I’ve given this matter a lot of thought, and I’ve decided this blog won’t publish anymore. In time, I’ll take it down in its entirety; there’s no point in having it up when I won’t be updating it anymore.
I’ve still got the fight, but now, for the first time, I’m not sure America is worth the fight. In 2004 and 2010 and 2014 and 2016 I could still believe most Americans were good, and simply had their attentions divided and diverted by unscrupulous Republicans and weak Democrats. No more. Democrats pushed the best President of my lifetime out of the race, but they actually ran a good campaign where they confronted kitchen-table issues head-on and won every argument; Republicans ran a shitshow with a whiny, traitorous asshole as their standard-bearer, and America, apparently, preferred that to having a Black woman President. There’s no way to spin this. There’s no “but look at all the people who didn’t vote,” because those folks should have had the sense to vote against the whiny, traitorous asshole. And there’s no “he didn’t get a majority,” because the whiny, traitorous asshole shouldn’t have gotten any votes. No, America has a lot more bad people than I wanted to think, and frankly, a lot more racist people than I wanted to think; I know about racist cops and racist bosses and racist diamond-mine heir billionaires better than most people, but after over 77 million Americans pushed their Original Sin in my face on Election night I still felt like I had much to learn about racism. The good news is that Trumpholes have started to answer for their evil, to the friends and family members who have ostracized them since the election, and I sincerely hope their loneliness is instructive, and that if they ever have another chance to do right at the ballot box, they think of literally anyone other than themselves for a split second even. (I also hope they learn to call their Congressfolk and communicate their will to them, but ha ha ha yeah sure.)
And yet I also must admit that, even though I think this is a damn good blog and I know people in both blue and red states who have appreciated it, obviously it hasn’t affected my country as much as I wanted it to. A big part of that’s my fault — I’d rather be catheterized than promote myself. But it’s not all my fault: thanks to social media’s mania for “engagement,” it’s very hard to get noticed unless you’re willing to be a complete asshole, which, for better and for worse, I’m not willing to be. But even I will admit, after long enough, when something’s not working, and reader, this ain’t working. So I’ll pass along action alerts and relatively short philosophical statements at Bluesky (amento), Mastodon (amento8), MeWe (@alecmento), and Friendica (amento8). You won’t find me on Facebook any more than you’ll find any of my books at Amazon, but if you want what I’ve got to offer, you’ll find it at the above locations, albeit in smaller doses.
So, in closing: good luck to you, and may God bless you.