2021 was something. It just started like three weeks ago, but tonight is the last night. That was different. It’s customary to end the year with a little retrospective and far be it from me to break with customs, so here goes.
The main lesson from 2021 is pandemic related, of course. We learned just how much effort people will put into not learning anything at all from traumatic life events. COVID has exposed flaws with our governments, our economies, our educational systems, our technologies, our safety nets, our jobs, and just about everything else. But all anyone cares about is getting back to normal. It’s quite discouraging.
Another lesson is that, in America, the Democrats are even more inept than I thought they were. And I thought they were mind-bogglingly inept. They’re worse than that. They came into power after four years of Trump, and just a couple weeks after a bunch of right-wing nut-jobs stormed the Capitol, and couldn’t squeeze enough goodwill out of that to do anything. No vaccine mandates. No voting rights. No bodily autonomy protections. No climate change initiatives. No end to the supply chain issues. No end to the pandemic. In an earlier post, I said, “If Democrats were a football team, they’d kick a field goal on fourth and goal with two seconds left down by six. Then, when they lost by three, they’d shrug and mumble something about it being a close game.” I was being too generous. They’d actually fumble the snap on the field goal attempt and give up another touchdown.
2021 also showed us that Fox News is the only major media outlet that has any idea what they’re doing. That’s why Fox is able to dictate the news cycle. It’s a mystery why The New York Times, MSNBC, and The Atlantic follow Fox’s lead so consistently, but it’s the world we live in now.
There were probably some good things that happened, too. Maybe. Somewhere. I’ll do some checking and get back to you on that.
So, here’s to a better 2022. After 2020, I would have thought there was nowhere to go but up. We went sideways. Maybe we’ll find a wall or ladder or something we can climb. We’ll see. And I’ll end on an optimistic note. Things probably won’t get much worse next year.
