Hey there, Secular Fam, I hope y’all are hanging in there during this era of late-stage capitalism.
For many of us, this time of year can overwhelm us and bring in a flood of emotions, some of them not great. This is true of the winter months in “normal” times, but if anyone understands that all the sh!t we’ve been going through for the last several years is FAR from normal, it’s you – the folks that read these columns.
It seems that we are both in the Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud (SQPOL?) phase AND the Fuck Around and Find Out (FAFO) phase in this Era of late-stage capitalism.
First, let’s start with the SQPOL™ (pronounced SKEW-pol) phase. There’s been a lot of that recently, and it hasn’t been good.
Like, at all.
A Late-Stage Capitalism Era: The Time to Speak Out is Now
Perhaps you caught the 45th president’s recent comments where he basically paraphrased Hitler, and used terminology like “vermin” and spoke of the “threat from within,” (much like his Nazi predecessor). NPR just had a piece about his dangerous vitriol, and said that four out of every ten Americans prefer an authoritarian regime.
With the current events in Israel and Palestine, white Christian nationalistscommentators like Charlie Kirk have decided they should weigh in, and are saying some of the most antisemitic shit I’ve ever heard. And an elected official in Floridaessentially said that she won’t be happy until ALL Palestinian children are dead, and of course denied the words that literally came out of her mouth and backtracked, because she’s a terrible, lying human being.
If you know me at all, you know I’m WAAAAY more into local politics than national/global politics, but since we’re in the era of late-stage capitalism, it’s becoming harder and harder to turn it all off.
Click here to read the rest of the article on Secular AZ’s Substack.
Jeanne Casteen, Secular AZ Executive Director
JEANNE CASTEEN has a bachelor’s degree in human communication and history from the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at ASU and a master’s in education, also from ASU. Jeanne has over 11 years of experience teaching in Maricopa County’s public schools. In 2011, Jeanne completed the Emerge Arizona program and in 2012 became a school board member of the Creighton School District. She served as Board President from 2016 through 2020. In 2020, Ms. Casteen ran for Maricopa County School Superintendent, and came within 12,000 votes of winning. She has been awarded the Arizona School Public Relations Association Award for Excellence in Advocacy and Political Contributions to Education as well as the Arizona School Board Association’s All-Arizona School Board Member Award.
