It’s as well to at least try focussing on the good things when you’re looking back over the year that’s ending. And, yes, I managed to eat my share of delicious pizzas over the past 12 months and not once did it lead to me being arrested. I also got to go and sell books at lot of different events, including several enjoyable new venues. And this year, the on-site bookshop will definitely undergo a proper relaunch.
In many ways, it’s been another horrible year: war, increasingly dangerous bigotry, even more dangerous government, collapsing infrastructure, increasing destitution and all the rest. Here and there, though, there have been little flickering reasons for hope, even now. There have been some fairly resounding rejections of noisy fuckwittery. A pretty good chance that Trump will be properly prosecuted. And various grifters who somehow managed to convince far too many people that they were demigods, superheroes and so on have been revealed to be petty losers who are nowhere near as smart as they think they are.
The absolute best example of this, of course, incel superstar and all-round shitbag Andrew Tate, the man who compounded his original pwning by Greta Thunberg by doxxing himself and getting hauled off in handcuffs. There will be those who say that the crimes Tate committed are not a matter for jokes and memes, but I believe that the whole internet laughing at him is something to be encouraged. Spiteful mockery of monsters who take themselves so seriously is always a good thing, not least because it hurts and infuriates them far more than outraged condemnation. It also shows how weak and ridiculous they really are, and can help turn their fans against them – difficult to hero worship someone who has made such an epic idiot of themselves with such immediate and satisfying consequences.
With any luck, the rest of the toxic wingnuts will get laughed back into their boxes in 2023. I wish you that – and plenty of pizza.