Hi, wow, we just lived through February and I don’t know, if “february” were a verb, I would say that it februaryed so hard. It could do less. In my opinion.
How are you? It’s very rare that folks answer the questions I sometimes pose in these posts, but I hope February didn’t february the shit out of you wherever you are. A couple of weeks ago I had a crying meltdown because I am tired of everything being so stupid all the time, if you want to know specifically how I am. Sometimes it gets hard to process incoming negative things, no matter where they lie on the spectrum from Persistent Irritant to Full-Scale Horror; when you have executive dysfunction, prioritizing how much energy to put into anything becomes impossible, to the point where everything feels like a proverbial five-alarm fire.
I’m better now; the sun came out for a few days and it turns out that being able to see sunshine sometimes is all it takes to improve my mood because I have the emotional complexity of a houseplant. Currently, it’s back to snow and cold weather but at this point in the cycle of things, spring really does feel inevitable. Here in Michigan, spring and winter will fight it out for an indeterminate amount of time, but eventually the earth will wake up and things will start growing again.
And maybe things will stop being so stupid all the time but, well, all things considered, probably not, if we’re being honest.
speaking of things that are stupid
Not too long ago I popped onto Facebook for a couple of minutes and saw something awful and then said “Well, that’s enough internet for today,” and left. The Detroit Tigers posted a Ramadan greeting, the comments on which were so hateful. I scrolled through them for a couple of minutes and just… look. I grew up in peak Arab-hating years, what with being in 6th grade during Gulf War I and graduating from college a few months before 9/11, and maybe it was because there wasn’t social media at the time but I genuinely think people have gotten worse. And also the bots have gotten worse, too.
(After 9/11, the rhetoric shifted from “Arab terrorist” to “Islamic terrorist” I guess to include Muslims from non-Arab countries, though this shift certainly didn’t make it any easier for me to get on an airplane as a non-Muslim with an Arabic first name.)
Anyway. The Ramadan greeting, from the baseball team in Detroit, a city with a large Muslim population, presumably some of whom enjoy Tigers baseball, was greeted with endless terrible replies that eventually had to be stopped by the Tigers closing comments on the post. The replies broke along a couple of lines:
- Predictably dumb racism, such as “It’s bacon time!” (Cool, I bet you have a career in stand-up), and
- People who are mad that there are other people in the world, as evidenced by the number of people who said something like “WELL, I hope you say SOMETHING about LENT, TIGERS!!!111”
I swear I can remember a time when not everything in the world had to be (in the general sense) For You. Like, you could see something that wasn’t about you, say, a Ramadan greeting, and as a non-Muslim, you could just live your life instead of being angry that someone who wasn’t you got a greeting for something you don’t celebrate. (Or having a Super Bowl halftime musician perform in a language you don’t speak — THE HORROR.)
And maybe it’s because almost nothing is for me. I am a nonreligious person of mixed ethnic background who doesn’t quite fit in with either group, who has a first name that gets mispronounced on at LEAST 95% of first-time attempts, and definitely never could find key chains or bookmarks or posters with my name on it growing up. And if I got mad about it every time someone else could find a key chain with their name on it, or spoke Arabic around me and I couldn’t understand everything they were saying because my Arabic skills are not super great, or whatever — I could make a much longer list — I would be mad all the time about being slighted by people who were just living their lives that, to be honest, have nothing to do with me.
But then again, I am not an insane person. At least not about that.
In short, take it from me, People of the Internet: not everything has to be for you and it is possible to just… move on. Find something that is. The world’s a big place. Maybe it’s people being accustomed to being the default and being mad when anyone else gets anything at all, or maybe people are just assholes, but good grief. A person or thing you like can say hi to someone who isn’t you and you will live. Quit whining, you insufferable babies.
welp
I wrote the above prior to looking at the news on Saturday that we were preemptively striking Iran because we needed to defend ourselves and had a flashback to 2003 when we had to preemptively strike Iraq to defend ourselves and anyway it hasn’t gotten less stupid, is what I’m saying.
Sometimes I read the news these days and wish the Yellowstone supervolcano would just take us all out.
Regardless, can’t wait to see how this one pans out: will it be 12 days like the Iran war in June 2025 where all the WMDs were destroyed (until they weren’t, or something, I can’t say) or will it last 20 years like the one in Afghanistan? Dunno. What I do know is that we (as a country, not us specifically because I would rather just stay home, personally) LOVE Doing An Imperialism.
This site, Every Country the United States has Invaded, Bombed or Staged a Coup In has a lot of data about our national leadership’s ongoing imperialism hobby, including a table that breaks down the entire list of countries, alphabetically, with types of military intervention and year(s) of the intervention(s). Because some countries are on the list multiple times.
It’s 62 countries, anyway, which is 31% of countries on the planet. I honestly thought it would be higher.
in other news
The image at the top of this post is Lake of the Clouds in Porcupine Mountains State Park in Michigan, which is a postcard-perfect spot in the Upper Peninsula I have somehow only managed to make it to during stick season. The postcard-perfect pictures of it tend to be taken in the fall, with colorful trees all around the lake, but it’s pretty in more melancholy weather too, since it’s, you know, pretty.
Also I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I have some photographs available for sale at a store and everything: Albion photo prints. They are a mix of winter/fall (obviously need to work on spring/summer more). It would be great to see them sell! But I am terrible at self-promotion because I buried this way down at the bottom of this post about racism and war. Good job, me.
(Yes, I said I would start selling prints here as well — that is a process that is entirely manual and involves me doing a lot of data entry and I will be honest that I really have a hard time making myself sit still and do that so, stay tuned, I haven’t forgotten but I haven’t really been motivated either.)
boy is this timely
From the 2010 collection Leavings: Poems.
Alrighty then, catch you later!
5 responses to “hello friends”
Yes to all of the above that you wrote, especially the stupid part about people being stupid and horrible, etc.
Also- https://jeremypace.substack.com/p/bean-soup-theory https://jeremypace.substack.com/p/bean-soup-theory I am sure you know all about the Bean Soup thing, but I just learned about it a few months ago because I am old and not on TikTok. Why are people? Were we always this horrible? I mean, probably if the Spanish Inquisition is anything to go by, but still. Imagine if Ferdinand and Isabella (my god-forsaken ancestors btw) had had social media. I have a lot of atoning still to do.
Like you, I am beginning to gaze longingly towards Yellowstone …
Take care of yourself.
Linda
Many Muses Studio http://lindaplaisted.com Linda@LindaPlaisted.com
I hadn’t heard of the Bean Soup theory, even though I was on TikTok back then, my algorithm never took me there. I guess it wasn’t For Me. Heh. (I deleted TikTok once the Ellison takeover happened, even though I am fully aware of the irony of drawing the line there while still being on Meta sites, like those are fine?)
But yes, his post does a good job of explaining what I was getting at. I try not to read comment sections because the self-absorbed idiocy nearly every one that reaches a critical mass of comments is full of is off the charts, yet I do.
I love so many people I only know because of the internet but I also sometimes feel like the internet was a mistake.
I hate everything. I am not doing well. Luckily, I have cute furry pets.
I hear you. And thank goodness for cute furry pets. They really are the biggest help. There are better days ahead, someday, I just don’t know how many stupid days we have to get through first.
I started to write something… it was something about the war porn we are being subjected to and it was about social media and cable news and how all of it creates this tornado of shit. I’d like to use more delicate language but I simple can’t. It’s one of the reasons I’ve been watching less TV for the most part although I do indulge myself by flipping between all the cable news, C-span and the BBC at times.
You have to step away and you have to do it for your own sanity.
As far as people who post (PWP), that’s another story altogether. People can say the most vile and hateful things when shielded by anonymity, it’s an entirely different thing when your words can be attributed directly to you and there is a cost to pay. I’d say not to pay attention to them but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t still hurt.
Thing is as much of a cynic and curmudgeon as I am, I’d like to believe the best about us as a species. We see it, people do care even for strangers and they do help. Step away from the negative if you can, go outside. I’ve been Februarized too and hate it as well but the weather is getting warmer now and daylight savings time has kicked in so we aren’t living in the dark all the time and focus on that.
In this moment I am reminded about the Richard Pryor story – Richard Pryor told a story in his stand-up about a time he was in his backyard mourning the death of his pet monkeys, during which a “vicious dog” from next door jumped over the fence to commiserate with him. According to the story, after comforting him, the dog jumped back over the fence and promised to resume chasing him the next day.
We all have our moments.