I’m sorry to tell you this… but No, you can not, in fact, Just enjoy things...

This is a thing we hear all the time, some version of “just let us enjoy things” when a critque of said thing (sports, entertainment, media, etc…) involves their personal complicity in said thing. I used to do a show where I crtiqued these things I loved but knew were problematic ( professonal sports, Movies, Books, TV, etc…). This was my way of justifing my continued engagement. But the thing about Fascism and its tendrils is that it doesnt care why you engage, only that you do.

Now, of course, this doesnt mean that your fandom makes you a bad person in any way, but what it does mean is that any time you use whats known as a “thought terminating clique” you do so to aviod what continuing to think about the subject would do to your sense of self. Thats ok, when I was growing up I was a huge KC Chiefs fan. HUGE. My Dad had season tickets and when he stopped going my friends and I took them over and went every week. When my father got into his accident and became a quadrapaligic they (the chiefs) were a constant conversation peice betweenthe two of us. Then slowly I became aware of the dark side of pro football (CTE, Racism, etc…) and it became harder and harder to justify my fandom to myself.

Then came Jevon Belcher, he was a linebacker for the Chiefs and one Saturday evening he got into a confrontation with his girlfriend and shot her and their child, then went to Arrowhead Stadium confronted Todd Haley his HC and Scot Pelosi the GM and shot himself in the head. The Chiefs played a game less than 10 hr. later and I walked right past what was left of his brains on my way to my seat. I finished out the season, then gave my tickets away, gave up my Fantasy football teams and swore off the sport ever since.

The same self confrontation was occuring within myself concerning all of the pop culture things I for so long made a giant part of my personality. Watching Disney become the real life Mooby corp, watching the NBA sell its soul to Saudi Arabia, watching all of these corporations sprint to embrace AI despite all of the truly terrible things it does cause it was never intended to be what they sell it as. Watching all of the people that were/are involved in/with Epstien and Diddy and the overwhelming knowledge that there is more (so much more) that we still dont know. And how our tacit engagument with these things is the key pilar that allows this occupation to stand.

So then what do you enjoy, they ask condisindingly. Well I enjoy reading theory, discussing revolutionary tacitcs that have and have not worked across the centuries, trying to find common ground with other revolutonary minded people, sharing my stories and hoping they help people feel less alone. So my advice, get some exercise (whatever that looks like for you), wear a mask in public (well fitting N95 or better), drink water, read whenever you can (audiobooks absolutly count), avoid big tech (go to stopgenai.com and we’ll help you, also we could use some help as well). We truly are all we have, and it turns out its always been more than enough.