State of the Unhingement

Addressing an unprecedented moment in collective madness.

Hi friends!

How’s everyone enjoying the new dimension we’ve entered? I’m not a fan, but coping. I recently went to a spin class just to feel something and it turns out riding a stationary bike to the edge of death while some jacked lady yells platitudes about overcoming obstacles is a relic of a less demented era. The journey continues, one potential remedy at a time.

I was forced to give my brain worms the past two weeks off after they put in an emergency PTO request when the AI-generated “Willy Wonka Experience” in Glasgow went wrong in exactly the right way to create an endless cascade of content. Now, there’s a documentary in the works, Chrissy Teigen convinced the meth lab Oompa Loompa to get on Cameo, and a horror movie based on “The Unknown” is in development. I’m not linking to any of this because if you don’t know what I’m talking about then we’re letting that be so.

It seems this was the week to address the state of things, and today, from my kitchen table, in the most stilted voice imaginable, I come to you to address the state of the Unhingement.

We face an unprecedented moment in the history of everything being batshit insane. Never before have so many airplane parts fallen out of the sky. Never before has our collective relationship to the truth and who reports it been this bizarre. Never before have we watched this much death and destruction on the same devices we have to work from. Human history is filled with our worst behavior and the consequences or lack thereof, but this is no ordinary age.

This coming week marks four years since “two weeks to flatten the curve” turned into a complete deconstruction of how we experience time. And so began a pandemic that hasn’t really ended even though we are out and about and officially sanctioned to pretend it’s no big deal. To celebrate, I say let’s throw it back by shaming at least one person we know for socializing instead of their politics.

So much has shifted in these four weird years, but amidst the chaos, we have had one major thing to set our watches to — the same two unscrupulous geezers running for President of the United States.

You know my head exploded when the algo served up President Uncle Joe eating that ice cream cone. Protests made him late to his State of the Union address. By the time he took the stage, the Vyvanse and cold brew had fully kicked in, so, good for him, I guess. And with Trump now on his third go round, perhaps this time will be the charm, the charm being a group of benevolent aliens flying down to abduct his orange ass, deus ex machina, so we can finally move on.

Having my midlife crisis in Canada is less than ideal but at least it’s an option since the “situation” here in America just keeps getting worse. Republicans are already in production on their Handmaid’s Tale remake while democrats are increasingly uncommitted, and though I do get it, I wonder how many more weeks into this election year until we’ll all have to be committed … to an asylum.

you driving me to jail for making that joke (not sorry).

Last we spoke, I was lamenting the spiritual crisis we are in and the ethics of bearing witness on social media when the byproduct is an overwhelming collective grief we have no way to process. That was before an active U.S. military serviceman set himself on fire in protest outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, live-streamed it on Twitch, and prompted the kind of polarized social media conversation we have come to expect — one side saw a heroic act of martyrdom, the other side, a tragic act of mental illness.

Then, a few days later, the world watched as over a hundred starving Palestinians were killed waiting in line for flour.

No one who sets themselves on fire is of sound mental health, but focusing on that belies the whole point: This self-immolation was an extreme manifestation of the despair, powerlessness, and responsibility so many feel watching the relentless brutality in Gaza. To ignore or deny that, even if you vehemently disagree with the politics behind it, is to ignore the truth as it plays out in the streets, across our screens, and at the forefront of what was once a chill conversation over drinks.

I don’t think it’s political to be horrified by the immensity of Palestinian death and suffering, it’s empathy. And empathy never trends, but it is radically human at a time when everyone would rather fight in the comments over the semantics of war vs. genocide than feel all this pain.

I have been reading the comments again (can you tell?) and I’ll admit I’m fully deranged. I am, after all, the Jew who built the madness pyramid and I should know better than to consume an endless stream of hate from all angles, but holy shit do I need an intervention.

me trying to intellectualize the Unhingement.

I have been writing this little dystopian culture blog of mine for nearly a year, a project that began when chronicling “how insane everything is” was about post-pandemic menty b trends, orcas, aliens, and the Great Barrier Reef having a type of aquatic chlamydia.

The state of the Unhingement, I say with certainty, is the worst it has ever been. And trying to make sense of it is a straight path to mental hell.

The state of the Unhingement has radicalized us all in one way or another. It has radicalized me against stupidity, for sure, but also towards compassion — compassion for myself and everyone else because none of this is digestible, it shouldn’t be consumed or experienced that way, and navigating it all has been wild and way too heavy to bear.

I doubt I would have even started writing about the Unhingement if the state of it then was what it is now. I have been so sad since October and dizzy from trying to think my way out of the unthinkable when the least unhinged option is always just to feel.

That said, I truly believe the only antidote we have to the madness is each other and I’m grateful to have you guys here with me, as we do our best to get through it. Even though I feel like I can’t make sense of our dark and dissonant world, I’m going to keep discussing it. I’m in too deep, there’s no stopping now. Even if they ban TikTok, I will somehow find a way.

The great news is we’ve made it to March, the clocks just changed, and spring is (almost) in the air. So, onwards, upwards (?), one foot in front of the other, macabre menty b trends and all, towards a new season we go.

And maybe this week will be better? Because one upside to the state of the Unhingement is, with this level of chaos, you truly never know.

Less Lessons More Blessin’s™️

Liz