Happy New Year

Happy New Year, friends.

Trevor and I had reflections on the year past, and what to prepare for the new year. Now we're in 2025. 

I won't lie. This year will be unlike any through which most of us have lived. We have a few of our community who lived through the Civil Rights revolution. But this is on another order. Our timeline has been wrenched back to the 1930s, when the looming disaster was evident to anyone with eyes to see.

Yesterday I argued for a type of quietism in response to what's coming. I now want to expound on that.

By "quietism," I don't mean that we should withdraw from the world and hide our heads. Not in the least.

I see quietism as a strategy for the preservation of our energies; I see it as a means to harness and build our energies, so that we can unleash them when the time is ripe.

We have a choice. We can react to everything thrown at us, exhausting ourselves. Or we can be judicious and strategic as to where we engage. 

Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the mad assortment around them will try to cow us into fear and despondency. They will gish-gallop and attempt to make us mad with worry and anxiety. We cannot allow that. We cannot fall into that spiral. If we do, they win, for they will have taken us off the battlefield.

I keep saying to "seize your joy." This is not a call to complacency, nor is it a call to withdraw from the world. It is a call to build up your strength. It is a call to not waste yourself on things which you cannot control. You cannot control who the next Speaker will be. You cannot control who will be confirmed to Trump's cabinet. Those are not the fights to be had. The fights to be had will come in short order. And even then, you must be circumspect in which fights you engage. Not all conflicts are equal. In many cases, letting those who chose this suffer the consequences of their actions will be the only way to go, even if it—as indeed it will—hurt us as well. There will be a significant amount of collateral damage to be had, and of self-sacrifice. That's when communal ties will be paramount, as we help our own to traverse the blasted heath in which we find ourselves. (I still have the blog's PayPal account, and will bring it out as needed to give aid.)

We are facing a time where we will have to rely on ourselves and on those we care for and care for us. Being joyful is part of that strategy. While MAGA keeps trying to "own the libs," we must not fall into that trap. Let them fume. Let them suffer in solitude, while we band together and help our own. At this moment, the commonwealth doesn't exist. It has been shattered by those who don't see everyone in this country as part of the same community. Fine. We'll have our own, and they can go Galt.

My idea of quietism also doesn't mean that we ignore elections. Not in the slightest. Vote for everything. From local boards to Senate. Cede none of that space to our adversaries. How much more you decide to do is up to you. That's not for me to say. But the basic role of a citizen is to vote. So vote.

The prospect of the next few years is daunting. It can be frightening. But we were all placed here for a reason. This is our time. This is the time where we forge a new world. The future is not written, as much as the likes of Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller would like you to think that all is over, that they have won. Not only is the fight far from over; it's hardly begun. We are the ones we've been waiting for.