As I navigate the latter stages of the Trumpocene era, I continue to be guided by the principles of "pessimistic optimism." I will not fully surrender to pessimism because there may be no recovery from that state of learned helplessness. Likewise, I will not fully embrace optimism because to do so in such dangerous times would be naive and foolish. The hope-peddlers in the mainstream media can push those fictions; most of them are privileged enough that they will never face the consequences of being wrong.
But allowing for my pessimistic optimism, these last few weeks, in which Donald Trump and his cabal appear to be further encircled and cornered by the law, brings some hope that, with work and struggle, the people of this country may be closer to escaping the Trumpocene than we were even a few months ago. Let us remember Trump himself is a symptom, not the disease; Healing America's deep cultural and political rot is another matter entirely, but escaping the Trumpocene is a required first step.
