There’s a lot to be angry/dismayed/frazzled about. But I feel oddly calm. Like the people in the photo above. Let’s talk about it.
But first, some catch-up.
Housekeeping
Before I start foaming at the mouth, it’s been a while, so let’s play a little catch-up.
I’ve been working on several things, and hopefully, I’ll be able to share some of them with you all soon. I also managed to write a couple of cool stories, if you want to check them out (one has a paywall: be forewarned). My new website is up, too, and it’s great—thanks to my friend Carly for putting it together. My wife, too, has a growing wedding-planning company that’s taking off, and I’m very proud of her.
On a personal level, I’ve been busy chasing toddlers, trying to keep up with work stuff, and putting together the aforementioned projects that will hopefully see the light of day at some point. Yes, it’s fascinating stuff. But it’s also been a “how did 16 months go by and I didn’t even notice” type of thing.
Well, I’m back. And, as I wrote in my previous update, NPNR is going premium. That means that at the end of February or the beginning of March, I’m going to turn on paid subscriptions for those who wish to contribute. THANK YOU TO THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE ALREADY PLEDGED!
There will be more details closer to the launch date, but the gist is this: Paid subscribers will get three editions of NPNR per week, plus some other stuff—early looks at my projects, whatever else you want, etc. Free subscribers will get one, and my gratitude.
Now with that boring preamble out of the way, let’s talk about the whirlwind of sewage we find ourselves schlepping through as of early 2025.
It’s the end of the world, and I feel…okay
So, being a journalist, I’m not really supposed to have an opinion. Or share it. And oddly enough, I do find myself being less opinionated than I was when I was younger. I guess as you get older, it’s more of a “take things as they come, hope for the best, and don’t assume malice” on a daily basis.
But, of course, I do live in the world. Things happen. I’ve been a conscious person for 25 years or so—meaning that I was aware of what was happening in the world outside of my own home, and actively paying attention and forming my own thoughts and opinions around things. Accordingly, I do have thoughts and opinions now. Some of you are well-versed in what those are, or probably are.
And when it comes to the current state of the world? Well…I’m having a hard time making sense of it all. I think that’s because it doesn’t make sense. I definitely think we’re in a decidedly bad place—worse than five years ago, worse than ten years ago, and worse than 20 years ago. But maybe this is something that we, as a society, need to work through every so often? It’s happened in the past, a few times in the past century (McCarthyism, the Business Plot). I guess we’re due to fight off another fever?
But we are creating new problems for ourselves, and that’s what’s frustrating. We could be eradicating diseases or landing on Mars. Instead? We’re apparently telling children they should work at fast-food restaurants rather than expect to be offered lunch at school. Trying to make cars less efficient. And trying to trick federal employees into quitting their jobs, while promising them eight months of severance (federal law only allows up to $25,000, pre-tax, which would be far below what most federal workers earn).
I feel like Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in “No Country For Old Men”: I don’t know what to make of it.
That brings us to the election itself, what I think is the single biggest and most important event of the past couple of years. I was certainly disappointed in the outcome. But not really surprised. Oddly enough, I’ve felt a sort of calm about the whole thing, too. Even as some people around me ask why I’m not pulling what’s left of my hair out.
I’ve thought about that a lot. I am dismayed. Disappointed. Worried. But I’m also, in an odd way, at ease. I think it’s because, if anything, I have some clarity. I’ve been able to wrest insight from outrage, I suppose you can say.
Specifically, it’s become clear to me that:
Trump 2016 was not an aberration (as I had hoped). This is who we are now. Let’s hope we revert to the historical mean.
We’re going to be grappling with fascists, backed by billionaire power, likely for a generation (assuming they don’t win).
An uncomfortable amount of people — including our friends, family members, and neighbors — are on board. They support what’s happening. They want an authoritarian, and they want to see punishment meted out, even if they don’t really realize it. Further, I think they believe they’re the good guys, or at least on the just side of things, which I, again, disagree with wholeheartedly.
As for Trump himself? My read on the guy hasn’t changed much. I don’t think he has any idea what he’s doing. I don’t think he’s a mastermind, planning out his moves. I think people know how to manipulate him, and they do it—then, he acts accordingly. In that sense, it’s pretty simple: He’s impulsive, petulant, narcissistic, and emotional. There isn’t much more to it than that.
And let’s be clear, after four years of craziness, sitting by while a pandemic kills more than a million people and pretending that everything was fine, convincing people that medicine was poisonous, and then attempting the violent overthrow of the country? The guy’s irredeemable. I don’t think that’s unfair.
Again, just my read on things. And having a sense of clarity—yes, we have a problem, and yes, it’s going to take a long time to fix it, if we can—has helped me stay sane. In other words, knowing the outcome, what we’re all facing, and now being able to think about how we’re going to contend with it all is easier, to me, than grappling with the uncertainty and what-if scenarios. How did we get here, and I promise this will be quick, because we’re all sick of hearing and talking about it, right?
First of all, people can’t read. That’s an issue. Maybe it’s THE issue? But that’s a topic for another day.
Second, Trump used the same basic trick that he did in 2016: Pretending that the economy is bad. It’s not, although there are things that could be better. Seriously, reading some things online and talking to some people, it’s like they completely forgot what an actual recession looks and feels like. For some of you younger people, that’s probably true, given that the last real painful economic contraction occurred more than 15 years ago at this point. Yes, we experienced a bout of moderate inflation, and we now have interest rates that are probably where they should be.
But this is us coming off the sugar high that ended with the pandemic. Inflation wasn’t close to record levels. It moderated pretty quickly. Things are more expensive, yes, and houses are way too expensive. There isn’t an easy solution to that, despite what some people might tell you.
So, where does that leave us? I don’t know. I can hope that our leaders will make some wise, informed, and responsible decisions to help us stay on course, economically speaking. But I doubt it.
What ISN’T going to help is lowering interest rates and cutting taxes. Sure, that’d be great for a minute, but it’s not the solution. It’s the opposite. Because if we cut taxes, we’re effectively giving people more money, which they will spend, which will probably cause prices to go up again. And keeping interest rates way too low for way too long is exactly what created the home-pricing issues.
This is also what Trump did during his first term. The economy was on solid ground, and instead of taking a measured approach to keep things in balance, he pushed all the levers forward, cranked all the dials, and smashed all the buttons—cutting taxes, pressuring the Fed to lower interest rates, etc.—and then the pandemic hit. It created a bit of a mess.
We’ll see what happens.
Wrap it up already
Yeah yeah yeah, enough already.
I’ll leave you with this.
I feel disrespected. I feel made to suffer fools. I’m frustrated that diner-goers in Erie who don’t understand how interest rates work and think that vaccines are poison have more say over the direction of the country than I do. But what are you gonna do?
I don’t feel optimistic. Just this past week, we saw the administration freeze federal spending, and then try and take it back, while pretending that taking it back meant that the courts would leave them alone, but that they’d also be able to freeze the spending. That’s where we stand: They took away the memo, not the freeze. As Bill Lumbergh might say, they fixed “the glitch.”
god almighty this is some genius-tier stuff.
I already have a headache.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to connecting with you all, and having some likely discussions and working through our thoughts and feel-feels together. It’s important to talk, even if I don’t want to, and I invite you all to send me a message if you’d like to call me stupid or whatever. Plus, if you have additional ideas for NPNR, what else you might like to see out of it, or anything else, I’m all ears. It’s all about you guys, after all.
As always, you can reach me at sammbecker@gmail.com