I've been writing a lot about America lately. I doubt that is surprising to anyone— art isn't created in a vacuum. And honestly, I don't think I'll ever find a journal that will publish poems about America the empire, or America the war machine, or any America not painted in the best of light. America likes its outward appearance. America likes to be praised, constantly—in spite of our actions towards the rest of the world and even our own citizens. American the protection racket. America the cartel.
It's a common trope that liberals on the coasts believe everyone else unintelligent. Sure, some liberals hold those beliefs—namely the rich and white ones who have lived in the same part of the country for generations and haven't suffered a day in their lives (this belief is probably also a stereotype). But if you're from somewhere else, like I am, this kind of simple thinking doesn't cut it. Yes, I too, make jokes about where I come from. I pull out my Missouri Ozark accent when I want to say I tell you what. I fall into the same stereotypes, but the difference between me and everyone else is I have a wife who will call me on it. I snap back quicker than I would otherwise. We all need a touchstone when it comes to propaganda, to anchor ourselves in the whirlpool of shit out there.
To be clear: Missouri or Arkansas or Alabama or whatever red state you want to use to make your case, is not full of "stupid people". They're full of tired people, who've had harder lives, and struggle more to make their day-to-day. And when you're that tired, generationally tired, politicians coming to your house selling snake oil sound pretty good.
I can't think of anyone, including myself, who is 100% immune to propaganda. My father told me when I was ten years old that Social Security wouldn't exist when I retired. And when I see Elon Musk walking around in government buildings unchecked—the possibility of Congress gutting Medicaid and Social Security for a billionaire tax cut—I realize now that Social Security might not exist when I retire, not because it was fiscally unsound, but because we've been fed a self-fulfilling prophecy for decades and it now it seems natural for it to come true.
People forget that Social Security is your money. It's yours. But now they're telling you, (and have been for years and years), that you're not entitled to it. They tell you that billionaires deserve that money, (because they're so rich), they obviously know what to do with money and you don't. You deserve to get fucked.
The balls on these shit birds.
Anyway. I've been thinking a lot about my mom.
