Well, these past two years have been a long, strange trip. Whether our political climate has led you to become more active in our society’s affairs or make a difference in our local community, one thing is for certain: we all have many, many questions. So, no matter if you identify on the left, the right, or nowhere at all, some of us can’t help but wonder – what is life like on the other side? And, why do people make the choices they make?
Enter: Meet the Deplorables: Infiltrating Trump America, a book by journalist Harmon Leon and political cartoonist, Ted Rall. The team joined forces to answer the burning question: “Just what the hell exactly happened in 2016 and how did we get here?” As the duo goes deep undercover and journeys into the human psyche, the book is insightful, honest, raw, and eye-opening. There’s humor and some surprises. Quite a few individuals sport real-time “Make America Great Again” tattoos (yes, really) to Ted’s own personal run-in with Trump pre-political run (and features the best boss in history).
So, tonight at Pete’s Candy Store (709 Lorimer Street), you can hear it straight from the sources: real-time stories about Trump’s America. From going undercover at anti-Muslim meetings (they sure do love cookies) to pretend-praying in tongues at an American Horror Story-esque Hell House, there’s big takes from these weird-but-true experiences:
I vigorously nodded my head.
“If you can pray in tongues, even better,” he added.
After a moment, I replied, “Okay.” Pray in tongues? How does one even do that … without laughing? I decided to make rapid gibberish noises with my mouth while throwing in some lyrics from the Styx song “Mr. Roboto.”
And, these two aren’t short on observational humor. Rall and Leon are holding a mirror up to a facet in our contemporary culture. They provide a fresh eye-opening look at these small right-wring subcultures that spread disinformation amongst themselves. With humor, artwork, and on-point commentary, the results are illuminating for our current times. So, pack it in for an evening full of storytelling from a different world inside our own.
RSVP to the event on Facebook.
Meet the Deplorables: Infiltrating Trump America
Pete’s Candy Store | 709 Lorimer Street
Friday February 2nd, 7-9 pm, FREE