The winter of their discontent

| 3:00 pm EST February 24, 2022
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One of the hazards of not getting a second Trump presidential term — and yes, there are hazards for everything — is the consequential restlessness of America’s enemies. Vladimir Putin, for instance, who put all his chips on a Second Coming of Trump, is discovering he’s now actually going to have to work for a living. Putin is literally going to war to get what he might have otherwise gotten for free: a US withdrawal from NATO, American support for a less violent encroachment on Ukraine’s territory, a better deal for trade, and so on.

That goes double for America’s enemies inside her borders. I’m talking,in part, about “The People’s Convoy,” a loose confederacy of truckers slouching towards Washington to stir up trouble during the State of the Union Address on March 1st. They’re going for reasons that they are barely coherent about and can’t even agree on amongst themselves. We know it has something to do with their idea of “freedom.” That’s where agreement stops. It began, more or less, with counterfeit indignation about Covid-19 restrictions and has transmogrified into everything from critical race theory to inflation to vaccines to the Deep State to sex trafficking. Presumably congressman Matt Gaetz can help them out with that last one.

This “People’s Convoy” thingy began as a spinoff of Canada’s so-called “freedom convoy” movement that started last month. Led by truckers as an ostensible protest, many of the members of this current convoy don’t have connections to the trucking industry. Because it’s so loosely confederated and badly planned, the protest quickly turned into a smorgasbord of right-wing anti-government grievances.

The whole thing is being promoted over Facebook, GETTR, Telegram and Zello, a sort of CB radio and walkie-talkie app. While it probably won’t become another January 6, particularly with the current administration in charge, it does have certain parallels that cannot easily be dismissed.

The goal, of course, is anger, the new cocaine of the alt-right. People who confuse self-righteousness with righteousness become quickly and easily addicted. That’s problematic enough. But it’s made measurably worse when some of them are anger-addled cretins behind the wheels of 400 to 600 horsepower semis. It will be a miracle if somebody doesn’t get hurt.

We already know in advance that the goal of these people is anger and not anything clearly defined or specific. Most members of the convoy who will be closely questioned by the press will prove ultimately incoherent. Most of them won’t have a real idea of why they are there, and will be unable to survive scrutiny of any real depth. They love to get angry, it’s just that simple. Especially when their anger can be directed at liberals. Their discontent largely originates in the hindbrain and the medulla. They are, in short, stupid, and we could dismiss them if there weren’t so damned many of them. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.