Thank you, Charles for this essay. I agree that the oath that members of Congress take should be adhered to, or they should be tried for perjury. So many in the GOP have failed to follow their oath. It’s obvious to me that they don’t care about anything but the party. Since the felon ran on the Republican ticket, they will follow him off a cliff.
Charles, I know many people that fall into the category of if they scroll through the news, s/he become paralyzed. They stopped doing it the morning after the election. They don’t know much about the current maga implosion over Epstein nor the details of the forty plus day government shutdown. All news is assumed to be bad news. They only want to know if it’s something that places them personally in immediate danger. “It’s either ignore it all or be depressed” ….. forever.
I understand it, too, honestly. I'd prefer to take the ostrich route myself. I'd rather just write fiction. But this feels like an AHOD situation that needs to involve us all. We can beat this and maybe think about focusing more on our daily lives a lot easier if we're not haunted every day by these freaks.
Agree. I think how Jeff Tiedrich ends every post of his “Everyone is Entitled to My Opinion” Substack with “practice self-care. do what you need to do to keep sane.” summarizes how many have dealt with current times. We all have our own tolerance limits.
Focus on what you control.
Handle that first. There is stuff in our control and stuff outside our control. Respond mentally, emotionally, and physically accordingly.
Thank you, Charles. The long-term consequences of his reign may, in the end, be just as severe as the burdens my generation still carries as war-grandchildren in Germany, or as the grandchildren of the GDR regime continue to shoulder. These impacts will echo forward, just as slavery continues to shape the lives of people of color, and genocide continues to shape the lives of Indigenous peoples.
Thank you, too. I have more faith in young people than I make it sound. They seem pretty good at filtering out the nonsense, but yes, I expect long term damage anyway.
Charles, I’m speaking from inside those trans-generational layers myself, and I see how the absence of acknowledgement — and the coping-through-dissociation that so many of us learned — has shaped me, my entire generation, the one before us, and parts of the one after us. Three generations carrying the same unfinished story.
Across the field, social psychologists describe unacknowledged trauma as a global phenomenon, not a personal flaw. When people don’t have safe ways to integrate overwhelming experiences, dissociation becomes the default survival strategy. It’s heartbreaking and understandable at the same time.
THANK YOU for this because it's absolutely true. The felon is killing us slowly, there is no doubt. Stress leads to booze, to heart disease and so much else. Bobby Brainworms and Dr. Oooze are prime examples of this regime's lack of concern about the health of Americans. There aren't enough counselors out there to talk us through this. I'm not detecting the kind of negative vibes, the anger, the resentment that Americans have versus the population I've encountered in Spain. It feels like people are content here, focused, and polite. I dont wanna come home. But I have to! Hopefully, he'll be ded soon.
Dr. Oooze? I made it up...at least I thought I did. LOL The regime taxes my brain on the daily. Seriously, this was a very thoughtful piece. And I believe it's true.
Thank you for your assessment of the people in Spain. I spent a few months in Spain and Portugal earlier this year and generally agree. One thing I noted in Spain was how different generations and different regions of the country deal with their memory of the Franco dictatorship. The regions that fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War seemed to be more forthcoming about discussing the years of his dictatorship and now moving on, but not forgetting. The pro-Franco regions still are hushed as if discussion is taboo. Have you picked up on any of this?
Thank you, Charles for this essay. I agree that the oath that members of Congress take should be adhered to, or they should be tried for perjury. So many in the GOP have failed to follow their oath. It’s obvious to me that they don’t care about anything but the party. Since the felon ran on the Republican ticket, they will follow him off a cliff.
Thanks. Agreed on all counts.
Charles, I know many people that fall into the category of if they scroll through the news, s/he become paralyzed. They stopped doing it the morning after the election. They don’t know much about the current maga implosion over Epstein nor the details of the forty plus day government shutdown. All news is assumed to be bad news. They only want to know if it’s something that places them personally in immediate danger. “It’s either ignore it all or be depressed” ….. forever.
I understand it, too, honestly. I'd prefer to take the ostrich route myself. I'd rather just write fiction. But this feels like an AHOD situation that needs to involve us all. We can beat this and maybe think about focusing more on our daily lives a lot easier if we're not haunted every day by these freaks.
Agree. I think how Jeff Tiedrich ends every post of his “Everyone is Entitled to My Opinion” Substack with “practice self-care. do what you need to do to keep sane.” summarizes how many have dealt with current times. We all have our own tolerance limits.
Focus on what you control.
Handle that first. There is stuff in our control and stuff outside our control. Respond mentally, emotionally, and physically accordingly.
Thank you, Charles. The long-term consequences of his reign may, in the end, be just as severe as the burdens my generation still carries as war-grandchildren in Germany, or as the grandchildren of the GDR regime continue to shoulder. These impacts will echo forward, just as slavery continues to shape the lives of people of color, and genocide continues to shape the lives of Indigenous peoples.
Thank you, too. I have more faith in young people than I make it sound. They seem pretty good at filtering out the nonsense, but yes, I expect long term damage anyway.
Charles, I’m speaking from inside those trans-generational layers myself, and I see how the absence of acknowledgement — and the coping-through-dissociation that so many of us learned — has shaped me, my entire generation, the one before us, and parts of the one after us. Three generations carrying the same unfinished story.
Across the field, social psychologists describe unacknowledged trauma as a global phenomenon, not a personal flaw. When people don’t have safe ways to integrate overwhelming experiences, dissociation becomes the default survival strategy. It’s heartbreaking and understandable at the same time.
And to add an obvious point, sociologists and psychologists will be studying this era for centuries, if we don't burn the place down first.
so true
THANK YOU for this because it's absolutely true. The felon is killing us slowly, there is no doubt. Stress leads to booze, to heart disease and so much else. Bobby Brainworms and Dr. Oooze are prime examples of this regime's lack of concern about the health of Americans. There aren't enough counselors out there to talk us through this. I'm not detecting the kind of negative vibes, the anger, the resentment that Americans have versus the population I've encountered in Spain. It feels like people are content here, focused, and polite. I dont wanna come home. But I have to! Hopefully, he'll be ded soon.
How is it possible I've missed the Dr Ooze reference? :-)
I hope you come home to a changing country. Maga is falling apart over Epstein.
Dr. Oooze? I made it up...at least I thought I did. LOL The regime taxes my brain on the daily. Seriously, this was a very thoughtful piece. And I believe it's true.
Dr Ooze. Never heard of it. Love it! And thanks for the praise. I love praise. I'm like a dog that way. :-)
LOL 🐶🐶
Arf!
Thank you for your assessment of the people in Spain. I spent a few months in Spain and Portugal earlier this year and generally agree. One thing I noted in Spain was how different generations and different regions of the country deal with their memory of the Franco dictatorship. The regions that fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War seemed to be more forthcoming about discussing the years of his dictatorship and now moving on, but not forgetting. The pro-Franco regions still are hushed as if discussion is taboo. Have you picked up on any of this?