One minute and 55 seconds into the music video for “Pink Pony Club,” Chappell Roan, resplendent in a sequined bodysuit and glittering jacket, slides down the floor of a country bar and reaches her hand up to the sky, smiling. There is something about this moment that I have wanted to see over the past week. I have played and replayed this video every day since the 2024 election, according to my own YouTube watch history.

This video is a “comfort watch” for me, I suppose, in that I generally feel better after I watch it than I did before, by simply following the story Roan is trying to tell. Comfort watches are consumable security blankets. Other things can become comfort items, too: comfort foods, comfort outfits, comfort songs. None of this is new. But what does it mean to seek comfort content now, after U.S. voters chose Trump’s authoritarianism and cruel promises of revenge to lead the country?

In between replays of “Pink Pony Club” and raiding my freezer for snacks, I reached out to Karen Cerulo, a sociologist and professor emeritus at Rutgers, whose 2006 book Never Saw It Coming looks at the socio-cultural reasons why some people and communities struggle so much with imagining the worst case scenario. Cerulo’s own comfort routines are “too many to mention: Cooking--especially pasta (I'm Italian), an extra dry martini, talking with like-minded friends, losing myself in good movies or series.”

If “comfort” is defined as easing pain or distress — Cerulo added “bringing calm and peace to oneself” to my working definition — then consuming comforting things is the easiest and quickest form of it that might be accessible to people after something awful happens. Eating, say, 25 mozzarella sticks in 3 days might be part of an emergency comfort routine to calm emotions that are spinning out of control. At least this is what I am telling myself and my stomach.

“Remember, my work argues that most people do NOT anticipate the worst,” Cerulo said. For the majority of people, those not operating off of the assumption that the worst case scenario will come true, there’s simply a need for more comfort after something awful happens.

And this is probably the norm, she said. “You are a product (as am I) of a culture that values hope and optimism.”

There’s nothing wrong with seeking easy, consumable comfort right now. But there’s a problem if that’s the end of someone’s response to a terrible event. Ideally, “we use optimism as a way to build recovery communities.” Cerulo said.

“We try to collectively pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, and find a way to continue on the path we were walking be it a political goal, and educational goal, conflict resolution, etc.”

The day after Trump’s re-election was beautiful in Baltimore, unlike the rainy day that followed his first successful run for President. My friend Wilson and I walked for five miles last week. We sat by the harbor and chatted about how trans people used to access HRT before it was more widely available. We walked through a park, serene but showing signs of drought, and talked about why we would stay in the United States, and what we can offer to our communities and each other. We drank coffee by the library and beers in a converted church. An older woman was meditating by the pond. Couples walked past us, quietly chatting to themselves. Maybe they were talking about some of the same things we were. There is comfort in this, too.

What I’m reading, watching, playing, and hearing:
Meta automatically added a chatbot to a mushroom foraging group and it’s going great (404 Media)

Can cadavers make it easier for patients to find bone marrow donor matches? (Wired)

Slowly working my way through this list of recommendations for anti-fascist metal bands (Tiktok/@metalandcoffee)

My DnD DM introduced me to Tsuro last week, a super fun board game that’s like chutes and ladders combined with bumper cars, plus dragons.

Quick note: Golden Idol Milkshake is always going to remain free for my own sanity. That being said, I am playing around with Buttondown’s options for offering a pay-what-you-want subscription for those who are inclined to give me money lol, and it’s been a bit buggy, if I’m honest. So if you see an option for a “premium” subscription at the end of this email, feel free to ignore it. There’s no extra paywalled content here, my dudes.