This is the energy we need right now
In which MSNBC anchor Symone Sanders-Townsend expresses what we all should be expressing everywhere all the time
If you haven’t watched this clip yet, do it now! It takes about 20 seconds and is quite satisfying.
When I first saw it, I was shocked. A news anchor expressing outrage? WHAT??? My next thought was “a news anchor offering a description of our reality with the appropriate emotion? WOW!!!”
Thank you, Symone Sanders-Townsend. Thank you for being a thinking, feeling, courageous human being who will not be gaslighted.
Let’s talk about courage.
Ms. Sanders-Townsend is courageous not just because she’s showing us what it is with her energy, voice, and body. She’s courageous because she is a Black woman. And, predictably, once the oppositional comments started coming in on her Instagram post, she was an angry Black woman. Which we all know is not allowed.
Angry Black people? TERRIFYING. Angry women? TERRIFYING. Anger on the air? “She’s losing it.”
Which makes Ms. Sanders-Townsend’s courage all the more potent. Because many people expect her and people like her to protect them from her humanity — her body, her thoughts, her emotions. That is, many people are cowards. Nevertheless (to quote Mitch McConnell in his failed attempt to silence Elizabeth Warren), Ms. Sanders-Townsend let ‘er rip on the air. Which wasn’t just courageous. It was also trusting.
That is, Ms. Sanders-Townsend embodies an expectation that all human beings deserve: the expectation that others can handle her emotions. The belief that she gets to be who she is and people around her won’t collapse from their fear and cowardice. It seems to me that Ms. Sanders-Townsend both trusts herself and trusts others. Which is a magnificent feat given her high profile, her gender, and her skin color.
Model for all us women out here, anyone?
OK. Let’s talk about insanity for a second.
Ms. Sanders-Townsend is absolutely correct: Insanity happens when you break with reality. When your relationship with reality is inaccurate, disjointed, ungrounded in universally shared facts and experiences. “They are asking us not to believe our own eyes and our own ears,” says Ms. Sanders-Townsend. “They are asking us to go against everything that we know to be true.” They are asking us to go insane.
“They” being our gaslighting administration. Gaslighting purposely and sadistically attempts to cause a break in reality, to cause someone to feel “crazy.” And feckless victims of gaslighting tend to deliver. But what about the gaslighters? I mean, if you willingly contradict “everything that we know to be true” so you can achieve complete control over a person or a nation, doesn’t that mean you have broken with reality? Doesn’t that make you insane?
Amendment 25, anyone?
Because she’s courageous and spectacularly sane, Ms. Sanders-Townsend will have NONE OF IT.
And let’s talk about outrage.
When you are being gaslighted, the appropriate emotion is — outrage. Something like HOW DARE YOU FUCK WITH ME? HOW DARE YOU TELL ME WHAT I PERCEIVE? HOW DARE YOU FOIST ONTO ME YOUR CREEPY, INSANE NEED TO CONTROL? I WILL NOT BE USED IN THIS WAY. Furthermore, I WILL SHOVE YOU BACK WITH THE ENERGY AND FORCE YOUR AGGRESSION REQUIRES.
Ms. Sanders-Townsend cannot shove Trump or his minions. But she damn well can slam her palms on the table top. And she can describe reality with the emotion — the energy and force — that pushes gaslighting and gaslighters back.
If we’re not going to be feckless victims of the incredibly aggressive and malicious gaslighting executed by our current administration, we need to feel and express this outrage.
At bottom, I honor Ms. Sanders-Townsend as being a very normal, well-adjusted, mentally healthy individual. She is modeling for all of us the energy we need right now.
What do you think? I’d love to hear! (I admit, though: Cowards are discouraged.)
