I will just say it here since I can’t really say it anywhere
else – if there is one thing I am beginning to hate, it’s tribalism. I actually
went home to my parents on Tuesday to help with tech issues that accumulated in
a month, and it was poor timing on my part because I was treated to my father
clapping and cheering at the TV during the trump speech, like it was a favorite sports team scoring a goal, and cursing at Kennedy’s
response before shutting it off halfway, and couldn’t escape it downstairs where
the same speech was synchronously translated, jubilantly and accompanied with inaccurate
live commentary, on Russian TV channel ( going, literally, like this: “…I will
protect the Second Amendment … – that’s the one about the freedom of religion- … ” ).

What’s even worse is that what is supposed to be “our side”
is not that much better either, playing into the most divisive kind of identity
politics that cost us the election last time, and will continue to do so even
if our democracy somehow miraculously survives, which seems less likely with each passing day.

I’ve never felt this rootless.