I’ve dived back into my rabbit hole for the upcoming week, other than perhaps comedic takes on things. The hard news is so depressingly awful that I’m angry all the time, which is not my normal outlook. So, earphones during the news hour for me!
Share your plans for Tuesday.
My husband is away visiting the homeland, so I have full control of the household information stream. My plans for Tuesday are: no TV, no radio (after my alarm goes off in the morning), no internet. I’m going to split the day between doing volunteer work outdoors (pruning small street trees), reading on my detached Kindle, and working on chores. The physical efforts will, I hope, make me sufficiently tired that I will fall asleep with no problem that night.
Whatever happens, will happen without me observing it. If it’s good news, I can celebrate it on Wednesday. If it’s bad news, well, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Or as my father used to say, “don’t cry until you’re hurt.” (I feel sure I have typed these sentiments before, somewhere on this board, but at least not in this thread.)
Well said. C’est la vie.
I don’t think I can totally avoid the internet since I will be at work and our systems are internet based. I am going to try to avoid it as much as possible. I am planning on stopping at the library for a couple books to absorb my time and interest.
Good luck to us all!
I’m currently in Belgium with my husband. I’m planning to let the news find us as it will. 
I would be fine with this myself, but my wife, who is as anxious over this election as she has been about anything in her life (and she’s had cancer twice), couldn’t possibly. She will have to watch the coverage from as soon as she gets home from work until they call it, if they do, on Tuesday night.
She’s already been maxing out on her anti-anxiety meds for the last week. It’s going to be a tough few days until we know the outcome, and it won’t get better if, Og forbid, he wins.
(I’m pretty confident he won’t.)
Oh yes - anxiety meds!
I forgot I have them but will be klonopinning my way through the evening if needed.
I usually only take them when I travel or if I have a significant episode of anxiety. This counts as significant.
Same for my spouse. She’ll stay up until she can’t keep her eyes open any longer. I figure it won’t be over for several days as the counts keep going. At least the TV ads will disappear, as will the text pleas for more money. Then, depending on who wins, we’ll all have to deal with the stupid-fest that is the aftermath. I plan to vote on Tuesday, and that’s about it. The TV coverage is basically masturbation, as nothing can be announced until the polls close. Listening to “experts” blathering on about what-ifs doesn’t interest me in the least.
I plan to do this also. Whether I can stick to it remains to be seen.
But we should know what direction it’s heading anyway.
True enough. If it’s bad news, I’m going to have to give serious thought to how to black out the next four years. I’m already on several BP meds and I refuse to die before that fucker does.
I approve of this message.
I don’t have too many black out options but I guess if the worst happens I will just medicate and travel out of the country as much as possible.
My heart just can’t think this far ahead yet.
In my mind, a Harris victory is pretty much a foregone conclusion. I am still interested in seeing how lopsided the rout will be, though. I too am done with the pre-game hype and lead-up/build-up (this feels like a Super Bowl that has a bye month instead of bye week beforehand) but I will definitely be closely watching the results for highlights.
Lucky you! I love Belgium and I hope you are having a wonderful time.
Tomorrow my husband will be going to a local bar that has chess night and he’ll be playing there. I’ll be watching the hockey game and he’ll be home in time to watch the last part of that.
I’ll bring up the NYT’s running results for the races I care about.
I plan to be as Zen as I can about it all (‘let go or be dragged’). Allowing my personal mental and physical health to be adversely affected by this is a bad plan and I’ll do what I can to avoid that.
Hopefully I won’t have to be worried about being an American out in the rest of the world based on the outcome of this election, but I’ll deal with that if/when it comes.
A helpful mantra for many situations, not just this one. Thank you!
I’m a Canadian who usually follows US politics quite closely, both because l think it’s a good thing to have broad knowledge of the world and because my job is heavily tied to American businesses. For the last few weeks depression has been kicking my ass, and I’ve been less productive both at work and at home. I thought this was because of work difficulties, but yesterday I was so anxious it was disabling, and it became very clear that it was the election.
When I woke up today and saw the news I felt pessimistic about the US and the state of the world in general, but I also feel an immediate sense of relief, because as soon as I saw the election results I knew that I was done. All the time watching election news, or Trumps various civil and criminal cases, or reading election threads here and thinking and worrying about the state of the US has been wasted. Worse than wasted, it has been actively harming my mental and physical health. If I was in the US I might feel a sense of responsibility to continue donating and working to oppose the Republican playbook, but from here there is practically nothing I can do. So for at least the next 4 years I intend to fully disconnect from US politics and really probably the news in general and instead spend that time on hobbies and local issues. I’ve lurked here on and off since 2007 or so, and the next few years will be an off period. As much as I enjoy the Dope, it’s too heavily politics-focused for me to visit without getting drawn back in. So… good luck for the next few years everyone. I fear that we’ll need it.
Well said. And frankly the best prescription for a sizeable fraction of left-leaning Americans as well.
Living life as a doomscroller while doing nothing substantive about it is a) stupid and b) ineffective.
As a fellow Canadian, I agree. I’m so sick and tired of seeing “Trump” in every goddam headline on CNN. My approach for the next four years will be to basically avoid American news and focus on what CBC News has to say about domestic and global affairs. No doubt “Trump” will still come up a lot and I’ll just have to ignore it, but it won’t be as pervasive and depressing as American news.
It’s true that by avoiding American news I’ll be less informed about things going on in the US, but in the current circumstances I regard that as a good thing – at least, good for my mental health.
I’m seriously thinking of stopping my daily newspaper subscription. That would be a big deal for me: I’ve had a newspaper delivered daily to my residence for essentially my whole life. (My parents subscribed when I was a child.) But the thought of seeing that man on the front page regularly makes me sick.
Also, I’m gonna stop reading the P&E and BBQ Pit boards on this website, at least for a while.
I am deciding whether to detach myself from the internet for the next 4 years unless it’s absolutely necessary. Not sure if that is doable but it’s a thought.
Agreed.i have plans to seriously prune my FaceBook viewing to only a few family members and old friends that are far away.