I have tried, for the duration of this election, to stay informed, without being obsessive. It hasn’t been easy. The media has been frenzied, at best, particularly as they cover Donald J. Trump. Early on, cable news networks aired entire Trump events before he was even his party’s nominee. They created an unhealthy demand for “news” that they were more than happy to supply. There is no escape.

People who care about this election, which is to say most people, have also become frenzied. At times, I see people reacting to the election online and I want to say, “Get ahold of yourselves.” There is an almost dark, sexual energy to how people talk about the portent Donald Trump, as if they are both disgusted and excited about each new terrible revelation about the Republican candidate. I watch these people and wonder why they are surprised, how they can be surprised.

We knew everything we needed to know about Mr. Trump when he said Mexicans were rapists and when he called for barring Muslims from entering the country. We knew exactly who he was years ago when he was a reality television spectacle and we knew exactly who he was as he cycled from one marriage to the next. Each new revelation simply reminds us that Mr. Trump is exactly who he appears to be.

The closer we get to the election, the more I see people on social media rending their garments about how terrible 2016 has been and how terrible this election is, sharing tired jokes about Nov. 8 as the end of the world. In some ways, I understand the frenzy, the panic, the obsession over this election. It is a hell of a thing to see fascism being so robustly embraced by so many Americans.