You Are Not Actually Required to Watch the Inauguration

Just because a Lincoln Project scold has a tantrum doesn't mean you need to commit psychic self-harm.

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I don’t know what you have planned for this coming Monday, but I, unfortunately, will be watching the second inauguration of Donald J. Trump. In truth, there are lots of things I’d rather do than tune in for a dispiriting display of fascistic pomp and circumstance, but I have a job that requires me to watch stuff like this, so there ya go. Sometimes life doesn’t give you choices.

You, on the other hand, probably do have a little more leeway in how you spend your Monday and can opt out of all this inauguration bullshit without putting your livelihood in jeopardy. Or, perhaps you don’t have that sort of leeway, but that lack of leeway in and of itself precludes your ability to watch the inauguration in the first place—if that’s what you really wanted to do.

My point is that skipping out on something as profoundly boring and existentially terrifying as another Donald Trump inauguration ceremony is perfectly alright. It doesn’t matter. You’re not missing anything that actually matters. At least, that’s what I think. But then again, I’m not one of the professional flag-shtuppers at The Lincoln Project, who evidently feel differently—enough to absolutely freak out at the rest of us about it.