In Praise of Argument’s End

The relief of not having to argue with Trump supporters any more.

It’s been a hectic few weeks.

Iran launched a drone and missile attack on Israel that was almost completely repelled by Israeli air defenses — with the help of intel from its Arab neighbors. (!) So maybe Jewish space lasers are a real thing after all.

Over in Washington, the chief advocate of the space lasers theory, Marjorie Taylor Greene, began trying to oust Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House for being insufficiently fanatic.

Numerous red states threatened librarians with prison time for disseminating books that Republicans dislike. (Hey, in science fiction, are the people banning books and throwing librarians in prison usually the good guys or the bad guys? Asking for a friend.)

What else? Oh, the Supreme Court parsed whether the January 6th insurrectionists really did anything wrong, with Sam Alito (and to a lesser extent, an unrecused Clarence Thomas, whose own wife was part of fomenting that insurrection) suggesting that the people who attacked the Capitol were just “protestors” and that punishing them would chill free speech. (#legitimatepoliticaldiscourse)

It would also put a dent in bear spray sales.