"The word 'retarded' is enjoying a comeback."
-- - Celebrated by the New York Post
While recovering from surgery and stuck in bed, I binged the second season of Squid Game. The first installment was a depressing look at the state of the world under corporatism, with the 1% finding entertainment in the violent deaths of those who had fallen into deep debt. While well-made, the sequel was even more painful to watch.
Part of the reason this version was more uncomfortable to watch was the addition of nuance to the backstories of the game's victims. Much like how society sees the unhoused as drug users who brought their circumstances upon themselves, the viewers of Season 1 were discouraged from feeling too much empathy for the players. However, in the new season, those with gambling debts played alongside players with debilitating medical debts, failed businessmen, and victims of crypto schemes. These were not people who had squandered their paychecks, they were victims of Capitalism in its current state.
The fact that empathetic characters were included in this season made it even worse when they could not bring themselves to work collectively to extract themselves from the situation. Instead, they turned on each other and defied their self-interest, egged on by those in charge who manipulated them masterfully.
Predictably, there was no happy ending. It was the perfect representation of the year we just had.
It has been almost a decade since Donald Trump descended his golden escalator in Trump Tower surrounded by a crowd paid to cheer him on. His propensity to lie and his ability to trade in the currency of bigotry were all on display from the beginning. The experts all said he would never be president, but in November 2016 he fooled everyone. A majority of Americans voted for Hillary Clinton, but enough voted for Trump that he won the Electoral College.
Nothing was surprising about the Trump presidency. On day one he lied about the size of his inauguration crowd and his followers accepted his version of reality. Those lies continued through his Presidency, reaching comical heights as he rerouted the projected path of a hurricane with a Sharpie. Those laughs went away as 1,161,164 Americans (411,534 during his presidency) died during the COVID-19 pandemic, a number magnified by Trump's incompetence.
Today, the second act of the Trump presidency will begin. After he lied and bullied his way through the campaign, a plurality of Americans decided to put this failure of a president back in the White House. His intentions (especially for immigrants and members of the LGBTQ+ community) are clear. We can only hope that he is too incompetent to follow through.
Like the players of Squid Game, none of Trump's supporters think that they will be the ones to pay the price as their Dear Leader barrels through his Presidency. Even if it does, history shows they will not blame him; he handed Biden an economy in the dumpster, but the electorate blamed the successor for the disruptions in their lives.
Despite earning less than half the vote, Trump is claiming a mandate, and his followers are newly emboldened. The incoming President promises to follow through with unpopular efforts to pardon the violent January 6th insurrectionists, increase tariffs, and enact mass deportations. He has ramped up his efforts to silence critics in the media. His followers celebrate their claimed victory over "wokeness", and their ability to use derogatory terms, including against the developmentally disabled, without judgment.
Perhaps the biggest threat of the next four years is the crisis that is not even on our radar yet. Trump's appointed Cabinet includes a vaccine denier, a physician who hawks snake oil on the Internet, and a Russian mole. By the time Americans are relieved of the Trump presidency, the costs of COVID may seem quaint.
Happy New Year! May the Force be with us all.
A look back at my Different Drummer musings about politics, family, and music from the past year:
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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