{"id":1705,"date":"2025-02-02T14:36:16","date_gmt":"2025-02-02T14:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/?p=1705"},"modified":"2025-02-02T15:24:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-02T15:24:43","slug":"changes-arent-permanent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/02\/02\/changes-arent-permanent\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes Aren\u2019t Permanent\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019ve been watching the incoming US administration flood the zone with shit mostly with my hands over my eyes, like a kid at a horror movie. The level of idiocy on display has been mind boggling, and I\u2019m finding it impossible to imagine where this<\/em> continuing for (at least) the next four years will leave us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dawnise and I used to say \u201cstupidity should be painful,\u201d and it occurs to me that maybe we should have been more\u2026 specific in our ask of the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Cause this stupidity is<\/em> painful. But it\u2019s painful to the wrong people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s really getting to me, above all the jaw-dropping stupidity, is the casual cruelty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t say I\u2019m surprised. Groups tend to adopt and exaggerate attributes of their leadership. That\u2019s true even when the group isn\u2019t a group of toadies, and when the leader isn\u2019t an unhinged narcissist. And this group is, and their leader is. And that chosen leader has been openly casually and repeatedly cruel for decades<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So this is very much what was asked for by those who asked for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s the part I think I\u2019m most struggling with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That America has decided it\u2019s ok to act like a prick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To tell those who put themselves in harm\u2019s way to protect others that the people who attacked them were patriots, were heroes, when those attackers were observably and objectively<\/em> criminals. To jump around on stage like a ketamine addled teenager who never got past the idea that it was all about \u201cwinning.\u201d To decide that the president is above the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To take actions while ignoring, or being incapable of predicting, likely consequences that will affect millions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I come back to the deeply depressing thought that it\u2019s entirely possible that America has always been this way<\/em>. Any marginalized group will tell you this isn\u2019t new. There\u2019s just an ever shifting set of scapegoats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, I think something fundamental, and dangerous, changes when enough of us lean in to darker instincts. When we encourage our deamons to step out of the shadows and into the light, to stand proud. When we decide that it\u2019s ok to openly exclude or subjugate the \u201cother,\u201d ignoring that we\u2019re all an other to someone<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History shows us that over the long term these shifts are temporary. Sometimes it takes decades. Sometimes it takes generations. Sometimes it takes tipping into open conflict. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But ultimately things change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They don\u2019t go back to where they were, they converge to some new thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until they change again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changes<\/em> aren\u2019t permanent, but change<\/em> is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been watching the incoming US administration flood the zone with shit mostly with my hands over my eyes, like a kid at a horror movie. The level of idiocy on display has been mind boggling, and I\u2019m finding it impossible to imagine where this continuing for (at least) the next four years will leave … Continue reading “Changes Aren\u2019t Permanent\u2026”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-the-universe-and-everything"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1705"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1717,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions\/1717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}