This took such a weird turn.
The idea took hold about a dozen years ago, after watching Grumpy Old Men. This was pre-Trump. We all knew George W. Bush was an asshole (as was his father and his father’s predecessor), but we were in the Obama era. Things were still not completely insane.
It was meant to be a lighthearted affair, a joke. The Odd Couple, escalated.
Then fucking Trump. Right wing, left wing, everyone went crazy.
And while I’m firmly left wing, I’m not outrage left wing. I don’t believe in the performative aspect of the left. I know way too many lefties who are, at least in part, what right wingers accuse them of – virtue signalers more interested in looking like they’re on the right side of history than actually being on the right side of history.
Way too many people. People who are ostensibly pro-universal health care and trans rights, supporters of marginalized communities, but behind the scenes, sexually harass or assault women, refer to their child’s homosexuality as “just a phase” or in my person experience, how almost all lefties, performative or otherwise, ignore physically disabled people.
Oh, they love to support disability, but only mental health, because it’s just like social media, you only have to look empathetic, and you’ve done your part. God forbid you actually go build a ramp, or fix the automatic doors in your store.
And disabled people aren’t supermodels; it’s so much more fun to support someone pretty who’s in crisis (or who wants to pretend they’re in crisis online for attention).
Also, a vegan will always tell you they’re a vegan, to demonstrate that their well-meaning, but entirely misguided notion of environmental and biological ordering.
Regardless, the point of this, and the book (formerly Bad Neighbours) is that even with this hypocrisy in place, it is nothing compared to the egregious nature of the right winger. Look at what’s happening with Venezuela and Ukraine and massive corruption and ICE and Alligator Alcatraz and Epstein. The left is guilty of being a bit disingenuous at times; the right is committing murder, torturing immigrants, raping children and robbing the people blind. They are making the world an actively worse place.
A hypocrite’s got nothing on a fucking Trumper.
And yet, for some reason, we equivocate the two.
It’s absurd. That seeped into Bad Neighbours and turned it into The Conflagration Of Boor And Aghast. Sure, Walter’s a bit of a ponce; Shelley’s a goddamned nightmare.
These things are not the same, yet we treat them as they are.
In any case, I’m excited for this to get out there; it’s not perfect, it’s ugly, maybe a bit too topical, but you know what?
Fuck it.
It says something about our current headspace, and how we need to move beyond it.
Target: 1400 words
Written: 319 words, novel: Bad Neighbours (The Conflagration Of Boor And Aghast)
Read: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Shunryu Suzuki
Comics: The Literals 3, Fables 86-87, Jack Of Fables 36
Music: Wide Awake In America, U2 (ha!)