Parental Dissent

The Renee Good tragedy is the latest bit of "politics" we should all be paying attention to

As we enter a new year, I was planning to write about anxiety and the many reasons—both micro and macro—that it is currently through the roof, even for those of us who don’t typically suffer from it.

Then the new year began.

I started drafting this before I saw the Trump administration rewrite the story of January 6th on the official White House website, once again telling us that President Trump called for peace and that the “radical left Democrats” and Capitol law enforcement were the ones who incited violence.

I started drafting this before ICE shot and killed a woman in Minnesota for trying to drive away, and before President Trump and JD Vance and Kristi Noem blatantly lied about what happened, and before the MAGA propaganda machine kicked into gear to help sanitize and spin and flat-out fabricate a new version of the incident that we can all see on video.

“Anxiety” was after Venezuela but before Renee Good. “Anxiety” was after the ongoing Epstein Files cover-up but before the January 6th whitewashing. “Anxiety” was after the constant lying but before the latest lies.

Anxiety has given way to outrage and terror.

In the face of all of this tragedy and turmoil, much of which is the predictable materialization of the fears we had before Donald Trump was elected (both times, but particularly for this harrowing and interminable second term), we should all be outraged and terrified.

Speaking as a father of two children, and as someone who has built an online brand around parenting, I am always concerned about the future I’m leaving my children, and right now that future has never felt more at risk. All parents, especially parents of black and brown and LGBTQ kids—not that ICE or MAGA discriminates: if you’re not with them, they’re against you, simple as that—have little choice but to be focused on what’s happening.

Dad and Buried began as an outlet for my anxieties and frustrations and jokes about parenting, and I often get complaints when my humor-centric platforms feature political content. In the past, I could easily refute them with a quick scroll that shows a small percentage of political posts in a sea of parenting jokes.

But as our day-to-day lives are increasingly dominated by a constant barrage of bad news, my page has seen a rise in content about what’s going on in the world. From the Epstein Files (about raping children) and mass shootings (about killing children) to ICE (about deporting children and/or their parents) and geopolitical conflict (about the world our children are growing up in). All of it impacts parents and kids; the mere act of having kids demands that you pay attention to the world those kids are living in. Parenting is inherently political.

I never intended my social media pages or even this Substack to be so focused on politics, but I won’t apologize for it.

Nobody parents in a vacuum, and if you’re not concerned about what’s going on and the ramifications it will have for your kids, you don’t need a humor page, you need a wake-up call. Now more than ever, politics impacts all our lives, at almost every level. If you are blind to or somehow able to ignore that impact, you are coming from a place of ignorance and/or privilege. I both envy you and await the day when you realize that you too no longer have the luxury of hiding your head in the sand.

There is no avoiding this shitstorm, and eventually it’s going to envelop you, whether you like it or not.

I would LOVE to stop writing about the disintegration of America and instead focus on making silly quips about my kids waking up too early. But that’s not only impossible, it’s irresponsible, even for a “micro-influencer” like me. I’m not egocentric enough to think my memes or missives make a difference, but I won’t sit by and pretend everything is hunky-dory for me and my kids or for you and yours.

How could I, after the awful incident in Minnesota, and the appalling response from the government?

Renee Good had a 6yo and two teenagers. She had stuffed animals in her glove compartment for the 6yo that she was dropping off at school when she encountered masked ICE agents. She was waving their vehicles past as she tried to turn around and leave, surrounded by faceless thugs looking for any excuse to use the guns they’d been gifted by an administration bent on terrorizing its own people.

We’ve all seen what happened, and despite what Trump’s mouthpieces keep repeating, even as they prevent Minnesota state officials from properly investigating the incident, we know it wasn’t self-defense. We know she wasn’t a paid agitator. We know the ICE agent isn’t in the hospital. We know they’re lying, and they know we know they’re lying. And yet it continues.

JD Vance blamed the violent left and said ICE would start going “door to door” to seek out illegal immigrants. Minneapolis has closed their schools in response to the danger and chaos ICE poses to the community. Do you still think this has nothing to do with parenting?

The people ICE is terrorizing and jailing and shipping off to foreign countries, 73% of them with no criminal record, have children too, but don’t worry, over 3800 kids under the age of 18 have been detained as well. It’s painfully ironic that ICE purports to target “the worst of the worst” while living up to that billing themselves.

Our soldiers, many of whom may well be Trump’s “boots on the ground” in Venezuela, are someone’s kids. If they implement a draft (as some suspect), those kids could be mine, or yours. Not to mention the families in Venezuela—and Cuba, and Colombia, and Greenland, according to our deranged president—who will be caught in the crossfire. Do you still think this has nothing to do with parenting?

As we watch the Trump administration continue to get away with pretty much everything—from starting wars without Congressional approval to murdering our own citizens on the streets—it’s impossible not to wonder what’s left to stop them? Certainly not their better angels (though, according to the New York Times’ terrifying interview with the president, that seems to be all we can hope for), and apparently not Congress, which has utterly abandoned us.

All we can do is continue to raise our voices, keep screaming like hell for our politicians to step up, and do whatever we can to protect our kids as our so-called leaders plunge us further into an uncertain and unstable future.

Anyone paying attention knows there aren’t many safe spaces left, and I’m sorry if my funny parenting feed was one of yours. I’ll continue to crack jokes—I’ll go crazy if I don’t—but I’m more than willing to sacrifice a little comfort to fight a regime that is interested in little besides sowing chaos and reaping its rewards.

I hope you are too.