{"id":138012720,"date":"2023-10-18T12:30:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T12:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=138012720"},"modified":"2023-10-18T12:30:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T12:30:35","slug":"letter-to-my-younger-self-as-the-world-slips-into-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=138012720","title":{"rendered":"Letter To My Younger Self, As The World Slips Into War"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;The word war is far \/\/ &#8220;Furry&#8221; says my boy \/ about the cat \/\/ I think anthrax \/ and small pox vax \/\/ Pour hot water on dried nettles&#8221; &#8211; Hoa Nguyen, &#8220;Up Nursing&#8221;<\/h2><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>But first, your weekly <\/em>Vine<em>. Monday was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.storiesfromvine.com\/2023\/10\/16\/chapter-thirty-two-the-lewis-twins\/\">Chapter 32: \u201cThe Lewis Twins.\u201d<\/a> Tuesday was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.storiesfromvine.com\/2023\/10\/17\/chapter-thirty-three-one-day-they-went-silent\/\">Chapter 33: \u201cOne Day They Went Silent.\u201d<\/a> Today is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.storiesfromvine.com\/2023\/10\/18\/chapter-thirty-four-hank-goes-to-visit-kenny-and-what-he-saw\/\">Chapter 34: \u201cHank Goes To Visit Kenny, and What He Saw.\u201d<\/a> Don\u2019t forget to check out the Lazy &amp; Entitled podcast, where we are reading Vine as an audiobook! <\/em><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Speaking of podcasts, The Line Break was thrilled to welcome <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/sandrapoetry.bsky.social\">Sandra Marchetti<\/a> to the show this month! Sandra is a great poet and interview, we had a lot of fun talking baseball and how imagery involves all five senses. Here\u2019s the show on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-line-break\/id1524056726?i=1000631592640\">Apple<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/5j2XQRsVbYX0LgMmrM1cNl?si=i7iOPa4vSi6hZeVscBG0IQ&amp;utm_source=copy-link&amp;utm_medium=copy-link&amp;_branch_match_id=721815759181776095&amp;_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXLy7IL8lMq9TLyczL1vcyc%2FGvqgzMiHRJAgB8myl8IAAAAA%3D%3D&amp;nd=1\">Spotify<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-264286148\/an-episode-for-all-of-our-dads-with-sandra-marchetti?si=20d4e286b7ec4802a88b485efc0df006&amp;utm_source=clipboard&amp;utm_medium=text&amp;utm_campaign=social_sharing\">Soundcloud<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This isn\u2019t really going to be a letter. I don\u2019t <em>love<\/em> that format. Let\u2019s talk about NOFX instead. \u201cNot my president,\u201d as I first came to understand it (around age 14, probably), was a slogan in reaction to George W. Bush and the stolen 2000 election. Old heads will probably correct me\u2014pretty sure they made \u201cnot my president\u201d stickers for the Reagan admin\u2014but the way I understood it, \u201cnot my president\u201d was a statement made in powerlessness. Gore won the popular vote, the Florida recount was shady, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/history\/2018\/11\/15\/its-insanity-how-brooks-brothers-riot-killed-recount-miami\/\">a bunch of Brooks Brothers-wearing preppy losers who would go on to work in the Trump administration rioted<\/a>, and the most unqualified dipshit possible got the presidency. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wasn\u2019t shit I could do about it, wasn\u2019t shit Fat Mike could do about it, either. Except write \u201cFranco Un-American.\u201d<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NOFX - Franco Un-American (Official Video)\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZSb3nG4oTNQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I never had a single positive feeling towards George W. Bush, but I was 13 when I found out who he was. 13 is a cool age because if you\u2019re middle class and white, you might still have some illusions about things like \u201crespecting elected officials\u201d and \u201cloving the country you live in,\u201d but you\u2019re probably about to learn that you either shouldn\u2019t do those things, or, if you\u2019re gonna do those things, it should be <em>way<\/em> more conditional that you previously thought. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The biggest thing I feel when war breaks out: I really fuckin hate war, dudes. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Add the particular brand of racist jingoism that infects every mainstream politician and cable news host in the United States, add the flat denial of obvious hypocrisies and conflicts of interest, and I get fuckin <em>bummed out<\/em>, dudes. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/Lc3e_xN_JNc\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">War is a wonderful time for losing respect for people. You might think, \u201csurely those people who make six figures to write for the<em> New York Times<\/em> or <em>Washington Post<\/em> or <em>The Atlantic<\/em> are peace-loving and anti-racist,\u201d but you would be wrong for thinking that. You might even think, \u201cthe people who go to my church, they\u2019re sure nice, I bet they\u2019re not hurling anti-Muslim slurs and calling human beings \u2018animals,\u2019\u201d but no, you would be wrong for thinking that. You might think, \u201cMSNBC is supposed to be the reasonable one, surely they wouldn\u2019t resort to infantile, Bush-era narratives of good vs. evil and forcing every single Muslim person they deign to look at to denounce Hamas before speaking but never once asking anyone else to denounce a bloodthirsty racist like Nethanyahu,\u201d but you\u2019d be wrong to think that\u2014MSNBC gave that smug, condescending, soulless woman who used to be Joe Biden\u2019s press secretary a show. You might think, \u201cTreasury Secretary Janet Yellen certainly will not say the US can afford to fund two wars, we don\u2019t even have universal healthcare,\u201d but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2023\/10\/16\/us-can-certainly-afford-military-support-to-both-israel-and-ukraine-janet-yellen-says.html\">you\u2019d be wrong to think that<\/a>. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gil Scott-Heron - Whitey On the Moon (Official Audio)\" width=\"790\" height=\"593\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/goh2x_G0ct4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m not here to pick sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict, I am an idiot USian with a blog. Sure, apartheid is wrong, occupation is wrong, settler colonialism is wrong, and a riot is the language of the unheard\u2014but enough about the country I live in. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What is really infuriating, hypothetical young reader, and what will continue to be infuriating for the rest of your life, is how many people were salivating for this. Not Israelis, not Palestinians, but politicians and pundits, neighbors and family and friends. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/tv\/news\/brian-mast-idf-uniform-gop-us-b2429500.html\">Wannabe posers<\/a> who cosplay and eat MREs for fun. Burger-chomping golfers who don\u2019t feel safe if <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=defector+deion+sanders+truck&amp;oq=defector+deion+sanders+truck&amp;gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRiPAjIHCAUQIRiPAtIBCDY5OTBqMGo0qAIAsAIA&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8\">their car is smaller than a blitzkrieg tank<\/a> but have Bible passages memorized. People who see children dying and say\u2014out loud\u2014that they deserved it. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those people are literally all around you, right now. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NOFX - The Decline Live at Red Rocks w\/ Baz&#039;s Orchestra (Official Video)\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oWhy8PCuGsk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I remember being 15, on the brink of the invasion of Iraq, a war I knew was stupid, unjustified, motivated by greed, and destined to cause untold suffering. I felt angry, alone, <em>insane<\/em>, <em>like a bad Christian or bad citizen<\/em>, <em>like I couldn\u2019t trust what nightmarish thoughts lurked in people who I had known my whole life<\/em>. I watched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2003\/9\/26\/baghdad-safer-under-saddam#:~:text=Baghdad%20is%20a%20much%20more,Friday%20by%20a%20research%20group.\">these people cheer the destruction of cities<\/a>, and eventually, I eventually watched <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/report\/2014\/02\/19\/wedding-became-funeral\/us-drone-attack-marriage-procession-yemen\">other<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/report\/2014\/02\/19\/wedding-became-funeral\/us-drone-attack-marriage-procession-yemen\"> people shrug off the indiscriminate bombing of weddings<\/a> because the liberal news said it was okay. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">War sucks. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Love Me, I&#039;m a Liberal\" width=\"790\" height=\"593\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f7N_dOagn9U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bummer this week, huh? Real bummer stuff! I\u2019m sad. Sorry to make your email sad. Wanna watch Jesse and Tim from Operation Ivy reunite in February 2022 and sing about the one thing we can all depend on? Go ahead, you\u2019ve earned it. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Operation Ivy&#039;s Tim Armstrong and Jesse Michaels Play &quot;Sound System&quot; Live at Musack - Official Video\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AzFEcPzBHl4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like when I was 15, I\u2019m gonna go play guitar. Sound system, bring us back home. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sorry you got an email, <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chris<\/p><div class=\"subscription-widget-wrap-editor\" data-attrs=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}\" data-component-name=\"SubscribeWidgetToDOM\"><div class=\"subscription-widget show-subscribe\"><div class=\"preamble\"><p class=\"cta-caption\">Thanks for reading shipwrecked sailor! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.<\/p><\/div><form class=\"subscription-widget-subscribe\"><input type=\"email\" class=\"email-input\" name=\"email\" placeholder=\"Type your email\u2026\" tabindex=\"-1\"\/><input type=\"submit\" class=\"button primary\" value=\"Subscribe\"\/><div class=\"fake-input-wrapper\"><div class=\"fake-input\"\/><div class=\"fake-button\"\/><\/div><\/form><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The word war is far \/\/ &#8220;Furry&#8221; says my boy \/ about the cat \/\/ I think anthrax \/ and small pox vax \/\/ Pour hot water on dried nettles&#8221; &#8211; Hoa Nguyen, &#8220;Up Nursing&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138012720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138012720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138012720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138012720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138012720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138012720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138012720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}