Post-Trump


You see I’m in such a hurry to get it over with I’m already speculating on what a post-Trump age will look like. Philosophically speaking, because all that carnage he eluded to in his inauguration speech will be the world post-Trump ie bad laws, bad water, bad leaders, people afraid, hiding, stockpiling=all these descriptions might actually apply to a Trump administration.

Some people are coping by tuning out—ie avoiding the news, the Internet (which might be good since Trump wants to rip it out: Dec 8, 2015 - Donald Trump has called for a shutdown of the Internet in certain areas to stop the spread of terror. ... He recommended a discussion with Bill Gates to shut off parts of the Internet.) I have friends who range on the scale of Internet use from Neanderthal to Little House on the Prairie. They simply have decided they’re going to have nothing to do with Facebook, the news, the TV, radio . . . . and go live in the woods of New Hampshire—where I’m sure they still can get the Internet.

In other words, they’ve chosen not to be engaged. How does that really work?

That might work for a certain generation ie retirees, snowbirds, the super-rich preparing for total collapse in bunkers. But what about Generation Z, the Millennials, the ones who are going to inherit the “carnage”?

If you were born after 9/11 you are totally screwed.

What have you got: fake news, fake facts, climate change deniers, post post modernism, aka Post-Trump—a place beyond surreal, a place where you have to ask is that fact true or not, is this reality, virtual, or something else? You actually tip your hand that you are an oldster if you think there is such a thing as truth. That measuring stick is long gone.

Even I’m beginning to sound like Steve Bannon. Ugh!

I’d like to propose a joyful resistance, the kind of engagement that rallies hope.

But, you may be asking, isn’t that also a type of denial, of not living in reality (once we can figure out whose reality). Listen, I know we’ve all been let down. I can still vividly recall the utter betrayal, the disappointment, the stages of grief I moved through (and am still working on) when Hillary lost. She was supposed to win. Everyone told us she was going to win. Or at least they told us Trump was going to lose.

The shocking reversal has re-set the planet and told us that things/life/what’s happening now is not what we thought. That the unbelievable (as in grotesque) can happen. This is also post-Trump—questioning, everything.

I totally get why Millennials have decided to go back and re-read Harry Potter, reach for the familiar. Just don’t forget to be brave, to fight for what’s right, to stand up for those weaker than you are, use your voice. We’re counting on you. Make memes. Create art. Write that novel. Do stand-up comedy.

Here are some links to art post-Trump, resistance and protest art that have popped up:

One of the best examples of I’ve seen so far of art imitating life, in fact it was art and in fact it was life, verbatim:  An exact transcript of Trump introducing Black History month, satire at McSweeneys.

And most recently


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