Things to Read to Help You Through the Madness
Possibly! Or you can just skip it and scream into the abyss, that's fine too!
This one’s for the librarians, researchers, archivists, academics, nerds, and every staff member from the maintenance folks to the administrators at our cultural institutions where knowledge is kept.
As I and other researchers rapidly download documents that will likely be censored, deleted, and hidden once this fascist regime gets its claws fully into the National Archives, the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress, I am grateful more than ever to the work of everyone from community librarians to amateur genealogists to volunteer docents to archivists.
If that’s you - and especially if you lost a job in the March bloodbath or fear you’ll lose one soon - I am grateful to you. If that’s one of your loved ones who has passed away, somebody who likely didn’t get much public credit for their steadfast work, I am holding them in prayer and memory with deep gratitude.
I’m on a road trip to live, laugh, love and research my upcoming book, which has the elegant title of ABRAHAM FUCKING LINCOLN (except with asterisks in the UCK part) which is forthcoming from Grand Central in probs 2027, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.
Anyhow, FUCK. Everything bad that thoughtful and compassionate people said would happen is happening, but Cassandra wasn’t thrilled about it and neither are you and I, I’d wager.
Note that I didn’t say “smart.” I don’t think it takes a “smart” person - whatever that means - to see which way the fascist wind will blow, should it get to blowing (and oh! Look how it blows!) It just takes somebody who cares, and who is thoughtful enough to learn their history and reflect on it.
Most of us can do pattern recognition, eh? The willfully ignorant choose not to. Note I didn’t say “stupid.” You can’t fix stupid, whatever that means. Ignorance can change. I’ve experienced it myself and I’ve seen it in others. I see it in those who are changing their tune, mending their ways, and reacting with horror to the painful reality they’ve helped create.
A lot of us swallow the bullshit we were fed, and barfing it up is a painful process of unbecoming the shitbags we were trained to be. This is true with regard to one’s behavior in personal relationships, at work, and as a member of the community. Political engagement is community engagement.
But willful ignorance is a choice. And plenty of folks stay choosing that, over and over again. Some of them will change over time, and the true acolytes will dig in, high off the fever of their delusions and fantasies.
The market will eventually improve, and for every incremental tiny improvement, they’ll all start cheering, “HEY! HE WAS RIGHT!” Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people are out of jobs after March (the third-highest month for job loss since they started tracking this shit under Bush Uno in 1989) and about 80% of those are from folks DOGE-fucked by the sociopath Trump has chosen to do the dirty work and set up to eventually, spectacularly fire - winning himself false acclaim for “doing the right thing.”
It’s all so fucking predictable. Including the continual consolidation of power as they steal the autonomy and power of the universities, the judiciary, and eventually the legislature. One day they’ll declare we all have to take an oath of loyalty to his disgusting regime.
When China, South Korea, and Japan get together to collaborate on something because they all agree you fucking suck - you’re fucked.
ANYWAY, here are some things to read that help keep me informed and help me understand this shit better…and even sometimes give me hope…and at least make me feel less alone. I know very well that solitude is nourishing but isolation can kill me quick, and reading words from these sources really does help me.
by edited byAnything
writes byActual, real, well-written history books help, too. Please drop your favorites below - podcasts and TikTok accounts too. Ye ole Instagram, etc. And excellent newsletters here and elsewhere.
Oral histories by Studs Terkel are of particular good use now. And Zinn Education Project keeps the work of Howard Zinn alive in a beautiful, relevant, teachable format.
Nonprofits like Miry’s List and RAICES Texas give me hope, too.
Thinking of youse while I’m out here not escaping into history, because this shit is more relevant than ever.
Love,
Sara
Coincidentally, today is National School Librarians Day
Podcast selections: Fall of Civilizations, Revolutions. Both make me oddly hopeful, or at least help me feel less alone and crazy as shit hits the fan.