I’m Going to Take all My Emotions About The World’s Crises and Stuff Them Into the Discourse Surrounding HBO’s The White Lotus

AFGHANISTAN: Like much of the world, I quailed in horror at the sight of bodies plummeting from the commercial airliners fleeing Kabul airport, a grim echo of the planes that struck the towers on 9/11. Will there ever be a workable solution to our war in Afghanistan? Will we continue to ignore the violent imperialist history that got us all here in the first place? With the US even try to step up and provide a pathway out for Afghanis who wish to leave? The whole situation is complex, bewildering, and heavy with sorrow, which Is why I’ve written this 2500 word essay exploring the transactional relationship between Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda and Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya, and by proxy, all care and wellness workers and their clients.

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HAITI: it seems grotesque that Haiti should suffer yet another earthquake on top of everything else it’s been through in the past decade or so – the murder of its President, the cholera outbreaks, the lasting and awful effects of colonial rule. Like so much in this breathtakingly cruel world, it seems like natural disasters are disproportionately visited upon populations most vulnerable to their effects – truly acts of a God with a sick sense of humor. To learn the history of Haiti is a necessary act, but one that will leave your faith in both God and man, had you any left, in tatters. And that’s how I found myself in a vicious Twitter fight with someone who called Rachel a high-class whore.

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COVID-19: The optimistic high of June sure feels far away, doesn’t it? Schools are opening soon, and I haven’t the faintest idea if my child is going to be safe. Every day brings new evidence that a significant percentage of the American populace has lost its ever-loving mind. Talking heads spreading disinformation about the vaccine we all prayed for? Crowds threatening to lynch a man over a mask mandate? Surely this madness is woven into our cultural DNA, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch. Speaking of things that aren’t easy to watch: Was that CGI or was Armond taking an *actual shit*??

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THE CRUMBLING OF DEMOCRACY: Republicans seem to be lining up around the block to sit on Viktor Orban’s lap like he’s some kind of dictator Santa Claus. A sitting President used every tool at his disposal to cast doubt on the system that brought him to power in the first place. American citizens stormed their own Capitol, and the Newsmaxes and OANNs of the world are trying to pass it off as harmless patriotism. I cannot, despite my best efforts, square this circle. I pray for understanding and I search my heart for the thread of human empathy that I believe we can follow to a better place, but I come up empty. And furthermore, I have absolutely no sympathy for Nicole, and I’m shocked that you do.

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SYSTEMIC RACISM: This is actually what the show is about, so I’m going to whip up a 50-tweet thread about how much I want to bone Murray Bartlett.

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CLIMATE CHANGE: I guess if there’s any silver lining to the most recent IPCC report, it’s that it saved me the trouble of writing my own suicide note – I think if I just print it out and leave it by the empty pill-bottle, you’ll get the picture. But before I go – do you think Quinn’s connection to and acceptance by the local  Hōkūleʻa guys was genuine, or a commentary on the white man “finding himself” through native culture?