Fascist Burgers, Tariffed Penguins, and a Whole Lot of What the Hell
Fascist Burgers, Tariffed Penguins, and a Whole Lot of What the Hell
 |
| US Senator John Cornyn pictured in front of Houston’s own Trump Burger |
*Heyyyyyyyyyyy*
Yeah, I know it’s been a while. Thought it might be good to brush the cobwebs off good ol’ yani_reads. You missed me?
To be honest, the only reason I find myself belligerently writing in the middle of the RDU airport is because I was reminded of this blog in the first place (thank you, VJ!). And in this moment of “what the hell?” I mean, what the hell! Why not come back?!
So, here we are. And what better way to make up time lost than taking a look at some of the things that have happened since I last published here. Brace yourself for these highlights:
(This list of headlines was SO hard to choose, by the way.)
This moment’s foolishness doesn’t just stop at the federal level. I’m sure you’ve seen your fair share of ridiculousness wherever you are. I have. In the middle of the fear, intimidation, and countless reminders of our country sinking into the fascism it always aspired, I mean, you have to admit this shit is just a little bit funny.
And don’t feel bad for that!
Radical optimism is not only a practice of being hopeful, but keeping your humor. You gotta laugh, not that it’s hard with all that we’ve seen.
Humor is a great way of reminding us of our humanity—it punctuates the things that we choose not to take normal. That is the case for fascism: to make everything that is so ridiculously counterintuitive to our nature and freedoms as normal. Fascism thrives off making you accept it as inevitable.
Pope Francis had a really good take on this argument. In his op-ed in The New York Times, Francis wrote the importance of humor as a practice of faith.
 |
| Pope Francis laughing in front of crowd at St. Peter’s Basilica |
“Life inevitably has its sadnesses, which are part of every path of hope and every path toward conversion. But it is important to avoid wallowing in melancholy at all costs, not to let it embitter the heart...They are examples of spontaneity, of humanity, and they remind us that those who give up their own humanity give up everything, and that when it becomes hard to cry seriously or to laugh passionately, then we really are on the downhill slope. We become anesthetized, and anesthetized adults do nothing good for themselves, nor for society, nor for the church.”
The last thing we want to do is be numbed. That’s how we know there is no going back: when we’ve become so desensitized and paralyzed that we do nothing and become nothing. Joy, laughter, optimism is humanity and resistance. Feeling this moment is the first step in the radical’s law of physics.
So feel. Laugh. Cry. Scream. Feel, then do something about it.
Comments
Post a Comment