mar 24 in idea barrages

If you stitch mild compliments into your socks, you are darning them with faint praise.

If the Grimace wants to telegraph his edginess, does he dye his purple hair brown?

Slenderman is just David Bowie’s shadow, escaped to do mischief.

Is your local Greek restaurant overseen by a state-licensed gyrocologist?

“Your fencing technique is getting a little better” she said, damning him with feint praise.

If you say “Buttigieg” into the mirror three times in a row, a jar of mayonnaise appears. Not even, like, name brand mayonnaise. Whatever the store brand of your local chain is.

Man. Wandavision was exactly what we needed, I think. A story about surviving trauma, accidentally replicating trauma, manufactured nostalgia for times that never happened & soothing-but-destructive fantasies that need to collapse for any real healing to begin. A story for 2021.

Q-Anon was a conspiracy of magical thinking. Bigots believing the power of The Secret, if they just willed all their worst fears true they could banish them with their wildest dreams. Reality doesn’t work like that. Not for them, not for us, not for anyone. Focus on the possible.