Day 15

 Welcome to Despair Blog!

You can assume that if I'm not writing it's because:

1) I'm paralyzed by sadness, or,

2) I'm paralyzed by having too many big, complicated things to say and I don't have the time or energy to say them.

Or, I guess, 3) I'm manically distracting myself with other things.  

November 2024 has seen me spreading the good word of this little book:

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Timonty Snyder

It's actually been a very useful way to figure out where I can stand with people going forward.  If they react with interest or curiosity or any question at all - which is the normal way a person should act when a book is recommended to them - then they are on a safe list.  If they react with complete and utter silence then INSTANT UNSAFE.

I saw someone say somewhere (welcome to the internet age) that "this time" they weren't going to try and "have conversations" or defend their ideas or ask questions to "try to understand why someone would vote for that man" - no.  This time, they were just going to simply disappear from that person's life.  That "that person will simply never hear from me again."

This is the place I'm at now.  I'm not going to try and explain things anymore or be a "listening ear."  Nah.   We're at Peeps Chili Levels of caring about that path - I'll never understand those people, that's true, but I've come to understand that they defy understanding on purpose.  So, I just simply...leave the conversation.  I don't have time or energy for INSTANT UNSAFES anymore.  Also they are, as you may have noticed in my CAPS LOCK WORDS....unsafe.

Anyyyyywayyyyyyyyyyyy, this book is very good.  And very short.  You won't have to wade through a detailed history tome.  It's practical and clear.  That's what I've needed this month.  Straight, logical, obvious.  With history examples to illustrate it all.  Buy it for your friends.  Great stocking stuffer.  Throw it on your MAGA Neighbors' porches like an ol' timey newspaper boy (those were the days).  It's like $10 or something in paperback.  I read it in one night and then again the next day.  I don't know what else to say to sell this book to you whoever you are.