garden. Go to a street festival. Lift weights or ride a bike. Catch up with old friends. Go to a museum. Go to the library. Try a new recipe or restaurant. Call your mother. Get a different job. Sell your Tesla.
Christ, I hope no one reading this blog has a Tesla.
Unless you’re Tim Henson, in which case, welcome, love your work, sell your Nazi car.
Yet another column where I don’t feel like I said everything I wanted to say the way I wanted to. Hold on to your values. Make sure you define them to yourself. Maybe that’s a column, defining some values.
Sorry you got an email, if you did,
Chris