My mind wanders, it always has. Recently, it has been wandering to possible silver linings and just-so explanations, because I need one, really badly.
What if Trump is president because time travelers came back to change history?
What if, in the original timeline, Hillary won the election and served for four years. In the next election, the backlash against her was so extreme that the next president is as bad as we can imagine plus he’s smart, calculating and effective. That sort of despot could destroy everything.
So, what if time travelers came back to 2016, to change history. The thinking being that it was backlash against a president Hillary Clinton that brought about the worst possible president, so the fix is that anyone else had to be elected. Back in the 2016 to which time travelers came, we think Russians hacked the election, because time travelers did it and they are crafty. Sure, they could have tried for someone smarter, more experienced, better at PR, but they were trying to avoid a slick despot. From that perspective, a useful idiot probably seemed like just the ticket.
We’re now in a whole different timeline, with other sorts of problems, but at least we avoided the fate we might have endured.
Ridiculous? Probably. It’s still less ridiculous than the 12 Monkeys show. I’m just filling my brain with something specific to avoid catastrophizing and the depression that goes with it.
I feel like there is a game in this somewhere, but someone better at games might have to help out. 