get real

Maybe this is the kind of advice I need, courtesy of IOZ:

Friends, you must shred the assumption that the Republic is "not dead, only dreaming." The heart has stopped. The coin is on the tongue. Charon's poled the barge. Etc. A new reality is better than a new movie, as Amiri Baraka wrote. Listen. America isn't a constitutional republic. Repeat it. You'll feel better. Or, you'll feel worse at first, but then you'll feel better. You have to open yourself up to the notion that there are other kinds of freedom than living under a certain kind of benevolent government, which is what you've been taught since kindergarten. Liberty isn't a symptom of your State. It's surprising what happens to your mind when you start calling things by their real names.