Donald Trump has won the presidential election for the second time, and among the many people speaking out against him and his supporters is Ethel Cain, a musician who has spent much of her life living in and embracing the types of rural areas that tend to lean red. (“I will never be caught dead” living in NYC or LA, she once told the New York Times.) She posted separate lengthy statements to both her Tumblr and her Instagram stories. In the former, she writes, “If you voted for Trump, I hope that peace never finds you. Instead, I hope clarity strikes you someday like a clap of lightning and you have to live the rest of your life with the knowledge and guilt of what you’ve done and who you are as a person.” The full statement reads:
The problem is that America has beaten down its people for decades and gotten them weak and desperate and now promises a way out, a way to transcend and rise above, through selling out their fellow man. They encourage contempt and hatred as one way ticket to not being included with the masses being death marched to poverty or imprisonment or whatever other bitter end surely awaits the people they’re told are beneath them. An embarrassingly large chunk of white men are just straight up nazis these days as a way to dissociate from the rest of the carnage around them, even if they’re broke and uneducated and from an impoverished background themselves. They’ll vote for and align themselves with anything for a taste of power and control that makes them feel a little less helpless. The same goes for minorities. They’ll punch down if they think it’ll get them somewhere, even if in reality they’re punching sideways. I don’t know what else to say, really. Everybody is so incredibly hateful. We are a loveless, disrespectful nation. We are so spread thin by our government that we would sell each other out in a heartbeat for an ounce of relief. This is what we’ve come to.
It’s not even about Trump at this point. He’s gonna get in office and do whatever he does and it’s gonna be a mess but whatever. This is indicative of deeper problem. This is just the ugly consequence of the already present reality in this country that we all just despise each other. There is no solidarity and there is no love. Trump being in office or not doesn’t change the fact that America is a breeding ground for violent hatred. Trump has given people a shining example of how to give in to the worst parts of your human nature and make it the problem of everyone around them. I don’t even know what we’re supposed to do about that. I don’t know if that’s something we can come back from. And if anything COULD be done about it, Trump certainly wouldn’t do it. Honestly, Kamala probably wouldn’t have either. We are so deeply fucked.
However, I must say, if you voted for Trump, I hope that peace never finds you. Instead, I hope clarity strikes you someday like a clap of lightning and you have to live the rest of your life with the knowledge and guilt of what you’ve done and who you are as a person.
Love yall. Shit is so bleak but the world keeps spinning until it doesn’t, I guess. We can’t count on the government for literally even a shred of progress or hope so just keep up the good fight in your own personal lives. That’s literally the only thing to be done at this point. Stay safe out there. Maybe buy a gun.
On Instagram, Ethel added, “It’s dark and it’s sad but it’s no surprise. America runs on upholding the ‘traditional’ values of power and control over the masses. Your government does not care about you! At all! Just know that.”
“Help wherever you can,” she continues. “Whether it’s staying up late to be a shoulder to cry on, five dollars for a GoFundMe as you scroll past, or driving a cousin’s sister in law 4 states over for an abortion when she needs it. You have to be a human. You cannot give into apathy.” She also encourages people to vote in upcoming local elections. See her full Instagram post as well:
Ethel is gearing up to release Perverts on January 8 and lead single “Punish” is out now.