That’s the real issue this time," he said. “Beating Nixon. It’s hard to even guess how much damage those bastards will do if they get in for another four years.”
The argument was familiar, I had even made it myself, here and there, but I was beginning to sense something very depressing about it. How many more of these goddamn elections are we going to have to write off as lame, but “regrettably necessary” holding actions? And how many more of these stinking double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote for something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils?
Now with another one of these big bogus showdowns looming down on us, I can already pick up the stench of another bummer. I understand, along with a lot of other people, that the big thing this year is Beating Nixon. But that was also the big thing, as I recall, twelve years ago in 1960 – and as far as I can tell, we’ve gone from bad to worse to rotten since then, and the outlook is for more of the same.
—Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72
When will we move on?
Looking at all the music, media, articles, debates, theory, from 10 or 30 or 60 or 100 years ago that’s still perfectly relevant, sometimes so on the nose you don’t even have to change the names or update the lyrics, you could just sing it on tiktok and tell people you wrote it, it makes me feel some kind of war.
I use this quote a lot, not because I’m a big HST fan, but because it’s just so fitting. The fact that even back then the argument was tired… It’s maddening.
“Love me, I’m a liberal” might need a few tweaks, but it’s almost there.
“Buy a gun for your son” is already perfect.
“Napalm sticks to kids” is sadly still much too relevant.
I’d love to get recommendations for other articles, etc. that are still relevant!
I’ve considered learning “Love me I’m a Liberal”, but I’m far from living alone and that’s a rough song for someone to walk by at the wrong time. Even in more modernized versions.
I recently re read The Jungle and it is still super relevant. I just read Huasipongo for the first time last week - an oppressed/abused population lashes out against the owner/settler class because they have no other option, and the military is immediately called in to wipe them out. It’s all familiar. And those were both written over 100 years ago