A Topic I Never Wanted to Write About
The name that shall not be spoken
When I started writing this blog several months ago, I vowed to make it non-politically oriented. I was never, ever going to write an article about the name that shall not be spoken. After all, I spent some four years on Twitter (now renamed X) screaming into the void about the unprecedented acquiescence and self-flagellation of one political party and how it is ruining all of us. Why would anyone care what John Q. Nobody feels about politics when everybody basically falls into two unpersuadable camps, and no one’s mind can be changed? So, for four years, I’ve kept my mouth shut. And I’ve liked it that way.
What’s changed? Why am I writing about a subject that I cannot stand and isn’t even remotely my beat on this platform? For the record, politics is definitely not my beat.
Well, if my disability comrades have taught me anything, it’s that politics is inextricably linked to the quality of life that disabled people as a community experience. As much as I may want to skirt the subject of the name that shall not be spoken and his flying monkeys, it really can’t be done. It would be like seeing the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany and remaining silent — which a lot of people did and still do with the name that shall not be spoken.
The name that shall not be spoken might take the comparison I just made to the Führer as a compliment.
The first time I ever heard of the man whose name shall not be spoken (if you can call him a man) was when he hosted The Apprentice. I was blissfully unaware of him growing up in the 1980s. It wasn’t very smart of me to think that this tabloid form of TV was a sign of the times, like the Jerry Springer Show, Maury Povich, or Judge Judy. Nope. This is who many Americans place as high in their pantheon of deities as the Good Lord himself. Even Paddy Chayefsky, in his wildest dreams, could not have written such an outrageous Hollywood script as today’s political reality. Today’s world makes the 1976 movie Network seem tame compared to our unfortunate reality on Earth One. It’s one thing for all Americans to go out on their porches and yell: “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore,” because an anchorman told them to. It is quite another for the thought of an armed faction of our country to unquestionably obey the covert illegal orders of a senile lunatic. One scenario is funny and benign; the other is on the order of Dr. Strangelove.
Why, oh why, do people love this man whose name shall not be spoken? I’m not saying here what anyone hasn’t already said. He has undoubtedly given people an excuse to be who they really are. To show their true colors: racism, sexism, putrid fear of anyone with differences, etc. They admire a man who games the system and wins. One who has the very trappings of the false prophets Christ warned about and then all but announces he is the second coming. One who mocks the disabled. One who is a serial adulterer. One who stared into the sun during an eclipse. One who suggested bleach as a cure for Covid-19. One who suggested nuking a hurricane. Never mind the insurrection. For all of this, they are willing to put aside the disgusting things he has said about his own daughter, 91 felony charges, announcing he will be a dictator on day one, being bosom buddies with Putin, yada, yada, yada. How many times have we all heard it? But it never ends. The maddening thing is that we all have the power to end it collectively, but many of our compatriots refuse to and never will.
What does it mean for disabled and autistic people, specifically? It means our country, once again, may have a president who believes mercury causes autism. We would have a president who might appoint an education secretary who knows even less about the Americans with Disabilities Act than Betsy Devos. It means that the President, who thought COVID-19 would render life back to normal by Easter of 2020, would sacrifice disabled, immune-comprised bodies back into the workplace during a global pandemic were he to do it all over again. It means no one would be off limits for this President to have his sights set on. Immigrants, trans individuals, the disabled, Muslims, you name it. No one would be safe unless you are a white Christian male. The situation sounds a lot like season one from 2017–2021, except this time around, you can be assured it will be much more brutal.
I know people who support this man despite being disabled, black, or another minority. They all have their reasons. One of my disabled friends is an atheist but believes firmly in meritocracy, likes his tax cuts, which are about to expire, and reads Ayn Rand voraciously. When I try to give these people fact-checked evidence about him, I only receive false equivalency in the form of whataboutism. These people cannot be swayed. I remember what it was like to be part of a cult shortly — I recognize precisely what it does to the mind. This is that.
As I see it, we don’t have two great choices in this election. But this is not Let’s Make a Deal. We only have two doors to choose from, not three with an unknown commodity. We know what’s behind each door. One is so unthinkable to entrust our nuclear codes to that we would never sleep at night if we thought about it too deeply. In essence, one is America’s Putin; the other is a standard neo-liberal. Fascism versus neoliberalism — pick your door.
To be clear, Biden is someone who I would otherwise not vote for but for these extreme circumstances. I do not condone how he has handled the Israel-Hamas war as far as the citizens in Gaza. It’s been atrocious.
But do we want to go back to the days of unmarked cars picking up and unlawfully detaining protestors? Do we want a Gestapo, for crying out loud? Do we want generals to be walking with the President while D.C. protestors are being teargassed so he can capture a photo op of himself with a bible in his hands outside of a church — a bible he is now hawking to pay for his legal bills? I mean, who wants this for the indefinite future?
One of the only explanations I can come up with that this man whose name shall not be spoken continues to enjoy getting the breaks that no other American would ever be afforded is there is a sizable enough population that wants to hasten the rapture. For real. They want chaos. Not all Christians feel this way, but many do. Climate change does not scare these individuals. They know it is not a liberal hoax. But they are hardcore apocalypticists who feel a supreme battle between good and evil is taking place right now — that it’s their job to accelerate that battle. And accelerating that battle means creating more chaos. And if you haven’t already guessed, they believe they are on the right side of this battle, and they want to get it over with as soon as possible to float up into the clouds. No wonder they don’t care what kind of earth they will leave to their children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren when it doesn’t matter because, after the tribulation, they will have their 1,000 years.
Meanwhile, those of us who do not believe in the imminence of this event have to vote as if our lives depend on it. Because, as you already know, they do.
