MY VIOLENT HEART, 2026
February 2026
THE WARNING was a huge success of a project. When I made it, I didn’t even think I’d get it printed. When I decided to make 125 zines two weeks before the Fort Worth show in September, I didn’t think it would make big waves. I certainly didn’t expect for people to sell me out of stock over and over, all while I provided a free download link. Most beautiful of all, THE WARNING has grown wings and has been all over the world, even distributed at NIN shows and protests I’m not present for. While it still speaks plenty to today, I knew I had to follow it up for the 2026 NIN tour cycle with another zine. Thankfully, Year Zero, an album that released in 2007 foretelling the state of society some 15 years in the future, has plenty of songs that have unfortunately come true in poignant, surprising ways. I even struggled to pick just one, before settling on MY VIOLENT HEART.
THE WARNING was a call for attention, but MY VIOLENT HEART is a rallying cry. A cry to believe in yourselves, to believe in us, because we are all we have. I chose this song because I have never considered myself an angry person, I’ve certainly never been in a physical fight, but now I am a person consumed with a rage. An anger that feels almost sacred. A fire that burns within me, crying out that we have been wronged, that we deserve better, no, we demand better. Wrapped in this scream for justice is the white-hot root of love for my fellow people. I heard that everyone had the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and I took that personally, you know? I don’t need to know you to know you matter and you’re worth fighting for.
My mission for this piece was to show that here in America, the system is not broken, it’s working exactly as intended. This is how they always meant for it to be. The land was forcibly stolen from the native American people while killing them off, erasing countless stories of our human history on this continent. Slavery was never abolished, and police are still the echo of slave catchers. The Gestapo learned from Jim Crow laws. I featured the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 as a way to highlight that white fragility is a constant, and it is dangerous. It was always in America’s bones to be this way, and I don’t know if there’s a way to fix it without some major deconstruction. In order for non-violence to work, your opponent has to have a conscience, and America has none (to loosely quote Stokely Carmichael). We did not get here overnight, not by a long shot, and I will never forgive the people who voted for this despite all the warnings. I remember so clearly crying to my family in 2016 saying, “People will die”, and was told I was being dramatic.
And now here we are. The use of chemical warfare against our own citizens. Lethal force in the street, without any semblance of trial or consideration, all in the name of ‘your safety’ and ‘freedom’. A Democratic party who seeks compromise in the form of labelling the vans they kidnap and disappear people into, a joke we made a decade ago. Just like Republicans, they’re swimming in AIPAC money and the will of Israel has effectively purchased their compliance. Right-wing pundits and podcasters have thrived on instilling people with fear and outrage and now feign ignorance at the effect they’ve had on the populace. Some of them have seemingly switched sides, much to our collective surprise. Well, one of them switched from the side of the living to the dead. It’s what he would have wanted for gun rights, to be fair.
Both our ever-echoing history and the stars in the sky agree that something big is coming this year. Can you hear it now?
I know the only way we get through this is by forming bonds and community and carrying one another. Found family is real family.
Don’t lose your heart, but don’t lose your rage. And don’t forget Epstein.
Store listing coming soon, and
