“I’m coming to Boston, I’m bringing hell with me.” —Tom Homan, “border czar” and former performing director of ICE

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Hell shouldn’t be a lake of fireplace, neither is it composed of the circles Dante envisioned, like an toddler’s stacking toy.

It’s not “The Dangerous Place” of sitcom fame, although it’s simple to think about some within the present administration taking notes on sizzling canine torture and butthole spiders.

It’s not the Hellmouth, neither is it one of many darkish parallel universes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as a lot as a few of us wish to consider we’ve shifted into an alternate actuality.

Hell is as foundational as smallpox blankets and pedophile monks, as petty as a MAGA-festooned pickup that “rolls coal” on a passing Prius.

Hell is waking up one morning and feeling like your rights had been stripped away in a single day, solely to understand it’s been taking place regularly over your lifetime—and for a lot of that point, all you probably did to attempt to cease it was vote.

Hell is realizing that most people you voted for, even these you actually admired, weren’t constructed for a disaster like this and aren’t coming to save lots of you.

Hell is the new pink WOMEN FOR TRUMP flag that appeared on a neighbor’s home 5 months in the past, however it’s additionally the period of time you spend fantasizing about methods you can deface it.

Hell has come for the scientists who stand helpless because the NIH and the CDC are dismantled, and hell has additionally come for anybody in want of a medical breakthrough. Hell is dashing to make amends for vaccinations for worry they are going to be eradicated in these new Darkish Ages. Hell is a future the place our damaged medical system will appear to be paradise in comparison with what awaits us.

Hell is realizing you might be now not that afraid of spiders, as a result of there’s a lot extra to worry.

Hell is for everybody because the wealthiest man on the earth dismantles Social Safety. Hell is concurrently watching your 401(okay) tank and realizing that you’ll have to work till you drop—or till AI replaces you.

Hell is questioning for those who ought to attempt to go away the nation, and realizing that nowhere shall be secure on this new world order. Hell is knowing that, for all of your fancy phrases and concepts, you might be actually simply an animal caught in a lure.

Hell is loathing weapons and questioning for those who ought to learn to shoot one.

Hell is knowing that they’re coming for ladies’s proper to vote, and hell can be making an attempt to determine learn how to take care of the ladies you already know who voted for this.

Hell is a brand new season of The Handmaid’s Story dropping at this second in time.

Hell has come for trans individuals who simply needed to reside their greatest lives, however it is going to quickly be right here for everybody, together with the cis ladies who purchased the lie that trans of us had been their biggest threats.

Hell is watching cat movies on YouTube for an hour after listening to the day’s grim information, simply to carry your anxiousness down. Hell is watching outdated movies of the Treatment and questioning for those who ought to have been operating for workplace as a substitute of dancing at Goth golf equipment.

Hell is right here, in Boston, in the way in which a girl’s voice goes unnaturally excessive as she strangles a shriek when surrounded by six masked individuals in plainclothes who declare to be police. Hell inhabits the place in your coronary heart the place you’re feeling her worry.

Hell is a virus infecting these simply following orders, too ashamed or afraid to indicate their faces.

Hell is within the dystopian choreography that strikes the six masked individuals in a circle across the lady, earlier than they pressure her into an unmarked automobile. Hell is that circle.

Maybe, in spite of everything, Dante wasn’t to this point off.