January 6, 2021, a Date That Will Live In Stupidity

I spent much of yesterday with two news channels playing on two screens and with Twitter and YouTube livestreamers open on my laptop, following the chaos in Washington, D.C., as a delusional President exhorted his delusional disciples to storm the U.S. Capitol, and they did. On major news days I often check out the differing ways news networks and other outlets cover events. There was also major news out of Georgia, as both Democratic Senate candidates were confirmed to have won their runoff elections, tilting the balance of power in the next Congress just barely to the Democrats. (Once Fox News reports something counter to its ideology, you know it must have actually happened.)

It’s difficult to predict the medium- and long-term effects of the confederacy of dunces’ play-attack on democracy; short-term it seems to be even more binge-drinking, stress-eating and high-theatrical declamation, and vast, pillowy depression, than were already manifest. Of course, the only people who would have felt any of that were those paying attention, which rules out many Americans, and those who have a basic faith in our democratic institutions, which rules out most Americans. To be fair, most people just want to live their lives without needing to pay too much attention to the news media and politics, which has been one of the chief stressors of the Trump era—feeling the need to know what the fuck is going on and not finding a lot of clearly trustworthy information.

It’s not my intention to spend much time on this blog writing about politics or current events, but there are, of course, many relevant aspects to think about, such as the narrative structures of news media, issues of media literacy and how our politics are recapitulated in our downstream media, such as the responses of Internet culture, television and the movies to this moment in history. I am fascinated by the question of how, for example, filmmakers will eventually characterize the Trump presidency. We’ve had films about the Clintons and Bushes and Obamas; Ronald Reagan even has a cameo in the latest Call of Duty video game. Who will play Trump? How will we tell the story of this era to ourselves in five or ten years? Will January 6, 2021, be remembered by anyone outside of the MAGA death cult? Will we point to this date with some significance as we weather some future anti-democratic unrest? Is it just a speed bump on the road toward, or away from, decline and ruin? Will we wake up with a Trump hangover, purge, drink some Gatorade, have a greasy breakfast and start to feel better, while forgetting the drunken embarrassment of the night before?