I am anguished, I am heartbroken, I am afraid of what’s coming for people I love. I am shocked that my country just gave 247 years of Democracy away over one night. We live in a different country now, than we did when we woke up, yesterday. Exactly how violent and cruel and hateful this new country is has yet to be revealed, but it’s going to be pretty terrible.
I fought hard to prevent this. We all did. But I guess there was a fundamental hurdle we just could not overcome, and we have to be real about that hurdle: this country is full of people who are just drowning in hate and fear who want nothing more than to hurt as many people as they can.
I knew they were always here, but I always believed that there were more good, kind, compassionate people who chose light over darkness. I always believed that we were the good guys, the place people come to when they are fleeing what we became this morning.
it’s just … it’s a lot.
It’s going to take me a long time to process this, and find a way to not feel despair every moment of every day until he is dead and (maybe) America comes back from this open embrace of Fascist authoritarianism.
I mentioned to some folks earlier that I believe it’s important that we allow ourselves to feel all the feelings, to honor them without judgement. For a lot of us — millions upon millions — this is the greatest betrayal by our fellow Americans we have ever experienced, and that’s going to be a LOT. At the same time, we can’t really _do_ anything about that, other than support and love and show up for the people we love.
To that end, I’m going to retreat from public life for a bit, and be with my family.
Stay safe, everyone.
In 2020, I randomly texted you while volunteering for Elizabeth Warren. I’m sure you don’t remember, but you told me it’s because of people like me that we would win this. We did win, not with Warren but it was still a win. I’ve never stopped, and never will stop, fighting. But today is so heavy, and I’m so hurt and lost. It’s just a lot and I don’t know where to go from here. I don’t know where to go in a country that hates my existence. I’m just really really sad.
I agree with all you have said and feel on this day. I keep asking “what is happening?…WHY???!!!…I just don’t understand! I’ve burst into tears, feel numb, my body aches I don’t know what to do. People have elected a CRIMINAL to run this country. A LYING PREDATORY CRIMINAL!!!
I’ve listened to and read the posts of others and read the VP’s words (burst into tears again) and know we must go on and be diligent in protecting and supporting each other. I believe their words but it’s going to take some time for me to get there.
I look forward to your return but please take care of yourself and those you love and come back when you feel you are ready. I truly understand!
I feel for you and hope for the world. Things are not looking to good. But there is always hope and we have a lot of space in Australia 🦘 if you wish to holiday for the next four years.
Read your own immigration rules. It is difficult to stay if a Yank.
Just a quick one, listening to “Still just a Geek”. Loving it, thank you.
Be safe, friend.
I’m sorry mate. I’ve been watching this all happen from the other side of the world. I was wishing you all best, and now I’m wishing you all the best of luck. Take care.
Hey Wil, while I know you’re taking a step back and I hope you see this, I’m going to share what I shared with my friend group about the situation. It’s helpful for me to write it out and hopefully helpful to others here too:
1) This happened, it sucks, but it did. 2) I can’t control it. I controlled what I could, but there’s no limit to the phrase “what else could I have done that I didn’t do?” It will haunt you because there’s probably .0001% more each of us could have done, but we didn’t, and also we have to live our lives. We (despite our best efforts) cannot be a warm and welcoming and convincing presence to every idiot American who vote like …. idiots. 3) Feeling like absolute shit about this is also cool. I accept feeling like poop. At some point I have to stop it, I have to get up and work and provide as best I can for my family and my friends, but I accept that for the time being I am feeling poopy. That’s fine and normal. 4) As a man, I’d like to say, I’m mad enough at my gender to considering cutting my own dick off. We have been ON ONE for a few thousand years, but we really took the cake tonight. For my part, I apologize to basically all women, except the unexplainable women who decided to vote for Trump. To those ladies, that’s on you. Enjoy the bed you made for yourselves. 5) Despite all the above, I think my best weapon for the immediate future is to do what i’ve always done with friends and family – be together, reconcile this with each other through communication and love. Look out for each other. Be kind to each other. Be the people we’ve always been to each other and will always be to each other. It healed us in 2016. It will be harder this time, but it can and will heal us again. 6) But most of all, be patient with each other. We’re all going to have varying levels of emotion and conflict over the foreseeable future with this. Have a kind heart for that and give each other time to gather the strength we’re gonna need to fight for the next four years.
Thanks for making me feel less poopy. It’s so hard, though.
I totally understand and feel all the things you are feeling. I am gutted today. Scared, sick, feeling betrayed by the faith I really had that people would see him for the dangerous fool he is. Thank you for putting it to words so well.
I get it. It’s been so hard just making it through the day today, trying to comprehend the loss, and it is a loss, to be sure.
I said multiple times this year to friends and family, I’d rather say “I’m sorry you believed him, you’re not alone in the great con job” than “I f**king told you so”. And now, I’m going to say it every single time someone who put us in this mess starts.
But for today, I grieve for all of us, our allies, and the world we just let down. Tomorrow, we get back up and start again…forward.
Take care of you and your family, a step back can make all the difference. 😎✌️
I think we can be sad about what happened and mad at the people who made it happen. For a minute or two.
But the work to make this country a more just and kind place for all must continue.
Some of the DJT voters are racist, for sure. I hope most were not and I just think that whatever their need is that made them make a choice we think to be abhorrent is one, or are some, that I and other here have the luxury of not letting determine our choices. Now we have to deal with the consequences of their short-sightedness. And that sucks.
“Some of the DJT voters are racist, for sure. I hope most were not”
They are all racist. A few, actively racists, the rest, racist by omission. If you vote into office an openly racist person, promising to enact openly racist policies, you might not believe in it, but you certainly supported it. “I agree” and “I don’t care”, in this particular scenario, lead to the same result: racism.
They didn’t have to vote for Harris either, they could have just stayed home, the same as the 15+M progressive voters who decided not to “take it or leave it” this time.
I feel defeated. I voted for my daughter. I hope you don’t stay away too long but I understand! We are all here for you!
Stay safe and watch over your family. It seems that’s all we can do anymore.
I just slid over here from Instagram to say that I love you. That’s it.
Please take your time and grieve, we are all grieving. Try finding laughter in your heart and remember that people need words of encouragement to move forward on these troubling times. We have family and friends to lean on to get us through all this. Take care. Live long and prosper.
Hi Wil,
You deserve a break! Toronto has become a hub for Star Trek lately, come visit for longer and see if you like it here! Be warned, I am training my kids to beat you at Mr. Do! They are awful so you have some time.
I find your take a little bleak. Scolding the other side won’t do anything to repair the chasm between us. I loathe 45 as much as anyone with diagnosed TDS, but we have to turn a corner here.
I’m going on a four-year newsfast, and practicing radical acceptance. I will no longer give the orange clown space in my brain. I’m giving myself to my music, meditation, yoga and my family; things that do me good.
I’m curious to see how these geniuses are going to “fix” what they perceive as a failing economy, but I will not watch it or read about it, because I can do nothing about it except worry and make myself sick. I don’t think obliterating LGBTQ rights will pass the constitutional smell test, so I’m not so worried about my queer people. They do need reassuring right now, but the whole point of that hateful horn blast was to wind up their base. It worked for them. Mission accomplished, for now..
I love you guys. It’s going to be ok. Eventually. People ARE still mostly GOOD, they’re just misinformed (thanks, Fox, Newsmax, et al), and they wanted the ball back. Fine. Let them have a turn. I’m even happy for them.
I’m hopeful that such a decisive victory can unwind some of the hate and vitriol, and we can get back to loving our neighbors. Maybe that can heal what’s hurting everybody right now.
Does this mean I won’t vote next time? Not on your fucking life.🇺🇸💜🥺
You probably thought Roe was safe, too. He will likely appoint two more Supreme Court justices. Marriage equality is not safe. Heck, interracial marriage is not safe. And a national abortion ban isn’t a stretch at all. This is a naive take.
Unfortunately, a lot of legislation and judicial decisions that don’t pass the constitutional smell test are getting the A-OK thumbs up by the Supreme Court, because the conservative judges that Trump appointed to that court don’t actually care about the constitution. For a long time, the constitution was a benchmark that was actually respected to some degree, and that served as a guardrail. That guardrail no longer exists. And chances are extremely high that Trump is now going to replace two of the older justices with young ones, so the Judicial arm is no longer a check or a balance and has no chance of being so for a very long time.
Maybe if the left gains significant power again in the future, they can add justices. But the chances of that happening are now even slimmer than they were before, because the Republicans don’t care about fairness, they care about winning, and they will now put laws into place that will do even more to suppress votes from the left (particularly Black voters and voters of color). They’ll continue to gerrymander the districts to skew results right. And when those laws are rightfully challenged, they’ll be upheld by that same Supreme Court.
The folks with bleak takes (myself included) are right to be be worried. Reassuring them isn’t going to make them feel better, it’s going to make them feel less seen and heard and supported.
What happened is extreme wealth disparity.
The resentment and stress from being poor compared to a billionaire opens a person up to superstition and extreme risk taking, making them exploitable. Until wealth disparity is solved, this will happen again and again.
All the best! Take care!
Please take care of yourself and your family. ♥️ Kiss Marlowe for me. Hugs
Wil, an incredible sentiment. This is not my country. I am Canadian. I am stunned. More stunned than I was in 2016. I am so sorry, that so many Americans must be scared to have thought this was the solution. You are the most powerful nation but the leader chosen appears so wrong for not only your own nation but all of Earth … words fail me. I pray for you, I pray for the U.S. , I pray for all of us.
My great grandad was African-American, so I could have been born over there. I’m always grateful that I wasn’t, even if the President is a Democrat (the public with guns thing).
I hope and wish you will all stay safe.
Someone overhere(The Netherlands) wrote something that makes sense eventhough it hurts.
I really hope that after the grieve you get to connect and support those who need it. From across the big water: we are here to provide hugs, love and a safety net.
Take good care 💛
Thank you
You said it better than I could ever manage, Wil. I am angry that we’ve been betrayed by our fellow Americans like this and am so very frightened of what will happen after this facist monster takes office.
Feeling alone and scared. The remaining family members I have contact with voted trump and it’s caused me a lot of anxiety. I’ve been SA’d and the fact that people voted someone accused of that very thing sickens me. My depression was already bad and now this whole situation is making that and the anxiety worse.
However I believe those of us who are against trump can stand together and rise up for what’s right. They won’t be able to take our freedom without a fight.
Stay safe everyone. And please know it’s going to get better. And if anyone is truly struggling and needs someone to talk to I’m always happy to listen. My email is [email protected] please reach out if you are struggling and need someone to talk to or provide resources for you!
We’ve got this!
Much love,
Emery
From the UK, we are feeling it too. Scared for the future, for Palestine, for Ukraine and for the people. Keeping away from the news for a while. We love you, stay safe and positive.
Hi wil, greetings from another geek across the pond!
Over here we have just come out of 14 years of government that lied, cheated and conned their way through their entire corrupt regime. They manipulated us into voting for economic sanctions against ourselves, they turned families against each other, they demonized migrants and baited otherwise peaceful people to turn on the most vulnerable members in society. They fabricated then weaponised culture wars and the vague, concept of wokeness (kindness) as a negative characteristic. They did this not for hate, they did this for power and wealth. And they are still trying to do it. But we got through it, we beat them. Whilst we are still very much picking through the ruins it will take 20 years to undo what they did, that’s before we even think about the irreparable climate damage.
I share this rambling response because in this 14 years many of us learned that it is not healthy for us to blame the conned. Like us Brits, many Americans are ‘intellectually’ vulnerable, the system has failed them, education has failed them and all they have is anger and frustration. This is entirely understandable, unfortunately the media vampires and certain malevolent organisations are exploiting this vulnerability for power and wealth. It is not a surprise that when companies spend billions on advertising smoking, or sugar, or meat, or UPFs that people get cancer or obese or diabetic. We are living in a post truth age, one where reality is completely fabricated, it is unequal and everyone’s concept of truth is different and partitioned, it is this machine that needs to be challenged and questioned.
It is natural to feel angry, we did too after Brexit and Boris, but it’s not helpful for you, it leads to depression and division and it further alienates those people corrupted by this system, so as much as it feels cathartic, avoid ridicule and try to spread compassion for those victims of this multi billion dollar machine of corruption; compassion, hope and education are the only way out of this dark place you find yourselves in, but be under no illusion, there is an outside of your Plato’s cave. Keep showing people the light. And to quote James O’Brien, ‘contempt for the conman, compassion for the conned’…
Best wishes, you are not alone and this is only temporary.
Andy from UK.
The most Europeans are grieving with you. So I do. Stay brave and take care of you. Judith from Berlin.
I’ve lived in Australia for over 20 years now, but Texas is my heart’s first home. I have still continued to participate in voting as all my family resides all over America. I was mad when he was elected in 2016 but thought, ok whatever, we can do this….and then we voted him out rightly so. But this time, I’m devastated…..I’m terrified for what’s to come for those they hate….I’m terrified for my teenage niece and any girlfriend my nephew may have…..and I am so ashamed as I too believed the country was better than what he is. I am so ashamed and devastated that giving up my citizenship has actually crossed my mind – and that hurts even harder that I feel that way😞 I tried to explain to my Aussie husband how I’m feeling but it’s hard and words fail me – your words though are exactly that feeling……thank you.
It is getting harder and harder to believe that there are enough good people in the world. Thank you for being one of the good ones and for speaking out against the darkness.
I’m a writer, yet I am at a total loss for words to adequately describe how much pain and anger I am feeling, yet trying to let go of right now.
I hope he doesn’t put our country into further turmoil and ruin.
Let’s get one thing straight that is painfully obvious while looking in from a distance: the only thing Trump wants to fix on the economy is the rate he can fill his pockets. Next he will clear all the lawsuits against him and maybe even pardon himself. Then he will try to sell whatever he can to the highest bidder, even is it’s Putin in case of Ukraine or NATO. All the other points of the project 2025 will have been rebranded by the nutjob puppeteers running DJT.
As I said to my friends on DJT’s first term: I hope he does enough damage for the majority to see him for what he is, but not so much that you cannot come out on top.
Good luck, and hope to see you again in 4 years time.
It’s beyond belief, the world is looking and waiting to see what happens next. While the result has huge implications for America, its effect will be felt around the world. Unfortunately the clown has stage, and he will use it.
Best wishes from Scotland.
Heartbreaking. This cements the US as a profoundly conservative country for the rest of my life, at the very least.
I know it might be a bit too early, but I want to leave this in writing, somewhere: this was not an accident, it is something that the “moderate” (right wing) side of the Democratic Party did, in their hubris. They had a chance in 2016 to bring in a popular candidate, people were clamouring for populist candidates, and yet they went with an establishment democrat. Americans hate establishment democrats (thanks Obama!), and the demagogue won. In 2024 they’ve tried exactly the same move: proposed a candidate from the “moderate” side of the party, they didn’t even bother with a proper primary, and they campaigned on zero popular policies. Once again, people just stayed home, and the same demagogue won again.
I’m going to call it: there’s going to be zero self-reflection. The “moderate” democrats don’t want to believe it, but they are unelectable. They just can’t win, they need to get this through their thick skulls. They’ve lost their feel for the zeitgeist and they’re going to keep losing elections until they admit to themselves that the “center-right” is dead, and the progressives are not going to vote for them ever again.
Best of luck to everyone, please don’t give up the fight.
There’s always hope. There’s always a light in the darkness. Keep your head high and continue as you always do.
Always welcome in Europe to clear your mind.
Be well and stay healthy.
Dear Will, friend on the other side of the galaxy. We came to the point, where abduction by aliens sound like a good plan. My country- Slovakia is in the same state as yours. Idiocracy rules the public’s opinion, people are hateful and brainless, looking for simple primitive solutions, ignoring humanity and common sense. I fear that your situation will affect us more than some people think. War is close to our borders and there’s no neutral zone left. Our leaders manipulate the public and play dangerous games with their minds….trust me. My “bubble” is with you! I hope everything will be fine and one day the Earth will be united! Everything else is pointless. Be strong. We will.
Dear Wil, I’ve been reading you for a long time, and always appreciate your perspective and your willingness to share what’s going on inside you. This time, I know it’s something that so many people experience, the disbelief, the sadness, the horror, the anger, the fear. I feel it all the way over here in Germany, too, for so many reasons. This is something that should never, never have come to pass (again, for so many reasons), and that it did feels like the unmooring of a residual feeling of safety in the world, and with other humans. And there’s been quite enough of that already, for quite some time now.
That it’s acceptable to so many that so many other will be in so much danger now, that the world is in danger (again… on so many levels) is unfortunately not wholly unfathomable, but certainly has me reeling with pain on the level of simply being human, and witnessing other people shun the humanity of those they share a country, and a world, with.
The impulse to withdraw for now is a very understandable and even healthy one – to know when you have to begin to heal somewhat from the inside out first and probably (unfortunately) grow a bit of a protective shell before you can face the world again is incredibly important for mental and emotional health. Good on ya for realising and following it.
A friend of mine a year ago said that at the moment, it’s difficult to be a human. I wish that moment wasn’t still going on today, and in the foreseeable future. It just hurts too much.
Much love to you and yours, and everyone, really.
Not sure where the paragraphs disappeared to, I did make them when I was writing. Oh well.
I’ve been an avid follower of yours for some time, Wil, and that won’t change, but I think you’re taking this too far.
No one is under attack. At worst, Trump will remove content and symbols from schools and possibly rewrite history to acknowledge only male and female.
They will not be attacked or shamed any less than they already are. It’s territory that comes with the movement, but it’s not getting worse.
All this talk is fearmongering, and for those who digest and believe everything they read, it’s dangerous.
I’ve seen parents telling kids their life and choices are over when, in reality, it was never truly accepted; it’s only accepted due to the masses who’ve made this movement successful. For those outside the bubble, they don’t acknowledge or care about the movement; they just care about about protecting children from sex & explicit content.
Ace – It’s not fearmongering.
I hear you that “most people” don’t care. That is probably true, actually. The right campaigned on trans issues but most people don’t actually care about trans issues, they voted for Trump because of the economy, first and foremost.
But the people who will be making laws and upholding those laws, they care. Whether they care because they “truly” care or because they’ve decided it’s an easy thing to campaign on (certainly Trump being elected is a signal that it’s not NOT working), they care. And the laws they’ve ALREADY been making have ALREADY been having a material impact on many, many people. And that is absolutely going to get much, much worse.
It’s all part of a bigger plan. Many of those who care do so because they’re pushing a Christian nationalist worldview that requires the elimination of everything that doesn’t fit with their whitewashed fantasy 1950s version of America. That won’t end with the persecution of trans people, or the reversal of Roe, those are just steps along the way. It’s absolutely going to get much worse and to think otherwise is extremely naive.
Wil, you know I’ve been here a long time. And sometimes through the years, usually on CPTSD posts, I’ve mentioned in my comments that I needed to do a big thing myself. That one day I would find the strength. Well, I did it this summer. I got out of an abusive marriage. I leased my own house and kept my actual family close while cutting out those harmful to me. But it’s not official yet. There are reasons for that, pros and cons. I’d planned to move on the actual divorce next year. The election results mean I don’t have that time anymore. I have to do this now. Project 2025 is terrifying, and coming after no-fault divorce (we are at least in agreement to do uncontested, as least as of now) is one of the smaller aspects of it. This is horrifying, and yes, it unmasked all of the devils next door. I keep telling my real family (you know the ones) to remember us. To remember the hug I’m giving them right then and there. To remember we are still here, we still love, and we are what matters. It’s comforting, but I never say “and we will get through this,” because some of us won’t. And that was the plan.
Love you Wil. Take care of yourself. We will keep fighting. We will do everyone we can to protect those we love and this fucking country. 💙
This is exactly how I’m feeling. I feel so hurt…. so let down…. so confused about why this is what the majority wants.
Please take care of yourself! Xoxo
Please try to understand precisely why people voted in the way that they did. It’s not hate, it’s hurt. Most of our country cannot afford essentials today. Food, shelter, etc. Abortion rights and transgender rights are VERY big issues. However, if you look at the polling as to why people voted the way that they did, those were ranked 3rd and 4th on the list after the economy and illegal immigration. Please don’t dismiss other people’s views as hate. That is narrow minded and quite frankly lazy.
Those that want respect, give respect.
Thank you for your calming words. You are saying what so many of us are feeling. I too think we need to take time to reflect and care for ourselves and our loved ones. We will need our strength to survive the next chapter of this country. Knowing there are others with the same beliefs and desires helps me not feel alone. Perhaps after this darkness we will move toward the society we all get to embrace what America was meant to be and what we learned through Star Trek what it could be. Thank you and I hope to see you here in cyberspace again soon
I’m just hoping our current leadership takes the ride Zelenskyy is almost certainly going to need now. I think the Russians are going to force him to walk across the line as part of negotiations and if he goes – they’re going to hang him publicly. I don’t know where our current admin will have to go, but I think they’re going to need to go into exile.. I fear for so many of you prominent people. I’m just a regular white dude without any notoriety. I’m probably “safe”, but he’s absolutely coming for everyone that tried to stand up to him and there’s no guardrails anymore.
Please do what you need to keep your family safe. Maybe in a few years we can clean up the mess, but I’ll never forgive the ones that wanted her to “earn their vote”. She absolutely did.
I’m not an American, but I can share your horror at what lurks darkly inside some of your fellow countrymen/women’s souls. I’m not sure how do many but into a snake-oil salesman rhetoric on how he’s going to fix all the problems.. The world is constantly in pain and this will no doubt as to it. I feel for you and am sad for you. Stay safe and hope the repair is not too painful.
I came here from Instagram just to tell you that you’ve put into words what I’ve struggled to say since Wednesday morning. Thank you for that. 💙 I’m feeling very alone now, living in Alabama and literally surrounded by people who chose this. The betrayal is a hard pill to swallow, as is the disappointment of people showing me who they truly are. I want to say we’ll endure but right now I have no idea how.
My daughter first watched Sound of Music during the first half the Trump presidency. The scene where the Trapp family sings Edelweiss as a goodbye to their homeland following Nazi annexation was tearful yet inspiring. Captain von Trapp starts singing but is unable to continue until joined by his family and then the citizens of Salsburg. It’s going to be a difficult 4 years and the comparison to Nazi annexation is a little to accurate. Take care and be good to each other.
As I read this post, I can’t help but think of a story you told on the Mission Log Roddenberry Star Trek podcast. The story about how you went to a catholic school and changed your mind about that religion when they told you your Buddhist uncle would be damned to Hell for not believing the way that you were being indoctrinated.
For many in America right now, their belief is what is driving them. They believe that Trump is one of them. They believe he shares their values, their struggle, their faith. They believe that he can save them from their own problems they themselves created out of fear of “the other”. They fail to see him for the “Golden Calf” that he is and they think he is as righteous as they believe themselves to be.
I see it everywhere, social media, signs on peoples yards, shirts, hats, shoes. They worship him. And because of that worship, they are willing to ignore any evidence against him because it doesn’t go with their belief. Same as a religion. You can’t debate these people because in their minds, you’re asking them to deny God.
It’s not that there aren’t good people still in the world and it is not that some of the Trump supporters aren’t good people. They are misguided. They simply can’t see past what they choose to believe. It’s why logic fails against them, facts fail against them. They can defy and deny everything that doesn’t line up with their belief.
I feel the same way. But do not get support from my family and friends. I feel alone in this world of hate and can’t shake the feeling that can make it through knowing the country I was born in, no longer exists. It has been replaced by the bullies from every grade school nationwide, all grown up.
I feel the same way. But do not get support from my family and friends. I feel alone in this world of hate and can’t shake the feeling that I won’t make it through knowing the country I was born in, no longer exists. It has been replaced by the bullies from every grade school nationwide, all grown up