A message of condolences and hope for my UK friends

[sabotabby]

I'm so sorry. It seems like everywhere you look, where there's ostensibly democracy, people make the worst possible choice and elect some vicious buffoon who just wants to watch the world burn. I don't want to talk about it—there are a lot of Very Smart People in the UK who can analyze these things better than I can from over here—and I'm sure that you don't want to dwell on it. Go get drunk.

As you're drinking, I want to share a little anecdote from this side of the pond in the hopes that it might cheer you up. This happened earlier as you guys were at the polls.

My co-worker burst into my class. "Andrew Scheer resigned!" We did some happy flaily arms and went back to teaching.

Between classes, I checked my phone. Then I went into her classroom.

"Do you know why he resigned?" She normally sees news before I do, so obviously she didn't or she'd have mentioned it.

"Because he lost the election?"

This is a reasonable thing to assume. See, the Canadian voting public also makes really poor decisions, and Scheer, part of the worldwide ascendant fash, failed to beat a vacuous born-to-rule scandal ridden liar who'd failed to deliver on any of his election promises and had been photographed blacking up on too many occasions to count.

But it was so much better than that.

"He was caught siphoning Conservative Party funds to pay for his children's private school."

Readers, I got to tell someone this on her birthday.

The lesson in this is that while we are, across the world, largely governed by bad actors who have learned that they are well and truly above the law, eventually they will piss off their own people and eat each other's faces. You are going to outlive Trump. You'll outlive Bolsonaro. You'll outlive Boris. Even Putin. You have to. And eventually you will live to see them go down in flames. They will eventually do something so beyond the pale that even their own side can't excuse it, and then the knives will come out.

Until then, stay strong, keep fighting, and remember that the workplace and the streets will always be more important battlegrounds than the voting booths.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

Well and beautifully said.

[sabotabby]

Thanks. <3

[wolby]

Thanks for this.

[sabotabby]

<3

[sara]

Thanks, hon.

[sabotabby]

<3

[katebacross]

Thank you.

[sabotabby]

I hope the resistance is sufficient to keep the NHS afloat.

[kore]

BoJo was horrifyingly specific about the NHS in his speech, altho it was the same old lies he has been telling. I was hoping he'd forgotten about it, like when you put a ball under a blanket with a dumb dog.

[sabotabby]

Yiiiikes. I hope he doesn't want to make it more efficient.

Maybe he'll just spend the whole five years hiding in a fridge.

[dewline]

Even Xi Jinping will be outlived.

[sabotabby]

Yes! (MBS, I'm not so sure of since he seems a lot younger than me.)

[kore]

The lesson in this is that while we are, across the world, largely governed by bad actors who have learned that they are well and truly above the law, eventually they will piss off their own people and eat each other's faces. You are going to outlive Trump. You'll outlive Bolsonaro. You'll outlive Boris. Even Putin. You have to. And eventually you will live to see them go down in flames. They will eventually do something so beyond the pale that even their own side can't excuse it, and then the knives will come out.

This is really good.

(Right now I'm kinda terrified of what might happen with five years of Boris and maybe plus Trump getting re-elected in 2020. T says, "DON'T BORROW TROUBLE RIGHT NOW.")

[sabotabby]

T is right, though as a person with massive anxiety issues, I find it impossible not to.

[kore]

LOL fuck yeah I had a panic attack today, first time in quite a while! MAYBE I should go on a news diet (was deep diving in Guardian articles nearly all fucking day).

[ironed_orchid]

"He was caught siphoning Conservative Party funds to pay for his children's private school."

OMFG that's priceless.

[sabotabby]

It's a perfect storm of hilarity.

Then half of them said, "oh sure, we knew about it, it was allowed" and the others were like "WTF NO WE DID NOT."

[metawidget]

And this in a province with a fully-functioning, tax-funded, protected-by-our-antiquated-constitution Catholic confessional school board.

[mallorys_camera]

They're all on the wrong side of history, true. But it's hard when you're stuck in that same slab of history with them.

[sabotabby]

Exactly this.

[mistersmearcase]

I think you are basically right but I have to say, from here, it feels like there is literally nothing trump could do, LITERALLY NOTHING that would turn his party against him.

[sabotabby]

I don't think so either, but eventually a lot of them will be dead and they are older than we are.

[kore]

He did say, if he shot someone on 5th Avenue....I think that horrible guy from Florida with the cartoon hairdo would be defending him immediately.

[50ftqueenie]

"He was caught siphoning Conservative Party funds to pay for his children's private school."

I may have squeed when I first heard that.

Just a little.

[sabotabby]

I was SO DELIGHTED.

[lynnenne]

My first thought when I heard that Scheer had resigned was, "Great, now we'll have to put up with Doug Ford running for the Conservative leadership." I honestly can't say which of them is worse.

[sabotabby]

I believe Ford as premier (speaking as an Ontarian; less so for the rest of the country) is much worse. The province is in charge of education, healthcare, social assistance, and transportation—the big things that affect immediate quality of life. Certainly, a malicious PM can do a lot of damage, especially long-term around climate change. But he might not get elected—Quebec hates his guts, as does Ontario now—and even if he does, he might be so incompetent on the national stage that he's unable to do anything. Whereas in control of the province, he's got all of the unchecked power.

[metawidget]

Yeah, let us rest-of-Canadians at him!

[lynnenne]

I'm relieved to hear that Ford is now unpopular in Ontario! Nobody can lead a national party to victory if they can't get the votes in Ontario and Quebec.

[sabotabby]

He's got like a 28% approval rating or something now. That's why Scheer had to keep him locked in a bunker all election, and the Tories were still largely shut out of Ontario.

[ffutures]

Here via selenak's rec - many thanks, just hoping it happens sooner rather than later.

[sabotabby]

Me too. I'm not British but lots of people I care about live in the UK (as well as lots of people in general who don't deserve this shit and didn't vote for it) and the sooner you're out of this clusterfuck, the better for everyone.

[pofflewomp]

That genuinely cheered me up. It's kind of true. Thank you! :)

[sabotabby]

Glad to hear it!