An Obvious Truth for 2026
Beyond my favorite truth (and foundational moral principle) that People Are People, there is the fact that vast swathes of fiction across all sorts of media — books, movies, videogames — involve a ragtag diverse group striving for coexistence struggling against a cruel despotic force that wants to kill and/or subjugate everyone else.
Been reading a lot of fantasy novels lately and that’s the plot of more than one. Watched one of the recent Star Trek reboots last week and that was the plot. Just started playing a new video game last night called Metaphor: ReFantazio and the narrator dreams of living in a fantasy world where peaceful coexistence leads to shared prosperity, but unfortunately in reality the various races are being attacked by weird tentacle monsters called “humans”*.
Thousands of stories have been written about this struggle** because it is a universal one: the struggle of people who want peace and prosperity for all, against the despots who want to annihilate everyone who isn’t them. And spoiler: the despots who want to subjugate everyone are never*** the good guys.
May everyone be treated like they treat other people in 2026.
oh, and p.s. here’s a christmas poem about hhs/cdc.
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* which is the kind of subtlety you’d expect from a game named METAPHOR.
** of peaceful coexistence vs despotic aggression, that is. although for that matter, thousands of stories have been written about weird tentacle monsters. so, maybe millions of stories about humanity vs. tyranny. not changing it now or it would invalidate this footnote.
*** with the few obvious exceptions being films famous for being made by nazis or being propaganda for the klan