Failure to Pessimate

When hope kills

We’re screwed. I thought maybe that was the case but after my meeting with friends last night, I know it is the case. These friends are not Maga, not Trump supporters at all. Yet, they exhibited what I call a failure to pessimate.

We all love the optimist, the glass half full types, but sometimes in order to see the half fullness, they completely ignore reality unless it’s unswerving hopefulness. One of these friends was also the one who told me I was exaggerating and spreading misinformation back in January of 2020 when I told the group about a serious virus that was killing tons of people on the other side of the world It hadn’t hit our hometown quite yet, but I was reading the news coming out of China and Italy. I also estimated that the virus would cause over a million deaths in the first year. Again, I was accused of being a fatalist, exaggerating something I freely admitted that I was no expert in the given subject. I just liked to read and crunch numbers.

So last night, discussing the dismantling of the federal government, the fascist takeover of our country, the threat of camps, rampant inflation, unchecked health concerns, stolen data, etc. I found myself again on the other end of the eternally hopeful, it will never get that bad, the military and the courts will save us mentality. I was told that we should remain “polite”, “let’s not sink to their level”, and also, don’t exaggerate the current state of affairs. My head was spinning. They do not see the real and present danger, don’t see the coup in progress, and for some reason believe someone is going to step in and save us. A failure to pessimate. These are good people but they have stuck their heads in the sand. One was so distraught after the election, they decided to leave the country. They’re uprooting everything and leaving, yet they advised us “not to worry”, to “remain hopeful” and keep faith that the military or courts would “step in to correct things”, to “be polite” in my resistance. Perhaps a bit of cognitive dissonance at play here?

Am I a pessimist? Sometimes. But sometimes I am an optimist. In all cases, I try to be a realist. Look at facts, trends, actions and come to logical conclusions even if I don’t like the verdict arrived at. I happen to think it is not healthy to put on blinders, not realistic to refuse to consider anything that isn’t filled with hope or considered negative in the slightest. We are past the midpoint in this coup and I’m supposed to be polite, hopeful even.

Well, fuck that shit. This is not a drill. Our country is under attack. I HOPE it won’t be as bad as I think it will be. I HOPE we can reverse the damage and that it doesn’t take decades to recover the hard won progress that has been ripped out, HOPE the military is not set loose upon the citizens, HOPE the next pandemic doesn’t hit until we get scientist back to sciencing, HOPE that the Constitution with its promise of potential isn’t done away with, HOPE that POC, women, the queer community, and hungry children do not suffer needlessly. Yes, I can hope, but I won’t let hope stop me from acting in the face of evil. I will fight to defeat fascism, white supremacy, and Christian nationalism -or- die trying. I don’t suffer a failure to pessimate, nor a failure of optimism, though I will admit I have developed a lack of patience for those who knowingly or unknowingly destroy the country, I’ve developed an intolerance for supremacy whether it’s blatant or passive aggressive. Not sure how to put it politely, but fuck that shit.