Starbucks Barista at the Register (hereinafter referred to as “SBATR”): “Hello. How are you today?”

Pejman of the United States (hereinafter referred to as “POTUS,” because, let’s face it, no matter how much you may dislike me, it would constitute a gigantic f***ing improvement over the status quo and the more common version of that acronym): “How am I? Donald Trump says that he is going to send troops here [in Chicago—ed.]. So, I am not all that great. How are *you* today?”

SBATR: “Well, I am just glad that it is Friday. What can I get you?”

Look, I know that this guy had to make sure he kept the line moving. But my statement should have elicited at least a *scintilla* of outrage. Instead, all it elicited was the moral equivalent of, “meh, what are you going to do?” Which means that either, (a) my general oratorical skills and my specific ability to ask rhetorical questions that drip with sulfuric acid is dissipating, or (b) an alarming degree of apathy has descended upon SBATR’s mindscape, and may have descended upon the mindscapes of way-the-Hell-too-many* Americans.

At the risk of being immodest, I highly doubt that (a) represents anything resembling a realistic reason as to why I encountered said alarming degree of apathy at one of my frequent Starbucks stops. So, I am guessing—and frankly, you very likely should too—that at the very least, the first part of (b) applies.

And maybe the second part of (b) as well.

Let me close this social media cri de coeur by paraphrasing Sterling Archer: Do you want fascism? Because this is how you get fascism.

*That’s an actual number. And if it isn’t, it ought to be.