Double Down, Now

Weird was always good, Ignorance was never Bliss, and Normcore was always the worst word ever.

Annie figures out what we have to do, right now. And fast.

Hey guys,

It’s me again, Annie. Right now, I see everyone in their respective fields – be it publishing, medical, economists, sellers, vendors – trying to reverse engineer where they were at before “This” started. And during This, very recently, I started writing down Things Which I Know To Be True. It involves questioning the very things you do on a day-to-day basis. When you do that, it makes you see everything as an illusion. For example, we always talked about where – as in the literal location – we worked as being less or more productive. What I know to be true is that I’ve lost my sense of time and place. There are literally 11 steps to ‘getting in the car to go to work’ and not just two (waking up and taking a shower). 

I have never thought about myself as ‘less than’ in any way. That is because I knew, somehow, that would let Them (the forces that wanted to put me into the neat, expected categories) win. And that They did not deserve space in my head. But have I had to think two-dimensionally to try to imagine what it must feel like to be misunderstood? Not really. I don’t let those ‘less than’ ideas in my head because I don’t need someone to give me stats on the fact that yes, I’ve been sitting around when a group of ‘friends’ has said something racist about Asians. But when did I feel shame? It was when I was a kid, and I was forced to check a box that said what race you were, and for some reason then it said ‘Chinese’ and my Taiwanese mom literally slapped the sh*t out of me on my hand immediately after I did that, and so hard. (Sorry, Mom – you made me woke so don’t worry, it’s all good). I then realized that she wasn’t racist, she was trying to tell me in that singular act everything her and my father were about: Democracy. And that life before me was something hugely important.

The weight we feel is systemic, and if it doesn’t feel heavy maybe this is a conversation you can be willing to read or to join or to feel, or maybe you just won’t read it at all. I do know that I can call a friend to get an opinion or to tell them that maybe what they think is wrong, and recently I caught myself being ignorant in thought about one person that I had deemed typical of their generation. All change has to be on an individual level. And, right now, in this outrage culture, what is killing my soul is all those pointing one way and saying, “I can’t believe you did this twenty years ago!” 

That is not American. America is a country that celebrates progress. That’s why we celebrate success in the spirit they do. Rebel Wilson just wrote about how America’s cool like that. And she’s right. Even in Australia do young Australians look to us as different in an innovative (of thought) way. Even Douglas Coupland who wrote the book Generation X, which I read in the past, is resonating with me but no book more so than Life After God. If you see his entire narrative you will understand that all that you might value in what they label Media is not bad. And you will see that purchase behavior is inherently selfish, but it’s okay because what I have loved has grown up alongside me. When I was in the Paul’s Boutique phase, I somehow transitioned from that to Check Your Head along with The Beastie Boys. And you better put the ‘The’ in front of ‘Beastie Boys.’ You just better. All that I defend is growth, on an individual level. 

What is the root of the evil for the injustice that is so unbelievable right Now? People that are two-dimensional because The Bad Guy never grew as a person, individually. F them and F that. We cannot be afraid to say, ‘Hey, what’s up with that?’ if that person doesn’t look like us. I have never had that filter and it’s because I’ve never felt ‘normal.’ But that is in thought. And progress happens when you can say to yourself, ‘I was wrong.’ And when you say that more, in that self-awareness is where wisdom lies. You can tell that both artists ‘grew up’ but they always questioned everything. And that is a viewpoint of an individual that outrage culture is punishing. One statement 20 years ago for a celebrity (but a person nonetheless)  that is no longer like that, is something to celebrate. That is progress. But to put him in New Media next to Harvey W? Not cool. Because look at his fat history. He was never cool as a person. We cannot not trust anything but we can realize that hey, ‘It’s messed up to celebrate Thanksgiving but I’m just going to see my family because I have time off but dude, it’s messed up.’ We do not take anybody who is into empowering hate because that group of three guys in a costume with a white hat on? They aren’t scary if you know they had to put on a costume to feel bravery but power happens when you say, “You don’t scare Me.” And that comes with just knowing that they are so ignorant they don’t even realize that in America, we are all mutts. But man, did it suck to think like them? Yes. But were they less scary when you saw them for all that they were? YES. 

Right now, it should be easy to see the bad guy. But guess what guys: He wants us to be fighting with each other. Let’s not let him. Unveiling all of which you know you don’t subscribe to will show you that the enemy we have is one against humanity. That’s right. Double down when you play Cards Against Humanity. I didn’t know this consciously, but we used to do this in the office every time I came in, before I got down to work, to expand minds and hearts but mostly I knew I had to frame an entire way of thinking and I valued thoughts that were not ever normal. That normalcy would suck because the people I look up to are the most multi-faceted in thought. Double down hard. From your core.