Psychologically, being on the left is so challenging in moments like this. On the one hand, I think a lot of folks are rightly breathing a sigh of relief at Trump leaving, and Biden symbolizes that. On the other, just two days ago I read MLK write about white moderates from jail.

It's not fun to be a naysayer, or to have political reflexes that suck the joy out of the room. But it's also not fun to feel like you're expected to celebrate the advent of something you've been primed by experience and study to know will bring its own monsters.

At best, to save yourself from being perceived as a contrarian or an asshole, you have to be quiet when everyone is being loud--but it's when everyone is being loud that you also want to say whoa, hold on, this is actually really dangerous!

I'm clearly not an expert at discernment here, and I'm always anxious about emitting a crabby, alienating disposition. But I also don't want to be conscripted into celebrating a new pattern of violence. Not sure where I'm going here, but solidarity to other folks in the same boat