{"id":6407,"date":"2026-03-10T06:57:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T05:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=6407"},"modified":"2026-03-10T06:57:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T05:57:46","slug":"the-end-of-the-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=6407","title":{"rendered":"The end of the Affair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t want to regale you with the level of shittiness occurring at the global level these days. A brief recap goes like this: addled, mind-numbingly stupid man runs a government on spite and purposeful ineptitude & might start WWIII because his predecessor was much better at his job than him and people liked him; petty coward who lives in Budapest can\u2019t handle free elections, so he\u2019s doing everything he can to cheat right in front of our eyes rather than just be \u2013 the horror of it \u2013 a better leader; small, small man who probably lives in a bunker somewhere north of Moscow started a war and has been trying to gaslight the world with the whole \u2018well if you just gave me this, I\u2019d leave. This is really your fault.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly this is but the creamy top of the crap sandwich of the way people are making the world a bad place to live right now. There are also greedy billionaires, bullies, and conmen galore. The American government is no longer Republican or Democrat, but a subset of the UFC and World Wrestling Federation. We get tough guy speeches from plumbers who hid behind chairs. Empathy is scoffed at, unless it\u2019s for a right-wing podcaster, then it\u2019s required by law.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deep breath in. Deep breath out.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like most people \u2013 and I mean that, most people \u2013 I have simple wants. I want to be healthy, I want to save a little money, I want to stop working at some point, I want to have fun, and I want to live long enough to see World War Z made into a limited 8-episode series like it says in the Bible. I want the same (more or less) for my friends, family, and community. I don\u2019t want to hate people and I don\u2019t want other people to not have things just because they disagree with me. I think this is true of most people. And I think it\u2019s no secret to us lowlings that we have all been convinced to loathe our neighbor for about 10 years now. What a terrible state of global affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

On the bright side, I do think this is changing or going to change. I get the sense that we are as one population of humanity sick of this. I think people are pissed and have come to the realization that the idiots mentioned above don\u2019t care about them, they are in it for themselves or reasons that are not guided by humble public service. These guys won\u2019t be around forever \u2013 it\u2019s just not physically possible. Sure, it might be a year, two, or three, but they will be gone. A thought to give all of us hope. But \u2013 I think we are all wondering \u2013 then what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure all of you out there have \u2013 at least to some degree \u2013 been in a toxic relationship. Until I was about 40, we just called that a \u2018bad\u2019 relationship. In a rare case of my opinion matching current phraseology, I think that \u2018toxic\u2019 actually captures the true essence of a bad relationship better, even if it is losing its tang through over-saturation. The world is in a toxic relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I think the world is about to break up. No, I don\u2019t mean totally calamitous. But I do meant that what\u2019s happening is going to come to a head, explode, and then we\u2019re all going to have to regroup. We will do what 10,000 musical artists have sung to us about: we will suffer, cry, stamp our feet, question, moan, and gnash our teeth in the aftermath of leaving a relationship. Some of us will look forlornly at pictures of balding orange people and reach for the phone, but you will not call. Others might think that a one-nighter with the Russian guy wouldn\u2019t lead to anything bad, but you\u2019ll come to your senses before doing anything rash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can\u2019t fool ourselves that once these people are gone the world will be peaches and cream right away. As with all breakups, it will be hard for a while. But with them gone and a bit of reflection and insight, we will be able to grow as a people. Nevertheless, we will also do as Gloria Gaynor told us: we will survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least until the next time.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t want to regale you with the level of shittiness occurring at the global level these days. A brief recap goes like this: addled, mind-numbingly stupid man runs a government on spite and purposeful ineptitude & might start WWIII because his predecessor was much better at his job than him and people liked him; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/damiengaleone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/heart.png?fit=400%2C225&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EvEu-1Fl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6409,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6407\/revisions\/6409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}