I haven't even had a trick or treater come to my door in probably like 6 years. The 2 or 3 years before that, I was getting no more than 3 visits per year. This is the first year I've just straight up not even bought candy. Halloween is gone. I thought that after covid got under control, maybe there'd be a resurgence since it's an activity that kids can do together with their friends outside of home, meeting other kids and shit, and that was all very much taken for granted until people were stuck inside for two years. But nope. 24/7 news convinced parents that there are drugs and poison and razor blades in their treats, and the houses their kids visit will be inhabited by pedophiles and scary [insert dogwhistle]s, and some lunatic will either commit a mass shooting or drive over as many people as possible. No fun allowed.

We let the terrorists win. The domestic terrorists, specifically. We're afraid of what might happen, and nobody is doing anything to quell those fears, so we just hand over a little more liberty and freedom for the sake of supposed safety and security. What a boring dystopia.