Here's some advice: Laugh a little. Maybe make some popcorn.
There are a lot of action items on my list, but today, we're going all in on the Great Feud of '25. It's good for you!
Last night, I was extremely busy basking in a moment of long-awaited schadenfreude — as were we all — and not feeling guilty for even one minute.
The Feud / Twitter War / Narcissistic Death Match between Trump and Musk wasn’t a “distraction,” or some 12-D chess maneuver to keep us from talking about “real problems.” It was real. It was inevitable. Sure, it lays bare the problems with big money influencing elections.
It was also a wildly enjoyable moment of catharsis, at least for those of us who root for the good guys and are struggling to watch yet another ICE goon squad kidnapping video.
People say if you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention. I’ll add that if you’re paying attention, you have to take a break from the anger and seek out the gallows humor — and it happens to be abundant right now.
That jon-stewart-popcorn.gif is sure getting a good workout!
As for me, I went full GenX and shared the image that’s in my brain right now.
I looked up the word catharsis because I’m a nerd and I do things like that. Turns out it comes from the Greek word for purification or cleansing.
If we can pretty much agree that feeling constant hate and rage — however justified — is not so good for us, we can agree that a release of some strong emotions created by that hate is extremely healthy. Cleansing, even. Like a psychic transfusion that gives us the energy to get up and fight another day.
Humor has always been a part of revolutions. Ben Franklin was a master political satirist on tons of issues; Dorothy Parker mocked the upper class, society, and institutions that held women back; Langston Hughes used satire to take on anti-Black bigotry, Jim Crow, and the politics of race.
I mean, Mel Brooks fought in WWII, then came home to skewer Nazis a few more times for good measure.
Today, we’re lucky to have Jordan Peele, Donald Glover, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Ali Wong, Nathan Fielder, Andy Borowitz, and the teams behind Wonkette and The Onion. Among many, many others who do it so well.
Just this year, editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes took the step of resigning from the Washington Post in protest of the censorship of her cartoon mocking the owner of the Washington Post for…censorship.
Isn’t it ironic? Dontcha think?
We know these names because they give us something we all crave in hard times:
Commiseration through uncomfortable laughter.
I know how much you have all appreciated my action lists around political activism and participation in our democracy, trusted historians to read regularly, and self-care tips for troubling times.
Today, I want to suggest you do this:
Go to your social media channel of choice.
Find the memes and like your favorites.
Laugh at the jokes — especially the ones that make you cringe.
Enjoy the schadenfreude, just a little bit longer. (It feels so freaking good to think of two of the worst men in the world taking each other down, Spy vs Spy style.)
Then, when you’re through, please do this one thing:
Look up Palantir.
WIRED has a deep dive on their work, that should appropriately freak you out. Today, there’s a follow-up article that proves their point. This is one major threat that, like Project 2025, doesn’t lend itself to the visceral outrage we feel when we watch live videos of other terrible things. So we have to read about it.
For a more lighthearted take,
(speaking of satire) has an excellent Substack primer on Palantir. Or heck, use Chat GPT to summarize their evildoings, if that’s your thing.Just don’t listen to the people telling you it’s not cool to laugh or that you’re taking your eye off the ball. Sometimes it’s the laughter that focuses us, connects us, and fuels us to fight another day.
Hard agree. And so here for the Spy vs Spy throwback!
https://cliffsongs.substack.com/p/shootout-at-the-not-ok-corral