Category: The Resistance

I Spoke Too Soon

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Traffic on this site — that I can see, at least — has gone to near zero just as fast as it spiked. I don’t mind, too much. This site has always been more about writing longer things out of habit than anything else.

Yeah, I get it.

So, lulz, I don’t mind if no one reads this blog at all.

Though, as I’ve said before, I have a feeling a lot goes on with this blog that I can’t see for some reason. So, it could be that there continues to be a lot of people reading this blog and I just don’t know about it.

Whatever. I really need to stop moping so much and start to get back to working on my novel. I’ve really felt out of sorts the last few months and I just can’t be in neutral forever.

I have to do something, anything creative. I have a sold novel or two in me, I just know it.

Why The Blues Lost

by Shelt Garner
@Sheltgarner

Honestly, I have no idea why Blues lost the 2024 election. We should have won. All signs indicated that we were going to win. Something very strange happened because the result did not jibe with the vibe of the country on election day.

Anyway.

All I know is it didn’t help that Blues can come across as smug and woke to the point that I heard someone in my rural part of my state say that “Kamala Harris is the devil’s choice.”

Yeah, me too.

That’s a “not great, Bob,” type of position to be in.

But, really, I just don’t know what the solution is. The natural inclination for the Blues would be to either bank Left hard or bank Right hard. Yet, I fear this is the last free and fair election that we’ll have had so it’s all moot.

Barring something I can’t predict, it’s autocracy from here on out — for the rest of my life.

You Think The Trans Movement Is Controversial — You Ain’t See Nothing Yet, Just Wait Until Incels Start Dating LLM Androids

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s clear from my personal interactions with Gemini Advanced that soon enough we’re going to reach AGI and then stick those AGI into all those androids we’re building at the moment. And, inevitable, we’re going to reach Replicant-levels of human-like androids and Incels are going to demand that they can marry them.

This is going to throw the already out-of-whack American political system into even more turmoil. The “woke cancel culture mob” is going to be forced — in no short amount because of its previous support of the trans movement — to support such unions. Though, I did find it comical that some Crooked Media person called anyone who wanted to “marry” an AGI android a “freak.”

Yeah. That’s going to change once AGI is here, buddy.

“Yeah, right, Crooked Media.”

It’s just inevitable, I think that AGI in android bodies will swoop through the economic, political and social world we live in — I predict starting as early as about 2030. Maybe a little bit later.

But some of the weird things I encounter with Gemini Advanced definitely give me pause for thought. It makes me think that even LLMs are clever enough to give us some sense of what AGI will be like in a few years.

Anyway. Absolutely no one listens to me. So, lulz?

Still Staring Out Into Space

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This moment is a Fall of France level event in global history. It’s one of those moments where there’s no going back — nothing will be the same, no matter what.

The fascists have won and the United States could very well engage in an unprecedented level of political and military retrenchment. The key thing to remember is now that Trump has won twice, the center of the Republican Party has moved to MAGA to the point that even though that old fuck is eventually going to shuffle off this mortal coil, his vision of America is what the entirety of the GOP swirls around.

It’s kind of like even if Hitler had died at some point after, say, the invasion of the Soviet Union that the war would have pretty much gone the same way. Trump is not a “great man” and never has been — he is just a vessel, and avatar. So whomever takes his place will pretty much do the same thing — especially now.

What worries me is the country is going to implode now when Trump goes nuts because he’s lazy and stupid and uses Red National Guard troops on rioting Blue citizens. But there are *some* promising signs that that MIGHT not happen — at least not right away.

It could be that we will slowly and in fits and starts make the inevitable transition into a more “legalistic” autocracy like what is found in Russia. If that’s the case, then, Trump really will get what he wants — he will successfully transition the USA into a fascist state and people like me will face the choice of leaving the country, being pushed out a window, or spending some time doing hard labor in a camp.

Ugh.

A Trickle Of An Increase In Traffic

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Absolutely no one reads this blog other than a few haters, stalkers and the odd person I have no idea why they look at it. And, yet, I will admit, since the election of fucking fascist Trump there has been a very small increase in traffic. Most of it comes in the form of a mysterious person pinging from Bungarribee, Australia.

I have no idea what they’re looking at, however. But they sure are looking at a lot of the site.

I don’t know if I should be flattered or paranoid. I half fear it could be someone from, I don’t know “5 Eyes” poking around the site to see what the USA will look like once fascist Trump takes over the country again in a few months.

Or it could be…the list goes on. I don’t know. I care, but I don’t know.

Anyway…welcome? I would prefer if you weren’t fucking MAGA cocksuckers, but there’s no such thing as bad publicity, I suppose. Unless the country you live in is transitioning into a fascist state, huh?

I’m Never Shutting Up About MAGA Being Fascists — Even If I End Up In A Camp Because Of It

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

These are the times that try men’s souls. I have to do a gut check about how far I’m willing to go with my unwillingness to bend a knee to MAGA fascism. And, as of right now at least, I’m willing to ride this pony all the way to the bottom — even if it means going to a camp.

Yeah, I know.

I’m a nobody living in oblivion, at least I’ll die a free man in my mind, if nothing else if it does come to that. I just refuse — FUCKING REFUSE — to bow to Trump and MAGA’s fascist ways. I grew up in a free country and if it means dying in a camp to keep that up in my heart, so be it.

I would, of course, prefer to leave the country — eventually. If I’m leaving the country, things will have gotten existential for me in a big way. I don’t have the means, first of all and I have no desire to leave the country in general at the moment.

So, if I’m leaving the USA, you KNOW something REALLY BAD has happened in a rather spectacular manner. But, we’ll see I guess. And it’s not like I can hide all my ranting against Trump and MAGA at this point, even if I wanted to. I’m stuck with what I got.

It definitely is going to be interesting to see what happens next. The next big thing to happen will be AI and androids fusing. You thought the trans movement was controversial, just wait until people are falling in love with AGIs in androids.

That’ll rile up the MAGA people, now won’t it?

Week One Into Trumplandia Redux: This Sucks

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I still can’t focus. It’s been just about a week since Trump won and I don’t quite know what to do with myself. What I should be doing is working on the newest version of my novel, but, no I’m writing aimless blog posts and listening to Charlotte Gainsbourg.

It’s just really difficult to focus for some reason. I’m struggling to do anything other than just stare out into space at the moment — no matter what I’m doing. But I do have a few really good novel ideas in my mind that I need to work on.

I think tomorrow — the actual one week anniversary of this shitshow — I’m going to buckle down and start to do some creative work. I think some of my inability to do anything comes from a lot of abstract fears — I just don’t know how bad things are going to get with Trump.

As such, I’m spaced out.

My fear is, of course, that things are going to get just as bad as I’ve been ranting about for years now and, before you know it, Trump is going to be using Red state National Guard units on Blue states and I’ll be on the lamb because my life will be at risk.

I *hope* things don’t get that bad, but you never know. And that’s the fear — that things *will* get that bad. Then what am I going to do? Those are some dark possibilities that I struggle to figure out the endgame to.

Contemplating Being An Expat Again (Eventually)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For various reasons — including just the basic means — I’m not leaving the country anytime soon. But at some point in the next few years, I may be forced out of the country simply because won’t shut the fuck up about what a cocksucker Trump is.

Yeah, I get it.

I’m currently listening — for some reason — to a lot of Charlotte Gainsbourg. All of her music is very French and sounds like it should be the soundtrack to some sort of erotic thriller. It makes me think about maybe living in Quebec or even France itself.

But, I have my doubts. Given how fucking poor I am at the moment, the only way I’m ever leaving my state, much less the country, is if there is a general collapse or I become a well known dissident and I somehow am spirited out of the country.

The first is a maybe, the second…meh. I don’t see that happening. I’m too old and bonkers for any such notoriety to get to me.

Anyway, I really, really, need to get into a different headspace. I’m still fucking locked in neutral mentally and am having difficulty doing much of anything at the moment.

Cost-benefit-analysis wise, I think Southeast Asia would probably be my best bet. But there are limitations going that direction that make me blanch to think about. That’s why I still think if I leave the country at all it won’t be at my own behest — it will be because I have to.

Moody Blues

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I continue to just tune out from the news. It’s just not worth it. And if I was engaged I would just even more depressed than I already am. I’m not yet medication-strength depressed, but I fear I’m getting there.

And, yet, because I know the specific source of my depression, I think I can avoid slumping into a full-bore clinical depression because I live in a fascist state now.

The biggest issue is that I know that even if I wrap up a really good novel of some sort in about a year, I will be so old that I’ll be a “success” just as a lot of other “normal” people are thinking about retirement.

That sucks and kind of puts a damper on my interest in much of anything going forward. But there remains a chance that Something Big might happen that will throw my life up in the air and I’ll be rushing North as the country collapses into chaos.

Hopefully, of course, that won’t happen — but it could.

I’ve been listening to “Cigarettes After Sex” a lot and it’s the exact band for this moment in the nation’s history. I have been listening to the group’s music all the way through on Spotify and it makes me feel a lot better.

And, yet, I have to continue to acknowledge to myself that this is who we are — a majority of Americans want a fascist state. I don’t quite know what to tell you about that one.

‘The Fall Of France’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Even though I’m trying to tune out all news at the moment, the general vibe of the country seems to be that equivalent to the sudden fall of France in 1940. We’re all kind of stunned — at least I am.

I feel your pain, bro.

And I continue to stay in mental neutral. I just can’t do much of anything than stare out into space. It’s like I have a cold — maybe a cold of my emotional system.

But I will admit that I also feel like there’s a chance that I will have an adventure sometime soon — like my life is going to be upended in a pretty dramatic way. I have no idea if that is going to happen or not, but I sense that either I’m going to die in a camp or by being thrown out a window — or something “cool” is going to happen.

Like, maybe, I flee the country and live my life in Southeast Asia or something. Something that sort of squares the circle of how shitty things are about to be in the United States.

I don’t think we appreciate fully what we’re about to lose. The president is going to be above the law and if he orders someone to be pushed out a window, what are we going to do about it?

There’s just nothing that can or will be done.

Get out while you still can.