When Anger and Joy Commingle
(Good Things Happen!)
Anger is wholly good. Complaining is beautiful, not to mention important. Complaining demonstrates care: for oneself, for others, for justices large and small. Never, ever, ever trust anyone who is telling you not to complain and to suck it up instead. The only, I repeat only, reason they have for doing so is to keep their boot on your neck1. The only power of positivity is entrenching power for those who already have too much of it. Anger is a vital component to overthrowing authoritarianism, or for stopping its rapid encroachment. Anger is what tells us something isn’t right, that we deserve better. Now here comes the “yes, and” part of the evening…
Nobody is joining a joyless revolution. Okay, maybe not literally nobody - but nowhere near enough warm bodies and minds are coming together to accomplish anything, much less anything hard, if it’s pure tedium and brutality. Excitement, joy, delight; these are necessary components to the fight we’re facing in America right now. And fortunately, we are finally experiencing them! All this to say: I love Vice President Tim Walz.
Readers here know I favored Governor Andy Beshear for VP, this is true - but! I’m not mad about it. Walz is a fantastic choice. Perhaps more importantly, rejecting Governor Josh Shapiro was an even better choice (oh the liabilities!). But with Walz, the Democratic Party is happy and exuberant, united, and ready to win this thing. This energy is so important.
Don’t trust anybody trying to throw cold water on it.
I want to make clear I am not referencing people or groups constructively criticizing Kamala Harris, or withholding an endorsement to extract a concession. Those are necessary components of a functional democracy. I’m talking about the Never Trump Republicans scolding you for calling Trump and Vance weird. I’m talking about the people claiming Trump/Vance/GOP aren’t affected by it (not true, and also? Maybe we’re affected by it! In a good and beautiful way!!). I’m talking about the liberals and leftists claiming they know Harris can’t beat Trump. I’m talking about the anti-electoral faction of the left who claims there’s no difference between the candidates. And I’m talking about anyone who accuses those of us feeling excitement of taking our eye off the prize or “not seeing the bigger picture” or whatever dismal bullying phrase du jour they’re using to suit themselves.
This energy is our moment and our future. It is about Harris and it’s not about Harris, but one thing is certain: We deserve it, and after the last eight-ish years, we have bloody well earned it. Beyond that, joy, exuberance, humor, art, and contagious delight are vital components to overthrowing oppression or halting encroaching oppression. So don’t trust anyone who tries to darken this mood. They don’t have America’s best interests at heart.
That said, I wish you a happy weekend and will leave you with some reading recs, what I’ll call Three Articles and a Book!
“A Brief Interlude: Thoughts on Hope, Kamala Harris, and This New Environment” by Jared Yates Sexton: No paywall! This is a terrific read that captures and contextualizes this invigorating moment in American electoral politics. Sexton helped inspire and shape my own thinking about the intersection of anger and joy in fighting fascism.
“What Does ‘Weird’ Even Mean? Why the Vagueness Works - and Why It’s Driving MAGA Nuts” by Amanda Marcotte: An excellent analysis of why calling Republicans “weird” works so well. In short, the left is finally (finally!) throwing Trump’s trolling tactics back at him - and he doesn’t know how to respond. Plus, trolling the trolls is fun.
“An Entirely Serious Investigation into Kamala Harris’s Cookbooks” by Joshua David Stein: a truly lovely and insightful piece of writing for everyone who loves to cook and loves that our Vice President, soon-to-be Madam President(!!), loves to cook.
“That we’re even presented with a stack of cookbooks to decode from a presidential candidate feels like a win. It’s good news. Like, finally, we have a real human being - a real cooking human being - who might be the President. (Nothing against Biden but that man has never been in a kitchen except to steal ice cream at midnight.).”
youthjuice by e.k. sathue: I adore a good body horror novel, but until this stellar June 2024 debut novel, I’ve never seen the subgenre applied (pun intended!) to skincare influencer culture (not to say there’s nothing else out there, just that I haven’t read it). Perfectly propulsive, shivery and disgusting, and wickedly suspenseful! But sathue really innovated the body horror subgenre here by somehow making the mundane grotesque. Most body horror is so overt, right? Eye gouging, limb or digit loss, major disfigurement - that’s the sort of depictions we’ve come to expect. And then here comes youthjuice with body horror about…. Wait for it… Cuticles! Cuticles? Yeah, cuticles! I have never before in my life read a single sentence about cuticles that almost made me vomit, but now I have! Anyways, it’s brilliant, with satire and gore rivaling American Psycho, but much more plot-intensive, and about Millennial #girlboss culture and wellness obsession. A new horror gem!
Happy weekend!!
In anticipation of the argument, I do believe there’s a STARK and quite healthy difference between this and someone who commands someone to stop complaining and do something to fix their problem/situation, assuming there is a tangible, actionable fix within the complainer’s control. And by “fix” I mean fix: actually solve the problem and materially improve the situation. Bullshit platitudes like “change your attitude” and the like, is not that.