My turbo-lib friend hosts a variety show at a local bar with lit readings, short films, poetry, and comedy. It's always the same "variety."

Tubby comedienne in coveralls reading jokes about her Lexapro prescription off her phone. Interchangeable poets with terf bangs and septum piercings crying and vocal frying over Gaza. 40yo failed novelist who "transitioned" right around the time his MeToo accusers started to crawl out of the woodwork. A basket passed around for Planned Parenthood or a mutual aid thing for someone's fake service dog's polyp removal.

"This next reader's latest short story appeared in Shitdick Monthly..."

"Did you read my Letterboxd review?"

"Our next reader has blogged for Jimmy Fallon dot com. Give it up for..."

"Oh I'm only on BlueSky now."

I've attended for years to be a bro, and it was excruciating every time. But at last night's event, something finally unlatched within me.

Last night, still in the afterglow of Trump's win, all I could do was marvel at how oblivious these people are to what's happening right now, how essentially OVER it is for the millennial hipster prog. The vibe has been pulled out from under them. They think they'll recover from Kamala's loss. They don't know this was bigger than Kamala. Bigger than Trump, even.

Fifteen years ago it felt like these people were, despite their bad politics, witty and interesting. I wanted their approval, even though they were mostly dumpy losers. Over time, it became obvious that the bright young things weren't so bright after all. But they were still on top.

Maybe it's because I've started hanging out IRL for the first time with right-wingers in my city who are, to my surprise, mostly good-looking, healthy, optimistic, hilarious, and successful.

In contrast, last night I put on the They Live glasses and saw ugliness and incuriosity on every face. I realized that not only do I not respect these people and don't want to be like them, I don’t even want to be around them anymore. Maybe it took Trump winning for me to finally admit to myself that things could really be different someday.

It'll take another decade for their grip on cultural production to fully break, but it's over. Anyone who's paying attention can see the cracks.