Shot by Michelle Phillips
Honestly, I don't I can tell you when it happened.
It might have been the first time I was called nigger by a random white kid, whose sneering face told me he knew he was wrong but he also didn't care, flexing the privilege of being favored in a bigoted society.
Or maybe it was the smugness of a hiring manager that had never done the kind of work I do, saying that while my background was 'cool', they only hire European designers.
Whatever, the point is that I've been checked out from the fallacy of the mythical concept of the American Dream for a long time now. If I want fantasy, I'll watch Kingdom (it is very good).
So when I hear about yet another attempt by old white men to control the lives of citizens, I'm just... indifferent. Sure my initial reaction was disgust just like every other sensible human being but after I sat with it for a bit, I just don't care. The bigots that populate our government have made it very clear where they stand.
I don't care because I'm not going to build my life around reacting to a crisis after yet another crisis caused by the absurdity of hateful people. After all, they don't want to let people make their own decisions outside of capitalism. This has always been the case.
The banality of these repeated efforts to control our lives is sharply contrasted by the growing movement of us working together to improve our conditions in this place. People have given their entire lives to building these shaky edifices of exploitation using hate and malice only to see them on the verge of collapse as we exercise the simple act of existing in the fullness of who and what we are as people.
Who would have thought the end of capitalism would be accelerated by us simply deciding to rest more and use our labor for our benefit.
Unfortunately, we indeed have to expend so much effort to survive this madness. There is no denying the increase of violence among people that are hopelessly connected to the idea of a bigoted myopic society and desperately try to delay the inevitable from happening. Even as it harms them.
But even as these old and inadequate social perspectives crumble away, there is an opportunity for us to create new ways of living and interacting that are built around our shared human experience on the big blue marble and how there is enough of everything for us to all be ok.
We can just do better. And personally finding and building those networks are so much more interesting than trying to make shitty people less shitty.