Why people are going to be screaming at the sky on 8 November

Sometimes it happens when I’m just walking down the street, idly musing over who would win in a fight between baboon and badger. Out of nowhere, I’ll suddenly remember: enough people - almost 63 million people - went down to the polling booth on 8 November 2016 and thought: “yes: I am going to put my little cross/press that button on the machine and I, a functioning human being, will vote for Donald J. Trump to become president of the United States of America.” It blows my mind, it really does. You can call Brexit an unexpected result, but at least that was nuanced; there were many reasons to argue it either way and it was - and remains - a fairly nebulous concept. Trump? A racist, sexist, ableist, ignorant man. And those are his good qualities.

So, yes, it really did happen, and we are fast approaching the first anniversary of this fateful night (from which I won £40 at the bookies - I had a feeling, you know?) so, naturally, this being 2017 where we’re all stupid, people have decided to mark the occasion in the the best way they see fit: by screaming at the sky.

A host of Facebook events have popped up in Dallas, Chicago, Austin, New York, Philadelphia and Boston for people to come together, with the event description in Dallas, for example, reading thusly:

“Mark the one-year anniversary of the so-called ‘election’ of the so-called ‘President’ by joining the national primal scream. Howl at the sky, wail, gnash your teeth, bang your drums! May this shitshow of an administration hear our cathartic scream!”

Austin:

“Come join us as we lament the dreadful state of current affairs. If we yell loud enough, perhaps we can open up a rift in the space time continuum and hop onto a better timeline.”

New York:

“Join us cucks and snowflakes, safe spacers and libtards, as we enjoy a collective cathartic yell into the heavens about our current political establishment.”

The organiser of the Boston event, Johanna Schulman, told Newsweek:

“This administration has attacked everything about what it means to be American… Coming together reminds us that we are not alone, that we are part of an enormous community of activists who are motivated and angry whose actions can make a difference. Although it is important to acknowledge the tragedy that befell our country on 8 November, we cannot let it defeat us.”

Now, a phrase I use commonly when thinking about some people on social media is ‘howling at the moon’. People firing off angry tweets into the ether, with no one listening, which makes absolutely no difference - i.e. you may as well just go outside and howl at the moon for all the good it’ll do. And, let’s face it, this is what this is. It’s a complete waste of time. And, unfortunately for all of us, it wasn’t a ‘so-called election’ - it was an actual election and he’s not a ‘so-called president’ - he’s the actual President. So why not do a bit of campaigning instead, or try to understand what motivated people to vote for him and work out how to convince them to not do that in three years’ time? Just a thought.

This lady will be there though, and good luck to her.

(Image: Rex)