An Irreducible Element of Rascality
Be an idiot with me. Maybe it'll all suck 5% less. Maybe that little bit matters more than you think.
I want to post something about what’s happening, but I’m afraid.
The fear I’m feeling is not of what you might expect. It’s not of political retribution or of the police state. I want to share some optimism, and the fear I’m feeling is of being piled on by my own fellow progressives. So I have to preface this with the most 2025 thing ever: preemptive fine print.
I get it. A lot of folks are either burned out from too much toxic positivity or can’t tell the difference between legitimate optimism and spiritual bypassing. So I’ll start by saying very clearly that the constitutional crisis we are facing is absolutely real. I have zero doubts that there are, in fact, bloodthirsty racists in positions of power. I don’t believe that every single person who supports this administration, however, fits that bill. I have some street cred when it comes to leadership and coalition building - you don't build critical mass by getting everyone to agree. You get people to your party when you make it so that there are a wide variety of attraction that will inspire lots of different people to come. A very tiny part of the people who show up to your show are there "just for the music" no matter what they tell you. And this is the reason why I don't outright dismiss people I politically disagree with.
What’s happening in our country is frightening and is very real. I am the child of immigrant parents who fled a violent fascist revolution. Whatever story many of you have in your heads about how this all might play out based on movies you’ve watched—my family watched it play out in real time. The things you’ve read about in middle school history books, we chat about casually at family dinners. Over dessert. Fascism is real. Safety is an illusion. Pass the cheesecake.
“Um okay Arash—when are you gonna get to the optimistic part?”
Here it is: while there are absolutely patterns in history we must learn from or we are doomed to repeat, it’s not going to be exactly the same. I see a lot of folks saying that and I think that's hurting the cause. Because instead of showing us that shit's fucked up and we should do something, a great deal of the narrative seems to be "you should give up and move to Portugal." (Don't move to Portugal; they're probably getting sick of all these Americans moving there.) Optimism isn't saying everything will be just fine. It's saying that if there is a 5% chance it can be slightly different, then the story is still not over. We’re still in the game. We can still write a new story.
A coffee shop I regularly attend has an employee who works his morning shift on the base, and then comes and works at the coffee shop. Needless to say, he’s an artsy lefty barista. We're at a local coffee shop where I'm editing photos. It's a vibe. Just setting the stage.
A couple of months ago, I asked him what he’d do—what he thinks would happen—if he got the order to turn on other Americans.
“Gurllll,” he responded—(okay he didn’t actually say “gurllll” but he said it with his smirk and a side-eye, and if you have any gay boys in your life, you absolutely know the look I’m describing)—“This is a different generation of military,” he continued. “They’re on TikTok. They’re on Instagram. They’re not gonna keep their mouths shut.”
Read: The Guardian: Troops and marines deeply troubled by LA deployment: ‘Morale is not great’
We chatted some more about the image the military has and likes to convey to the world - and then the way it really is trying to order around Gen Z.
Yeah, they need to follow orders. Court-martials are also real. It’s not like a lieutenant commander is gonna give an order and be met with, “Ew - hard pass. That order's sus." But the vibe around military culture isn't quite WWII either. That's what this particular service-member's perspective was. As an outsider, I felt like there was some validity there because with the little time I've spent on Tik-tok, I've seen lots of military folks saying a lot of stuff I didn't know you were allowed to say. But what do I know.
But back to our main, albeit scattered point. In addition to us living in a very different world, we do live in a democracy.
No, that doesn’t mean we’ve got clean hands. There’s more than enough blood to go around.
A great deal of the disenfranchisement I’m witnessing in my community, I believe, is a result of the America we were sold on in our upbringing vs the reality of the world we’ve grown to learn we live in. What I've witnessed can better be described as heartbreak, which is what happens if you once believed in something so deeply. But I guess I just never really had my heart broken by America because, as a Middle Easterner, we’ve always known America has tons of blood on her hands. We came here already knowing that we all do, in fact. No nation on this planet gets away scott free.
I’ve watched many Gen X white friends slowwwwwly come to this realization over the years as our access to international news sources expanded and we learned more about the world. It's like watching white Americans learn there is no Santa Claus over and over. Gaza, BLM, Trump...
The Right learned there is no Santa Claus and their reaction was to pick up assault rifles and demand someone immediately put on a Santa Claus outfit so they can go back to the feeling they had before they learned Santa wasn’t real. The Left’s just been sitting and quivering in the shower ever since they learned there's no Santa and then proceeded to question whether anything’s ever been real ever and what's the point to even trying. The Easter Bunny? The Tooth Fairy? I have a dream??
American Exceptionalists want you to believe that living in a democracy means we’re beyond reproach. Which, we've obviously learned we're so not. If you’re one of those heartbroken Gen Xers, I’m challenging you to hold back on just flipping the table over and walking away from the game completely. There is one advantage we have in our society: Red tape.
Watch: Service member joined an anti-ICE protest in Dallas following Trump’s deployment of Marines to Los Angeles, declaring: “We will not be pawns in the dismantling of constitutional rights.”
I know it's not sexy. It’s infuriating. It’s obfuscating. It makes you wanna rip your hair out. But it’s what you’ve got in a democracy that you don’t really have in an autocracy.
Our corruption levels are equal—but in a democracy, even if you’re a bully, even if your intentions are shitty, even if you’re doing a song and dance and don’t believe in any of this, you still have to figure out how to get through all that goddamn red tape.
While these last elections were playing out, I heard no shortage of folks pointing out that it's all a charade anyway. I'd hear this and think, yeah but at least they're still putting on the show to try to get your votes. In many places in the world it's more like, "here's your guy, STFU." To me, the fact that they still put on the whole dog and pony show is evidence that we're still in the game and that's not nothing.
We have red tape. We have layers and layers of bureaucracy. We have nonprofits and advocacy groups. We have branches of government most of us wouldn’t even know existed if we had a lifetime to study the United States. We have groups within groups who have warring agendas and uneasy truces - and for the first time, I'm kinda glad we do.
The strongman would like for you to believe he has all the power. He’s testing how far he can push. But the pushback isn’t coming from the next one down the line of succession. Godzilla is trying to stomp LA, and the pushback is not coming from King Kong. It’s coming in the form of 10,000 annoying gnats filing paperwork, writing articles, and arguing between different law enforcement agencies and entities about jurisdiction.
I gotta tell ya, as a former government employee who is all too familiar with bureaucracy, I’m feeling some slight pride right now of the mobilization I’ve been observing in the trenches.
The constitutional crisis is 100% real. I’m not downplaying any of it. I’m just saying it’s not going to play out exactly the way many defeatists say it will. Because I don’t think the Iranians and the Germans had layers and layers of lawyers and nonprofits and advocacy groups and annoying ass social media channels the way we have in America in 2025.
On top of that—and this is just my own personal thing…
Alan Watts described human beings as having “an irreducible element of rascality.” That playful, mischievous, unchangeable aspect of human nature. I’ve heard "proud heart-working Americans" describe how we are the most “freedom-loving people in the world.” The word 'freedom', itself, I've come to learn is quit subjective. Freedom for my friends to express their gender identities without persecution is experienced as oppression to others who've spent a lifetime barely keeping their sense of reality together. I think when folks say 'freedom' what they’re really reaching for is rascality. That rascal nature—that deeply embedded part of the American identity. I’ve spent some time out there in the world and I gotta say—I do believe Americans are up there as some of the most rascally people on the planet. While I’ve never banked on the United States for many of the things many Americans have, I _do_ feel this innate sense about my fellow Americans: If there’s a way we can circumvent, obfuscate, or simply troll… we’ll probably find it. It's not an accident that Burning Man was born here.
So don’t give up hope. Don’t assume the game’s already over. Every little thing you can do to contribute to creating more red tape, do it. Be an annoying gnat, buzzing around and poking everything that moves. Be ridiculous. Be annoying. Laugh and dance in the face of oppression; joy is an act of resistance. Trust me, my family escaped a country ran by cartoon supervillains who are literally infuriated that there are people in the world who are living, laughing and loving.
And let me say that I fully grasp that it can be easier said than done. I've watched much of this play out and succumbed to hopelessness, myself. I'm operating at like 43% of where I was before this chapter. But on the day of this writing, I had a text exchange with a friend and felt a surge of inspiration. So I jumped on it and rode the creative wave. I mustered the energy to write this while jacked up on morning caffeine and setting aside the tasks I’d intended to complete today. Maybe this piece inspires one person who needed it. Just one.
I felt energized enough to power past the fear that I’d be piled on by other lefties. The fear that someone with more education and experience would write one simple sentence and dismantle my momentary upshift of hopefulness. If you've read this far, and your instinct is to comment with "well actually," maybe try suppressing that urge. Not for me - my ego can take it - but think of how many other folks need a pick-me-up in a hopeless time and all they see is doomsday predictors. Maybe do it for them and if you want to tell me I'm an idiot, message me privately. I very well might read something terrible in a couple of hours, fall back into that sinking feeling and look back on this and think it was a total waste of time.
But maybe not? Maybe? The pessimist believes it's better to assume everything sucks so that they can be pleasantly surprised if some small part of things turn out better. The optimist is gambling that things might turn out ok and is willing to be wrong and look like an idiot.
Be an idiot with me. Maybe it'll all suck 5% less. Maybe that little bit matters more than you think.