A Year in Reading: Bill Morris

From the first weeks of this year to the last, I was distracted from news of the plague by news of’s nearly successful attempt to annihilate American democracy. Once I went down that rabbit hole, there was no climbing out. I couldn’t stop reading about Trump’s inflammatory speech on Jan. 6, which led to the storming of the Capitol, the rioting, the killings, the manhunts, the arrests, the trials. The distraction was sickening but, after a year of lockdown and anti-mask squabbling and unnecessary death, it was also a weird kind of relief. The drab drumbeat of Covid news gave way to the sporting his makeup, horned helmet, and hairy chest; with his boot resting on i’s desk; yokels waving Confederate flags; getting shot dead while trying to break down a door in the Capitol, then getting turned into a “martyr” and “murder victim” by people who believe they have a God-given right to storm federal property and overthrow an elected government. As the year draws to a close, my addiction shows no signs of abating. Today, for instance, I read every word about the sentencing of , the anti-Semitic white supremacist who got 19 months in prison (instead of the maximum 10 years) for online posts on the eve of the Capitol riot, urging like-minded citizens to “start up the firing squads, mow down these commies, and let’s take america back!” Two days after the riot, he posted a video entitled “KILL YOUR SENATORS.” Hunt claimed during his trial that his rants were harmless “online blathering.” He obviously fails to understand that words matter—and they can be deadly. And they carry a cost.