Let's take it from the top

I feel frustrated, othered, and alone like I did in the run-up to and early days of the early stage of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 illness causer) pandemic. I was following its rise back in 2019 and trying to warn people, both then and in January and February of 2020 before it got big in the U.S.

I tried.

It feels like most everyone, you know? Even the people who didn’t want the incoming president and Congress (and Supreme Court justices) seem determined to expect SOME “guaranteed unchanging” things, or that systems/structures/rules/judgements already in place will generally remain. It’s like almost the whole country is willing to keep themselves either

• isolated + distracted by entertainment,
• run down stupid distraction busy-trails by trolls/bots/algorithms,
• or genuinely just keeping their heads in the sand

until it’s so obvious that it’s way too late to ACTUALLY PREPARE. Even our supposed elected representatives who are supposed to know and deal with this as their whole job.

It feels like if I talked about any of my ACTUAL middle-of-the-road scenario expectations for the next 1, 5, or 10 years, everyone would write it off as “oh she’s just paranoid, she’s just fearmongering, she’s ignoring how laws work in this country, she’s just thinking like this because of anxiety, she just believes that because of a totally different experience with high control groups or a bad smaller local government, this is nothing like that, she doesn’t know, she doesn’t understand [insert xyz nuance here].”

Like. Read the writing on the wall? Even financial and corporate trails point to it by now.

None of my dreads are based on unreasonable or unprecedented possibilities. I don’t need validation from anyone. I’m conserving my energy (and opinions, for safety). I’m not fearmongering, naive, or crazy. I saw the writing on the wall over 2.5 years ago, before the major election cycle even began again, and I’ve been doing the things I need to in order to prepare myself for what’s coming, whether anyone else believes me or not.

I was right about the 2019-onward coronavirus pandemic. I was right about what was coming with climate + weather impacts. I was right about the media changing. I was right about the tech company decisions. I was right about the algorithms, and how to interact with people you don’t agree with, and the Democrats, and the 2024 election. I was right about lot of things over the years, personal life and otherwise, where no one believed me until it was too late. I did see all those things coming. I did believe in what I knew and saw even when other people didn’t around me.

I’m done waiting for anyone to listen to me. I know I can adapt. There’s nothing else I can actively control. Especially not people I love and care for.

I can’t save them. But I can try to save me, and if I’m around and functional, I’ll help anyone who does finally get it and reaches out to me. I’ll keep on doing what I can, where I can.

All the rest is uncertainty.