A Dyke A Broad #64
Predictions for 2022, wishing Omicron and elderlies away, and the mystery of the disappearing, ankle-spraining curb solved. Plus more.
Hello from Paris!
A very Happy New Year to you!
We did what we always do, which is very little until the stroke of midnight when we tossed water 1 out of the window in that Cuban tradition which is supposed to get rid of all the bad things from the past year—so you won’t be crushed by whatever happens in the new one!
For what it’s worth, I do predict that the current explosion of Omicron ends by early spring. Mostly because the ‘cron is clearly a sprinter, and will soon be thinking of a vacation somewhere sunny and warm. Not so much because people decide to be good members of the polis, and get vaxxed and boosted and wear their masks properly and consistently.
Especially in the U.S. where a growing number of Covid contrarians are applauding statements like “COVID-19 is not a deadly or even severe disease for the vast majority of responsible Americans” and declaring, as Nellie Bowles recently did:
If you just love the feel of fabric across your cheeks, by all means. If you really care about not getting COVID, wear an N95 for as long as you’d like. But it’s long past time to take life back from the hypochondriacs.
Yowza.
It’s pretty clear that you can only write that last line if you’re not only vaxxed and boosted. But young. And thin. And healthy. Free from worries about a serious breakthrough infection because your immune system’s still going gangbusters, and there’s no way you’re gonna have a stroke or a heart attack and discover there’s no room at the inn because the hospitals are full to bursting with irresponsible minoritarian Covid patients who haven’t heard yet that the pandemic is passé.
I’m getting a little tired of conventional people who suddenly shudder at any constraint, especially on behalf of a party-pooping, vulnerable minority. Oh my God, they’re killing my buzz, taking away my rights. As if society almost by definition doesn’t continually coerce behaviors large and small beginning with pre-school when we’re told, “No, don’t put that crayon in your nose or you’ll have to sit in the corner!” The limits are not always reasonable, but here they are. Whatever. We’re grown up now. Time to cast off our bonds! And shove those waxy sticks as far up our nostrils as they will go…
In other news from an aging American dyke in France, I had to gimp past the curb I fell off of last week—and couldn’t find it. Not at first. It turned out that it wasn’t just my woolgathering staring up at a pretty church that sent me flying, but an artistically designed pattern of stonework that completely obscured the curb.
Should I sneak back and paint the thing a nice, and visible, neon orange? Or just let more people rip their ligaments and tendons unburdened by my visual warning born no doubt of a hypochondriac’s fear?
For that matter, should I, in this year of pivotal congressional elections join the marginal yellow-bellied voices begging the white young middle-class progressive tail wagging the Democratic party to quit sneering at everybody else? Including the white working class, the majority of Latino voters who do not want to be Latinxed, and the Black voters who largely don’t identify as social justice warriors…
According to a 2020 Pew study:
more black Democratic voters continue to characterize their views as moderate rather than liberal. In 2019, 43% of black Democrats called themselves moderate, 29% called themselves liberal and 25% called themselves conservative.
Since 2000, the share of black Democrats who describe their political views as liberal has changed little, while liberal identification among white Democrats has nearly doubled.
Among Hispanic Democratic voters, 38% described their political views as moderate in 2019, while 37% called themselves liberal and 22% conservative.
Can Democrats really afford to alienate them all? And even if they can, should they? I always thought persuasion and consensus-building were good things for a democracy. The only things, really. Because they show a baseline of respect for the other humans you share air with. But perhaps democracy’s passé as well.
In other news
I don’t usually do New Year’s resolutions, but Aspirations for 2022 are definitely in order. Along with a big thank you to everyone who’s given me a few bucks or shared my posts, or in any way encouraged me with your engagement.
For you, and for all of us really, may 2022 be filled with…
Cheerful Georgian girls singing
Unashamed British women schooling Americans on misogyny…
(read the thread).
Creative, outside-of-the-box thinking…
Groundbreaking writers
Like Keri Hulme, New Zealand’s first Booker prize-winning writer, who wrote the amazing, The Bone People, a ‘unique example of Māori magical realism.’
Genius singers
Like Joni Mitchell.
Lesbian everything
Including more films like Pariah, Dee Rees’ 2011 film about a Black teenaged lesbian in Brooklyn.
And snacks, delicious snacks
Like this obscenely delicious plum tart dripping with butter and juice.
Gruntledly yours,
From when you’ve Cuban Cleaned® your entire house.