The Aftermath of the 2024 US Election, and Some Personal Changes

A picture of the Morton Salt Girl, with the caption, "Sometimes I'm just a salty bitch."

I'm sure that most of my regular readers are unsurprised by this, but I am deeply, deeply disappointed in some of - many of - my countrypeople. I mean, some of it is not surprising; I don't expect compassion for others or equitable treatment for those unlike them from the kinds of people who decry other folks for... well, for existing. Those sorts of people don't get much understanding from me; at most, I feel sad for their children and pity (which for me is a close cousin of contempt) for them.

The people I'm disappointed in come in two flavors: the ones whom I have actually witnessed being reasonable human beings/good parents/basically kind people... but who still voted for TFG and some of whom are now gloating loudly and relentlessly. That's the first kind, and I honestly don't care if they voted that way because they're afraid of drag queens, think viruses and climate change are hoaxes, or somehow think that the price of gas and groceries is more important than other people. That many of them profess to belong to a faith system that puts Love Everybody above all else is just piss icing on their shit cake.

The other type of voters who have caused me great disappointment are those on the other side, the kind who are so busy chasing after The Perfect Candidate™ that they let that make their voting choices for them. Perfection is the enemy of progress. In this case, perfection is the enemy of not jumping off the slippery slope. I recognize what this kind of voter is trying to do, but it has demonstrably not worked for a couple of decades now, at least here in the US.

In any case, there's my piece, I've said it, and it took me this long - I'm writing this 10 days after Election Day - to get up the energy to do so. In the interest of not burning out entirely (I have children to raise, other children to transport, bills to pay, Lizzy's bead art to market, and gig work to find, never mind holidays to plan for and dopamine to store, given that it's Hibernation Season and there's All That Out There™ to plan ahead for), and have gone low-contact on Facebook. 

For me, this is a big deal; I've been on Facebook for over fifteen years, but I am struggling to cope because by the very nature of social media (especially the big ones), the constant blast of information is relentless. "Like drinking from a fire hose," as they say. So I'm checking in there a couple times a day (deleted it from my phone but I check on my computer), a bit more today as I'm using that time to curate my feed so it's not completely overwhelming, and mostly just lying low. I understand a lot of the very well-meaning Wear This to Show Support trends (which I find performative) and the We Must Mobilize Now trends (for which I am still saving up energy), but at the moment I am emotionally unable to engage in all that. 

I was never much for Twitter, and I canceled my account just as it was renamed to X, so that's not a problem for me. Since my kids are now in their late teens/early twenties, Babycenter is no longer a concern. Google Plus (and before it, Google Wave) is gone, so that's not an issue. Those were my big social media places (if you're not counting Compuserve and America Online), so... I'm mostly out.

My therapist will be proud, although she will be the first to tell me I don't need her approval.

I'm not deleting FB Messenger, though, so if you want to stay in touch, ping me there, and we can work something out.