My thoughts on the state of the US and why we all need to scream.
A couple weeks ago, the world got heavier than I could handle alone. I have a history of depression and I’ve learned to recognize when I’m starting to spiral, so I reached out to a friend, who invited me over for emergency wine. While there, I noticed something I’d almost bought at Barnes & Noble a few days earlier:
Specifically, a 3-inch plastic goat that screams when you press it. It’s completely silly and impractical, which is why I didn’t buy it for myself. But when I saw it in her living room, I immediately regretted leaving it at the store. After that evening, I trudged through my week, trying my best to not let the horrors of the world overwhelm me (impossible). When I got a text at the end of the week that the same friend was outside my door, I was happy for the company. When she said she brought me a gift, I was touched by her kindness.
Then she pulled out my very own screaming goat!
The moment she left, I recorded this:
Several people (who I can only assume live a dark, joyless life) asked why anyone would want a plastic screaming goat. “What’s the point?” one person asked.
What’s the point? The point is that we’re drowning in a constant barrage of horrifying news with no end in sight. Even worse is that my international friends say our media is barely scratching the surface on what’s truly happening and how the world is reacting. The US is in a media blackout along the lines of Russia, Hungary, and other authoritarian regimes but because we’re so used to news reaching us the moment it happens, most people have no idea, nor do they suspect we’re not getting the full story. We don’t know what we don’t know.
Friends from other countries advise using a VPN to read the BBC, Al Jazeera, and others; to use “.co.uk” to be sure to get the real British BBC. (My computer promptly kicks me back to .com, which is why a VPN is needed.) And this has nothing to do with political bias — all mainstream media is censoring itself.
For those who aren’t as chronically online as I am, here are a few issues that should be front page news:
›› Since the latest batch of Epstein files were released, foreign heads of state, leaders of corporations, and royalty are resigning, being fired, and stripped of their titles. The people in those countries can’t believe our leader is still in control.1 We are failing the victims who have risked their safety and privacy to speak out against those who abused and tortured them.
›› ICE is kidnapping and murdering people in US streets, children are missing school, and immigrants are terrified to leave their homes. Underground networks are meeting the need by grocery shopping, standing vigil at school pick-up and drop-off, and monitoring their neighborhoods all in an effort to keep their neighbors — many of whom they didn’t know before ICE descended into their communities — safe. The violence in Minnesota didn’t lessen down because we stopped hearing about it; the media stopped covering it. And now ICE is in Detroit, snatching people and leaving their cars running on the side of the road.2
›› The SAVE Act — which on the surface is a voter ID law — threatens to disenfranchise married women, financially unstable individuals, and those who cannot vote in person. The law requires proof of citizenship along with an ID, and for married women who’ve changed their last name, their birth certificates and driver’s licenses do not have the same last name. A passport would be accepted, but not everyone has one and since the State Department fired over 1000 people, specifically those who handle passports, the wait times for a new passport could take months longer than it used to. Not to mention that requiring a citizen to pay for documents in order to vote is a poll tax and therefore unconstitutional. Also, because the large majority of men have never changed their name, this is discrimination against those who have.
Numerous people have insisted that the Real ID is an accepted form of identification for voting, but it doesn’t show proof of citizenship and non-citizens are allowed to apply for the ID.3
›› Finally, AI is chugging our water supply faster than it could ever be replenished. For every fun picture of a pet dressed in a silly costume, a community has that much less water to drink.4
So what can we do? Besides contacting your representatives (5calls.org makes it super easy), talking to your friends and loved ones, protesting if you feel safe, and voting in November — look out for your neighbors. Check in on the people you care about and the people whose names you don’t know but whose existence overlaps yours. Together we’re what makes this country great, and together we can hold onto our humanity in the face of fascism.
Find joy wherever you can.
With all this going on, why am I telling you about a toy goat? Because it makes me laugh. Because during those two seconds my goat is screaming, I’m not thinking about abused children or losing voting rights or people being kidnapped off our city streets.
The goat screams for all of us.
Maybe you agree with the internet stranger who thinks a screaming goat is pointless. That’s totally fine. But I believe it’s important that we all have an outlet for the rage and grief and horror that’s festering inside us. Maybe you prefer a quiet hobby like painting or knitting. Perhaps you like to sweat out your frustration (big fan of biking here!). Or maybe you channel that energy into protesting and volunteering and doing what others can’t by speaking up and making sure the US doesn’t go down without a fight. If settling in with an endless stream of cat videos is the only thing that releases cortisol, then do that!
I’ll be doing a bit of all of those — watercolor painting, biking, speaking out, and watching adorable pets — so that I make sure I survive when this all comes to an end.
- https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-publishes-35-million-responsive-pages-compliance-epstein-files ↩︎
- https://www.reddit.com/r/TwinCities/comments/1r52vkc/ice_isnt_leaving_mn/ ↩︎
- https://www.michigan.gov/sos/license-id/real-id ↩︎
- https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117 ↩︎
