This post did not make me feel better, but it did make me feel less crazy🫠. My husband and I do not share political views but both of us fear the civil war coming after this election. Both of us struggle to be in the world and get work done while also contracting into our own little world to protect our own. As a woman, I feel the hate more, and am more afraid. My husband is Jewish, my son pro-Palestine. This makes for energetic dinner conversations. We live in Florida; I teach at an R1 university, trying to hold the "center" while discriminatory policies become local law. We are banned from having "woke" propaganda on the walls. So, I put up rainbows everywhere. Haven't gotten fired yet! Perhaps the worst thing is shame that I am so afraid to act out. I carry the health insurance and retirement benefits for the family. I am a handful of years away from retirement. My daughter has a job interview and needs a car. For the first time in my life, I feel like I can't just walk away from a job (it helps that I truly enjoy my work). But I feel complicit, like I will disappoint my kids. Thank you for this post, and the opportunity to share.
Thank you for "This post did not make me feel better, but it did make me feel less crazy" -- that was exactly what animated me to write it. For what it's worth, staying in public service for a few more years to provide for your family doesn't feel like complicity to me. It feels like resilience.
Well said. Everyone who is not a wealthy, white, cisgender, straight man has much to be concerned about. I’m trying to reach 3rd party and apathetic voters. I learned in 2015 that tRumpers are too far gone to waste time on.
Jay, I’m afraid for my family too! My husband is an immigrant from Mexico, I have gay family members and I am a proud liberal wife, mom and grandmother. I meditate every morning for peace and sending pure live into the world. So much is at stake in this beautiful country of ours. Stay hopeful and know that we are truly in this together ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for this. I am so concerned for the younger generations, scratch that… I should say Everyone. It is time that each person become aware that this election IS affecting each of us personally. And your essay is clear.
The possibility of Trump being elected fills me with existential dread for almost all the reasons you named. I really believe there are more of us than them, though. 🤞🏻
I have thought of moving to Maine or Vermont, just to be close to the Canadian border. But it’s so cold. I’m in Fla. and I’m old (77), but I do have all liberal friends. So there are some of us here, even in Florida. It’s a shame because anymore, if I see an American flag in a yard, or especially on a truck, I automatically think a trumper.
I’m an old white straight non Jewish female widow and I’m just as afraid as you are and what you have stated expresses my fears, as well.
My advice to any younger and able person, is to get out now, while you can. Move to somewhere in Europe..maybe South America, where this Christian white nationalism is not taking hold. This is an extremely dangerous movement.
Climate change is coming thanks to the billionaire class of fossil fuel and the cowardly corrupt politicians and the ignorant hate filled apathetic masses. There is no stopping it now.
But in the meantime, go somewhere progressive and inclusive where, at least, you can live out the rest of your lives in relative peace and safety.
So well said, Jay. I will restack but unfortunately may not reach those most in need of the truth. Thinking about going to a Southern Baptist church to chat with folks . . .
Thanks for this Jay! I've been saying many of these same things to people in my local community - and many of the responses are "Oh, well, I don't think Trump will win, so I'm not worried about it." Here in the liberal bubble in which we live, they just can't fathom it, and dismiss it away. Meanwhile, I look like the crazy person yelling "Fire"! We need to amplify this message the real threats that exist for everyone - unless you are a Christian, rich, hetero, white cis-male. Everyone else should be very scared!
Even if you are a Christia, Cis, Hetero male, they have your partner, sister and daughter by the ovaries and they are just starting to squeeze. If nothing else, your sex life is on the line.
Thank you for this post. It's good to know I'm not alone. I've literally talked to my therapist about this. "How much of this anxiety I'm feeling is legitimate?".
I believe in collapse and do not see this as exclusive with a spiritual practice. I have a note on my computer monitor that says, “communicate like climate change is real and accelerating.” It’s a hair on fire call to be kind, because we do not know when collapse will happen. Sure, I am of the nature to grow old but, especially these days, who knows.
People I knew since high school call me a conspiracy theorist (if they still talk to me) for aligning AI with the climate crisis, speculating what might happen in a second civil war based on middle eastern and Irish domestic military history, fearing the extreme uncertainty with nuclear armament and current geopolitics, and lamenting the breakdown of civil discourse. Climate migration, zoonotic diseases circulating in the middle distance (hi bird flu!), misinformation, isolationist tendencies on a personal and state level.
The more afraid I get, the more important my practice becomes. I’ve done what I can to change my priorities to focus on wellness, community building, and solidarity. I can’t change the world but, with a crew, we can make things less bad for people. And in this context, helping someone out is changing their world. Your insights continue to improve mine and make me feel more sane. Thank you.
Thanks for this. I think there's a big difference between the beliefs/concerns you express and being a conspiracy theory. Those threats are all real. You're not saying that there's some malevolent secret conspiracy causing the bad stuff to happen -- you're saying that the threats are real. To me that's sanity. I definitely believe that the best use of spiritual practice is to build resilience so we can show up for and help others. Thank you for doing that.
Thanks so much for this. I am afraid too. I think the best strategy at this point is to have a plan for the period between election day and inauguration day, at least. My plan is to go to a small town in NC where my grandparents' old house still is. At least inside city limits, there is no shooting, now. (Whereas there is daily shooting in my rural neighborhood here in TN.) The town is mostly populated by elderly people from SC. (Some prominent citizens there are gay men.) I know that this is not as safe, say, as leaving the country: some other friends are in France and can stay there if they want to. (Not that Europe is devoid of rising anti-semitism.) But it seems safer than where I am now.
My daughter-in-law and my two-year-old granddaughter are Jewish. It's not clear to me yet what my DIL thinks about the rising tide of anti-semitism. I'm sure it worries and frightens her and my son, but they don't seem to want to talk about it.
I see a lot of denial in friends. I met two old friends at my college reunion. Fifty years ago, they were reasonable people, but one of them now is a religious nut who thinks that climate change is a hoax, and the other one is a slightly less nutty religious nut who thinks that if we stop saying Trump's name, he will somehow disappear. It is difficult to talk with people about the dangers of the next five months. People seem to want to just party and talk about pleasant things. But the unconscious knowledge of impending doom is stressing people: some people, especially women, are drinking way more than they used to. One couple, married for over 40 years, is splitting up because of constant negativity. People are blaming each other instead of the real culprits: right-wing extremists.
Another friend bought a small piece of land in Maine right across the border from Canada and is building a tiny house on that lot. At least she's not in denial. But it's not exactly a survivalist dream: there is little land to grow food on there. But she can run to Canada if necessary.
The fear is very real and very legitimate. Sitting in France as I write this, it is also worth noting it is not just Trump and not just the US. A wave of rage and resentment threatens to up end the entire globe. I'm still a bit confused as to how we have such a global wave. It must have something to do with the financial crisis, the warming planet, the pandemic, but none of those seem quite enough to explain it. Being afraid of it seems only natural as does being overwhelmed by it.
Bots and trolls and social media are the things that took the financial risks, pandemic, etc to the next level. Everyone has been trained to fear, distrust and suspect and the signals to act are being sent. I can’t get over how this brewing war is just not discussed at all in corporate settings or “polite society”.
Appreciate this, deeply and truly. I just got back from a jaunt to the Bay Area where I got in touch with some of the fears I've not allowed myself to feel. It's tender and it's sobering. And while I have doubts on the usefulness of pressing books into strangers' hands, I wonder if mine would resonate with you. It's called "Death Trip: A Post-Holocaust Psychedelic Memoir." As the title suggests, it's on metabolizing ancestral trauma, largely through psychedelics. But it's also very much about coming to terms with the present, and finding a way to make peace and find purpose within it. Either way, thanks for sharing. Engaging with this reality is hard, but knowing I'm not alone helps....
Thank you Seth. I follow your Substack so I know about your memoir! And I was at a Jewish psychedelic ceremony last night where some of the same work took place...
I make a deliberate effort to remind myself that this fear is what the right wing wants. They want us all to retreat into our lives and fear for our own families too much to continue to extend our fear and concern about other people’s families.
They want to force those of us with empathy to become the “nice people who made the best Nazis” by turning our heads and ignoring as they drag our neighbors away.
I try everyday to turn that fear into properly focused anger. Be too angry to let them strip away our humanity. Be too angry to stop writing postcards, and making calls, and knocking on doors, and donating where you can.
Personally find it astonishing that on one hand you talk about women and female integrity and autonomy whilst on the otherhand you claim that males are also female; as if being female is actually not a matter of essential biological integrity and autonomy, bu a life style choice based on a feeling.
Yeah, it's going to get messy and it's unlikely this country will survive in its current form. I fear for LGBTQ+, immigrants and others - including people who've been critical of Trump on social media these past 4 years because I do suspect that someone is keeping track of that.
This post did not make me feel better, but it did make me feel less crazy🫠. My husband and I do not share political views but both of us fear the civil war coming after this election. Both of us struggle to be in the world and get work done while also contracting into our own little world to protect our own. As a woman, I feel the hate more, and am more afraid. My husband is Jewish, my son pro-Palestine. This makes for energetic dinner conversations. We live in Florida; I teach at an R1 university, trying to hold the "center" while discriminatory policies become local law. We are banned from having "woke" propaganda on the walls. So, I put up rainbows everywhere. Haven't gotten fired yet! Perhaps the worst thing is shame that I am so afraid to act out. I carry the health insurance and retirement benefits for the family. I am a handful of years away from retirement. My daughter has a job interview and needs a car. For the first time in my life, I feel like I can't just walk away from a job (it helps that I truly enjoy my work). But I feel complicit, like I will disappoint my kids. Thank you for this post, and the opportunity to share.
Thank you for "This post did not make me feel better, but it did make me feel less crazy" -- that was exactly what animated me to write it. For what it's worth, staying in public service for a few more years to provide for your family doesn't feel like complicity to me. It feels like resilience.
Well said. Everyone who is not a wealthy, white, cisgender, straight man has much to be concerned about. I’m trying to reach 3rd party and apathetic voters. I learned in 2015 that tRumpers are too far gone to waste time on.
Jay, I’m afraid for my family too! My husband is an immigrant from Mexico, I have gay family members and I am a proud liberal wife, mom and grandmother. I meditate every morning for peace and sending pure live into the world. So much is at stake in this beautiful country of ours. Stay hopeful and know that we are truly in this together ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for this. I am so concerned for the younger generations, scratch that… I should say Everyone. It is time that each person become aware that this election IS affecting each of us personally. And your essay is clear.
The possibility of Trump being elected fills me with existential dread for almost all the reasons you named. I really believe there are more of us than them, though. 🤞🏻
I do too, but I admit, I'm getting nervous.
I have thought of moving to Maine or Vermont, just to be close to the Canadian border. But it’s so cold. I’m in Fla. and I’m old (77), but I do have all liberal friends. So there are some of us here, even in Florida. It’s a shame because anymore, if I see an American flag in a yard, or especially on a truck, I automatically think a trumper.
I grew up in Florida, back when it was purple. Let's reclaim the American flag -- at least we're flying it rightside-up...
I hope you’re doing ok with all the rain in Florida.
I’m an old white straight non Jewish female widow and I’m just as afraid as you are and what you have stated expresses my fears, as well.
My advice to any younger and able person, is to get out now, while you can. Move to somewhere in Europe..maybe South America, where this Christian white nationalism is not taking hold. This is an extremely dangerous movement.
Climate change is coming thanks to the billionaire class of fossil fuel and the cowardly corrupt politicians and the ignorant hate filled apathetic masses. There is no stopping it now.
But in the meantime, go somewhere progressive and inclusive where, at least, you can live out the rest of your lives in relative peace and safety.
So well said, Jay. I will restack but unfortunately may not reach those most in need of the truth. Thinking about going to a Southern Baptist church to chat with folks . . .
Check out "Deep Canvassing," which has some smart ideas (and even training, if you're inspired) on how to hold those conversations productively.
Thanks for this Jay! I've been saying many of these same things to people in my local community - and many of the responses are "Oh, well, I don't think Trump will win, so I'm not worried about it." Here in the liberal bubble in which we live, they just can't fathom it, and dismiss it away. Meanwhile, I look like the crazy person yelling "Fire"! We need to amplify this message the real threats that exist for everyone - unless you are a Christian, rich, hetero, white cis-male. Everyone else should be very scared!
Even if you are a Christia, Cis, Hetero male, they have your partner, sister and daughter by the ovaries and they are just starting to squeeze. If nothing else, your sex life is on the line.
Thank you for this post. It's good to know I'm not alone. I've literally talked to my therapist about this. "How much of this anxiety I'm feeling is legitimate?".
I believe in collapse and do not see this as exclusive with a spiritual practice. I have a note on my computer monitor that says, “communicate like climate change is real and accelerating.” It’s a hair on fire call to be kind, because we do not know when collapse will happen. Sure, I am of the nature to grow old but, especially these days, who knows.
People I knew since high school call me a conspiracy theorist (if they still talk to me) for aligning AI with the climate crisis, speculating what might happen in a second civil war based on middle eastern and Irish domestic military history, fearing the extreme uncertainty with nuclear armament and current geopolitics, and lamenting the breakdown of civil discourse. Climate migration, zoonotic diseases circulating in the middle distance (hi bird flu!), misinformation, isolationist tendencies on a personal and state level.
The more afraid I get, the more important my practice becomes. I’ve done what I can to change my priorities to focus on wellness, community building, and solidarity. I can’t change the world but, with a crew, we can make things less bad for people. And in this context, helping someone out is changing their world. Your insights continue to improve mine and make me feel more sane. Thank you.
Thanks for this. I think there's a big difference between the beliefs/concerns you express and being a conspiracy theory. Those threats are all real. You're not saying that there's some malevolent secret conspiracy causing the bad stuff to happen -- you're saying that the threats are real. To me that's sanity. I definitely believe that the best use of spiritual practice is to build resilience so we can show up for and help others. Thank you for doing that.
Thanks so much for this. I am afraid too. I think the best strategy at this point is to have a plan for the period between election day and inauguration day, at least. My plan is to go to a small town in NC where my grandparents' old house still is. At least inside city limits, there is no shooting, now. (Whereas there is daily shooting in my rural neighborhood here in TN.) The town is mostly populated by elderly people from SC. (Some prominent citizens there are gay men.) I know that this is not as safe, say, as leaving the country: some other friends are in France and can stay there if they want to. (Not that Europe is devoid of rising anti-semitism.) But it seems safer than where I am now.
My daughter-in-law and my two-year-old granddaughter are Jewish. It's not clear to me yet what my DIL thinks about the rising tide of anti-semitism. I'm sure it worries and frightens her and my son, but they don't seem to want to talk about it.
I see a lot of denial in friends. I met two old friends at my college reunion. Fifty years ago, they were reasonable people, but one of them now is a religious nut who thinks that climate change is a hoax, and the other one is a slightly less nutty religious nut who thinks that if we stop saying Trump's name, he will somehow disappear. It is difficult to talk with people about the dangers of the next five months. People seem to want to just party and talk about pleasant things. But the unconscious knowledge of impending doom is stressing people: some people, especially women, are drinking way more than they used to. One couple, married for over 40 years, is splitting up because of constant negativity. People are blaming each other instead of the real culprits: right-wing extremists.
Another friend bought a small piece of land in Maine right across the border from Canada and is building a tiny house on that lot. At least she's not in denial. But it's not exactly a survivalist dream: there is little land to grow food on there. But she can run to Canada if necessary.
The fear is very real and very legitimate. Sitting in France as I write this, it is also worth noting it is not just Trump and not just the US. A wave of rage and resentment threatens to up end the entire globe. I'm still a bit confused as to how we have such a global wave. It must have something to do with the financial crisis, the warming planet, the pandemic, but none of those seem quite enough to explain it. Being afraid of it seems only natural as does being overwhelmed by it.
Bots and trolls and social media are the things that took the financial risks, pandemic, etc to the next level. Everyone has been trained to fear, distrust and suspect and the signals to act are being sent. I can’t get over how this brewing war is just not discussed at all in corporate settings or “polite society”.
Appreciate this, deeply and truly. I just got back from a jaunt to the Bay Area where I got in touch with some of the fears I've not allowed myself to feel. It's tender and it's sobering. And while I have doubts on the usefulness of pressing books into strangers' hands, I wonder if mine would resonate with you. It's called "Death Trip: A Post-Holocaust Psychedelic Memoir." As the title suggests, it's on metabolizing ancestral trauma, largely through psychedelics. But it's also very much about coming to terms with the present, and finding a way to make peace and find purpose within it. Either way, thanks for sharing. Engaging with this reality is hard, but knowing I'm not alone helps....
Thank you Seth. I follow your Substack so I know about your memoir! And I was at a Jewish psychedelic ceremony last night where some of the same work took place...
Oh beautiful, on every count. Thanks Jay!….
You’re definitely not alone.
I make a deliberate effort to remind myself that this fear is what the right wing wants. They want us all to retreat into our lives and fear for our own families too much to continue to extend our fear and concern about other people’s families.
They want to force those of us with empathy to become the “nice people who made the best Nazis” by turning our heads and ignoring as they drag our neighbors away.
I try everyday to turn that fear into properly focused anger. Be too angry to let them strip away our humanity. Be too angry to stop writing postcards, and making calls, and knocking on doors, and donating where you can.
Be too angry to let them win.
Personally find it astonishing that on one hand you talk about women and female integrity and autonomy whilst on the otherhand you claim that males are also female; as if being female is actually not a matter of essential biological integrity and autonomy, bu a life style choice based on a feeling.
Yeah, it's going to get messy and it's unlikely this country will survive in its current form. I fear for LGBTQ+, immigrants and others - including people who've been critical of Trump on social media these past 4 years because I do suspect that someone is keeping track of that.