So. We’re living in the era of Weird. One Weirder than any of us thought we’d ever see and one Stranger in it’s multitude of shit than ever portrayed in a movie or television show. Even in the good ol’ book o’ bullshit, the old testament even spread the shit out. Granted it was one after the other, but still, not all at once. So either there really is a Christian god and we royally pissed him off or we’re just living in the Weirdest times that none of us could have come up with and strung together.
Which got me to thinking, What Would Hunter S. Thompson Do? Thompson was a legend in journalism, created Gonzo Journalism, which blended fact, fiction and his opinions which were vivid, loud and when you look back at them, true. They all came to fruition. In his last major publication, “The Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century” he projected what would happen post 9/11 and it all came to fruition. Of course it was dark, horrible and made you wish you could crawl in bed until the world turned into a nice, happy place, but let’s face it, that never happened and you’d be dead from starvation covered in your own shit and piss if you did so.
So in these Weird times, what the fuck do we do? Thompson coined the phrase, “When the going gets Weird, the Weird turn Pro,” meaning, when shit gets bat shit crazy, you get bat shit crazier and navigate through it, not hide under the covers. Granted those of us that are already Weird have an advantage. Our lives have been on the border of strange or in the swells of it at times, so we can better navigate. We think differently. Jim and Sally with the 2.5 kids, picket fence, 3 cars, a boat, 2 story McMansion and a pool and a perfectly mowed lawn are fucked. That’s who this will hit the hardest.
Those of us that have had to slum it in our lives, seen the ugly underbelly of society with our own eyes and wallowed in the sewers for a while will have a clue. It won’t be as shocking. It will still piss us off, especially if we’ve managed to get to higher and dryer ground in our lives. Now it all comes crumbling down, motherfucker. But most of us have a pessimistic side, that everything can and will turn to shit. We’d like it not too, but under the sliver of optimism we may have, we know that society, people and life isn’t that nice. The down and out and underdogs know what I’m talking about. While we’d like things to be different and do what we can to make a change, we know it won’t be easy, and once one battle is fought, another will come. We don’t go looking for it but eventually it will be sitting in our backyard waiting for us with the insane grin of the Cheshire Cat, blood dripping from it’s pointy little fucking teeth.
So where are we today? Murder hornets, methed out alligators and brain destroying amoebas in Florida, alien life forms found on other planets in other parts of the universe, confirmations aliens have/are here, hurricanes, cyclones, sandstorms pummeling across the ocean, a circus of morons running for president in what is most likely going to be one of the most uncanny and biggest shit shows we’ve ever seen in elections, Kanye West is in the running ladies and gentleman. I guess he’s off his meds and ready to go, sounds like just the man for the job. Living in psychotic times, why not have a certified whacko running the show? I mean fuck, it might work. And let’s not leave out the global pandemic that has shut America down… There was a small dollop of hope and then boom. Back to full time masks, rising numbers, death and doom. We’re fucked.
So what do we do? Well, as you’ve seen it’s a good time to get loud. People have been cooped up and their eyeballs torn away from whatever mundane screen they were looking at before that had nothing to do with the world or society. America became the land of the shut-ins, people slowed down, were stuck inside and glued to the news. The positive? When fucked up shit happened, horrible acts committed, people got their asses up, got educated and got loud. Changes were made and are being made. Criminals were sentenced, and laws beginning to change. The younger generation learned and got a first hand look at the ugly face of racism that society has tried to cover up over the decades. Granted some took it too far and distracted from the cause of BLM and they were poetically told to shut up and be a silent ally. I could go on, but I won’t.
Basically people are seeing flaws in society, they can see past the politician’s masks and if there was ever a doubt that the systems in society were corrupt or flawed, well, Kids, the veil has lifted. It’s all fucked, and yes it’s as bad as you thought if not worse. A finely tuned, orchestrated mob that is now turning on each other and eating it’s own alive as the people around them are dying and getting chased by crazed insects, drugged out half dead alligators and their brains eaten by amoebas as they inhale sand and watch their pool furniture blow across the lawn and set ablaze by a downed power line and the number of COVID cases rise. This is the world we’re living in Folks; and it’s not going to let up soon. It’s going to continue to get worse. Cabin fever will grow, the government will lose control, people will give up, suicide rates will increase as well as drug and alcohol sales while the economy crashes into a dark abyss that we may not see it rise from until we’re old or hear about it when we’re dead. Maybe someone will get on the horn with the powers that be to tell our corpse that it finally got better and we’ll tell them to write back to the poor hopeless Fuck and say, “That’s great Champ, enjoy it while it lasts and get ready for the next wave.”
I’d have to imagine Thompson would have much more to say than I would, with many more years of experience and knowledge under his belt. I can imagine he’d stick to his guns that we are in Weird times and we must keep pushing forward and to out the swine that caused the mess and/or exasperated it. He’d have projections on what the world would look like after the dust settled and what would happen in the meantime, tell us to hang onto our asses and that impending doom was inevitable. I’d imagine he’d be pissed, irate really, and be pounding away at the keys voicing his opinion and taking action. This Great Man was never a bystander.
So let us do the same. We get loud, take action, put our few dollars where our mouth is and try to do what’s needed to right the ship while it looks like it’s sinking and the powers at be are weakened. This is the time to sock it to them, when they’re down. Write, email, call and flood the government, local and national with the changes you want made. Clog their brains with them like a massive shit in a toilet so they can’t ignore it. Get to booking if a Weird animal or insect is chasing you, even though at that point you might be fucked, but it’s worth the effort and be open with your opinion. Granted going around on social media picking everyone else’s opinions apart has gotten out of control. So stick to your goddamn guns - if the Trolls come to you, strike them down, but don’t go searching out other people to shit on because you lack an opinion or are too big of a pussy to voice your own. Then you’re just a moron with no soapbox trying to piggyback off someone else’s by shit stirring. Well guess what? You know what we acquired from our soapboxes? Bars of soap. Stuffed in a tube sock and wound up and ready to swing. So if you want to keep it up, Fucko, you’ll get whopped upside the head by some Dial.
So when we think all is lost, there’s no hope, there’s nothing we can do, it’s all damned and fucked, which, right now it sure seems that way, think to yourself, WWHSTD? Then get to thinking, put your thoughts out there, take action, don’t follow the flock of lemmings headed for the cliff with Jim and Sally and their 2.5 kids or die of starvation in your bed with the covers over your head covered in your own shit and piss, do something.
When Thompson didn’t want Aspen gentrified, he ran for sheriff, when he hated a candidate he went on the campaign trail and knocked them off, when he saw his America crumbling he got loud. He didn’t stop, he didn’t shut up. He went Pro. All out Weird and relentlessly Gonzo.
So lets go Pro. Get your Gonzo on. Come on Wierdos, we were made for this shit. Time to take the wheel.
Till next time…
Which got me to thinking, What Would Hunter S. Thompson Do? Thompson was a legend in journalism, created Gonzo Journalism, which blended fact, fiction and his opinions which were vivid, loud and when you look back at them, true. They all came to fruition. In his last major publication, “The Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century” he projected what would happen post 9/11 and it all came to fruition. Of course it was dark, horrible and made you wish you could crawl in bed until the world turned into a nice, happy place, but let’s face it, that never happened and you’d be dead from starvation covered in your own shit and piss if you did so.
So in these Weird times, what the fuck do we do? Thompson coined the phrase, “When the going gets Weird, the Weird turn Pro,” meaning, when shit gets bat shit crazy, you get bat shit crazier and navigate through it, not hide under the covers. Granted those of us that are already Weird have an advantage. Our lives have been on the border of strange or in the swells of it at times, so we can better navigate. We think differently. Jim and Sally with the 2.5 kids, picket fence, 3 cars, a boat, 2 story McMansion and a pool and a perfectly mowed lawn are fucked. That’s who this will hit the hardest.
Those of us that have had to slum it in our lives, seen the ugly underbelly of society with our own eyes and wallowed in the sewers for a while will have a clue. It won’t be as shocking. It will still piss us off, especially if we’ve managed to get to higher and dryer ground in our lives. Now it all comes crumbling down, motherfucker. But most of us have a pessimistic side, that everything can and will turn to shit. We’d like it not too, but under the sliver of optimism we may have, we know that society, people and life isn’t that nice. The down and out and underdogs know what I’m talking about. While we’d like things to be different and do what we can to make a change, we know it won’t be easy, and once one battle is fought, another will come. We don’t go looking for it but eventually it will be sitting in our backyard waiting for us with the insane grin of the Cheshire Cat, blood dripping from it’s pointy little fucking teeth.
So where are we today? Murder hornets, methed out alligators and brain destroying amoebas in Florida, alien life forms found on other planets in other parts of the universe, confirmations aliens have/are here, hurricanes, cyclones, sandstorms pummeling across the ocean, a circus of morons running for president in what is most likely going to be one of the most uncanny and biggest shit shows we’ve ever seen in elections, Kanye West is in the running ladies and gentleman. I guess he’s off his meds and ready to go, sounds like just the man for the job. Living in psychotic times, why not have a certified whacko running the show? I mean fuck, it might work. And let’s not leave out the global pandemic that has shut America down… There was a small dollop of hope and then boom. Back to full time masks, rising numbers, death and doom. We’re fucked.
So what do we do? Well, as you’ve seen it’s a good time to get loud. People have been cooped up and their eyeballs torn away from whatever mundane screen they were looking at before that had nothing to do with the world or society. America became the land of the shut-ins, people slowed down, were stuck inside and glued to the news. The positive? When fucked up shit happened, horrible acts committed, people got their asses up, got educated and got loud. Changes were made and are being made. Criminals were sentenced, and laws beginning to change. The younger generation learned and got a first hand look at the ugly face of racism that society has tried to cover up over the decades. Granted some took it too far and distracted from the cause of BLM and they were poetically told to shut up and be a silent ally. I could go on, but I won’t.
Basically people are seeing flaws in society, they can see past the politician’s masks and if there was ever a doubt that the systems in society were corrupt or flawed, well, Kids, the veil has lifted. It’s all fucked, and yes it’s as bad as you thought if not worse. A finely tuned, orchestrated mob that is now turning on each other and eating it’s own alive as the people around them are dying and getting chased by crazed insects, drugged out half dead alligators and their brains eaten by amoebas as they inhale sand and watch their pool furniture blow across the lawn and set ablaze by a downed power line and the number of COVID cases rise. This is the world we’re living in Folks; and it’s not going to let up soon. It’s going to continue to get worse. Cabin fever will grow, the government will lose control, people will give up, suicide rates will increase as well as drug and alcohol sales while the economy crashes into a dark abyss that we may not see it rise from until we’re old or hear about it when we’re dead. Maybe someone will get on the horn with the powers that be to tell our corpse that it finally got better and we’ll tell them to write back to the poor hopeless Fuck and say, “That’s great Champ, enjoy it while it lasts and get ready for the next wave.”
I’d have to imagine Thompson would have much more to say than I would, with many more years of experience and knowledge under his belt. I can imagine he’d stick to his guns that we are in Weird times and we must keep pushing forward and to out the swine that caused the mess and/or exasperated it. He’d have projections on what the world would look like after the dust settled and what would happen in the meantime, tell us to hang onto our asses and that impending doom was inevitable. I’d imagine he’d be pissed, irate really, and be pounding away at the keys voicing his opinion and taking action. This Great Man was never a bystander.
So let us do the same. We get loud, take action, put our few dollars where our mouth is and try to do what’s needed to right the ship while it looks like it’s sinking and the powers at be are weakened. This is the time to sock it to them, when they’re down. Write, email, call and flood the government, local and national with the changes you want made. Clog their brains with them like a massive shit in a toilet so they can’t ignore it. Get to booking if a Weird animal or insect is chasing you, even though at that point you might be fucked, but it’s worth the effort and be open with your opinion. Granted going around on social media picking everyone else’s opinions apart has gotten out of control. So stick to your goddamn guns - if the Trolls come to you, strike them down, but don’t go searching out other people to shit on because you lack an opinion or are too big of a pussy to voice your own. Then you’re just a moron with no soapbox trying to piggyback off someone else’s by shit stirring. Well guess what? You know what we acquired from our soapboxes? Bars of soap. Stuffed in a tube sock and wound up and ready to swing. So if you want to keep it up, Fucko, you’ll get whopped upside the head by some Dial.
So when we think all is lost, there’s no hope, there’s nothing we can do, it’s all damned and fucked, which, right now it sure seems that way, think to yourself, WWHSTD? Then get to thinking, put your thoughts out there, take action, don’t follow the flock of lemmings headed for the cliff with Jim and Sally and their 2.5 kids or die of starvation in your bed with the covers over your head covered in your own shit and piss, do something.
When Thompson didn’t want Aspen gentrified, he ran for sheriff, when he hated a candidate he went on the campaign trail and knocked them off, when he saw his America crumbling he got loud. He didn’t stop, he didn’t shut up. He went Pro. All out Weird and relentlessly Gonzo.
So lets go Pro. Get your Gonzo on. Come on Wierdos, we were made for this shit. Time to take the wheel.
Till next time…