Nearly everyone has an aunt on Facebook who indulges in daily political doomcasting. It’s difficult to witness — like a deadly addiction, sucking the life out hit-by-hit.
Still, we hold our tongues. We endure it — we remember Christmas, weddings, and happy times, and we think, “Aunt Phyliss, love that one.”
It isn’t her fault, after all. She has been conditioned for a cool decade to see signs of the Trump-ocalypse in every news item. Rachel Maddow’s voice narrates a dystopian novel in her mind throughout the day, unraveling conspiracy theories and performatively pitying the oppressed.
Like any toxic addiction, the thrill of being “proven right” by some news twist, and then gloating about it, outweighs the damage to her and those nearby. MSNBC and NPR sold President Donald Trump as evil incarnate, and like cigarettes, the idea that one person can be blamed for…
