I'm genuinely shocked and heartbroken

I'm staggered at the level of hate, and stupidity; but we have to keep moving forward

I’m just waking up to the final election results. And I actually threw up.

I don’t have anything useful to say. Lots of other people will have more to say, and do it better no doubt. (Clearly, that’s not stopping me from wanting to say SOMETHING at least!)

One of my core professional information beliefs is that we are living at the best time for humans. We have more money, more safety, more health than humans have ever had - spread across the globe. Things aren’t perfect, of course: wars, poverty, and awful things happen. But in the aggregate, overall, looking at the span of activities: things are improving for all of humanity.

I believe this. And it’s true. I have a bunch of valid and reliable facts to show you.

But: yeah. That can also stop being true at some point.

Is that point where a country with a strong economy, low unemployment, and an ever-increasing level of good thing happening (Women can’t be fired for being pregnant anymore! Gay people can’t be sent to jail for being gay anymore!) decides to…stop being that?

WAY before you even look at a policy from any candidate, you have to notice a few things. If a candidate is

• a convicted felon

• a sex offender

• clearly suffering from dementia

….well, that’s not great.

And then you take one more step down the road of looking at a candidate - still not even looking at any issues - and notice that one candidate

• can’t speak with sentences, only sputters with incoherent rage

• all campaign material focuses on revenge and punishment and doing bad things to people - some people, all people

• every sensible person in a former administration has disavowed him

• every sensible person who works in government and the military has said he’s a mistake

You have to pause, for even a moment, and think well: that would be suicidally stupid to bring so colossally horrible a person into any kind of power.

Right?

RIGHT?

It would literally not even matter what you other choice was. Literally anyone would be a better choice. LITERALLY. ANYONE.

Oh, but the other choice is a female??? Ick! Girls are scary!

Sure, an experienced candidate, who runs on a platform of unity, bringing people together. She’s smart, tough. Heck: a former prosecutor! (And those are not usually my favorite people, because they lean a little fascist; but that’s a positive for some.) Again: even without looking at a single policy from anyone: yeah, that sounds good. I’d investigate further.

BUT SHE’S A GIRL!

PRESIDENTS CAN ONLY BE MEN.

ANYONE ELSE IS, OBVIOUSLY, JUST SUBHUMAN AND DOESN’T COUNT. EVEN THE MOST CLEARLY DEFICIENT, ETHICS-FREE, HATE-FILLED IDIOT WHO IS A MAN IS BETTER THAN EVEN A TRULY OUTSTANDING, QUALIFIED WOMAN.

And honestly: that reality is why I threw up this morning.

Because a whole bunch of people decided literally exactly that.

So many people decided that hate-filled anger was exactly what they wanted.

And I want to tell myself that they just didn’t understand. That they were taken in by their social media algorithms. That they were confused by Russian/Chinese disinformation. That their fucking church led them down a bad political path.

Sure: that is true.

But, really. Come on.

At the end of the day, at the moment of making a decision: millions of people decided that a convicted felon, sex offender, clearly-suffering-from-dementia, hate-filled demagogue is the person they want to follow.

They did that on purpose.

And, I don’t want to get apoplectic about it all, but: it’s hard not to notice that this is exactly how democracy ends, and how countries fall.

It’s hard not to look at this and think: you know, Germany elected Hitler and that turned out really badly for everyone.

It’s very, very hard not to think that.

Very. Hard.

Have I already browsed for jobs in Canada and New Zealand this morning? Yep.

But here we are. And, as with every other tragedy that befalls us - we have to make the best of it.

Back to my belief at the beginning: I do believe the world is cycling upward in goodness. I do think that most people are good.

I do believe that.

I want to believe that.

I’m kind of struggling today to believe that.

But I want to.

So let’s take some time to wallow in sorrow and regret today. Scream. Cry. Be furious with stupid people who made a very, very bad choice. Get ready for the hell that is coming - because it’s going to be awful.

And then tomorrow: get back to it. Don’t let this tragedy become one that you participate in by making it worse. We have to make at least our individual areas of the world a little better. We have to focus on rising above this disaster. We have to improve the things that can be improved.

Reach out to people you can help - in your neighborhood or across the planet. Give money, give time, give labor - what you can and when you can. Push back when you can. Build the structures of people and ideas and support you can, that will be a source of comfort and provide some good news.

Don’t let the bad things overwhelm us.

We’re in for a whole raft of bad things ahead; I’m trying not to think about it all today. Just one thing at a time.

Make the choice to do bring more good to the world than bad. It’s what we can do right now, so do that.

Things are still more good than bad. Remember that. Make it true.

At the very least: visit a library this week. Check out some books. Talk to a new person. Go to a program. Sit there and bask in the joy of knowing that libraries are one of the best things we have as a society - the jewels of a community they serve. The freedom to share books and ideas and to be with people; it’s just great.

Celebrate freedom and inclusion and all the other good things at the library. Everything else terrible can just wait while you bask in library goodness!