I don’t want to watch late night talk show hosts complain about Trump anymore. I don’t want to read opinion pieces in the New York times. I don’t want to see endless idiotic conversations on social media. I don’t want to talk to people about it, regardless of whether I agree or disagree with their opinions.
Normally I like to keep up with the news and be able to form educated opinions about stuff but lately I just want to totally disconnect. Everything seems unjust, everything makes me mad and leaves me feeling helpless. Is avoidance a reasonable strategy or have you found a healthier way to deal with the relentless toxicity?
It’s been working for me since September 2016, when I saw the way things were going and decided to check out. Every once in a while I get sucked back in (sometimes on this message board), but I quickly realize that I am much better off just not knowing. Occasionally you get a weird reaction from someone talking about that oh-so-important tweet you’ve never heard of, but for the most part I’m fine being blissfully ignorant. I try to concentrate on the things I can change and improve in my own life – they cause me enough anxiety without having to worry about the fate of my country and the world as well.
It’s acceptable as long as you don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Not wanting to get bogged down in the minutae (like tweets) is fine, but at least stay plugged in enough to know what’s happening at the big picture level. Like, I don’t care what your political leanings are; it’s simply not cute when people of sound mind don’t know the wars and conflicts the country is actively involved in. IMHO, people who can’t be bothered to pay attention to stuff like this are dangerous; they are the same folks who will shrug their shoulders at any oppression and atrocity as long as it doesn’t happen in their neighborhood. Also, make sure that you keep in touch with what’s going on in your community. If you can’t be arsed to tune into the local news for 30 minutes, at least scan the front page of the local fish wrap so you’ll know whether a hurricane is coming for you.
Disconnect as much as possible. I find the Dope the least of my worries, believe it or not. That’s because it’s easy NOT to follow a political thread here. In contrast, I take a lot of Facebook breaks.
I follow the news via a couple of apps on my phone. I look at them maybe twice a day at the most. Sometimes I’ll catch part of the 11PM broadcast but if I don’t I’m fine.
If politics are your thing, I’m not going to hang out with you, even if we’re married or related.
In short, if you’re going to bang your political pulpit or make anxiety the star of your conversation, chances are I’m going to walk away. It’s not that I don’t care, but I do care very much about my own self-preservation.
It can go too far. One of my acquaintances said, in the run-up to the election, that he didn’t care at all who won. This, from a guy who works at NASA. If you can’t convince a guy whose job may literally directly depend on who wins that it matters, then something is seriously wrong.
My moods are better when I disconnect. And I’ll obviously vote in the next election.
But I waver on disconnection. I believe one of the tools the Russian government uses is overloading people until they give up and lose interest. That is happening here, but it isn’t intentional. Trump is like a crazy spouse you live with, You just disconnect to stay sane. Finding the right balance of disconnection combined with making sure they don’t burn the house down and make sure the divorce proceedings are still going through is difficult.
According to my therapist, hell yes. According to my panic attacks, somewhere between disconnect and just - staying mentally busy with other stuff. I have nasty anxiety disorder, so I get afraid that there’s going to be death camps or mass deportations (oh wait) or jailings or job losses (oh wait) so… I have to know how bad it is, but this last week that’s not been exactly helpful.
I’m going to try and disconnect again, but it’s so hard to be afraid of the other shoe dropping and then to just - try to ignore the shoe.
;(there’s also that I am already hugely privileged compared to some, and my issues are thus that I even have ‘passing privilege’ for many of those issues. So I feel GUILTY AS SHIT that I can’t hack being involved and active and protesting. It’s just another level of being silenced, and it sucks.)
I get my news online. I find it pretty easy to look at a headline and go “Nope! Not gonna read that one.” When the TV gets turned on, it’s generally nice calm things like horror movies on Netflix.
I went on a strict internet cleanse last December. It helped a lot and I don’t think I missed anything important. I still take the occasional internet free weekend now and then. I never watch cable news if I can help it, except the weather, which has been on a lot this last month. Or TV hardly at all. I don’t feel any worse off for sticking to books.
Oversaturation can be harmful, but at the other end, ignorance is not bliss; it’s vulnerability. Complete detachment from current events is never advisable.
I have stopped responding to every article in my FB feed. I also avoid a lot of SDMB threads.
In the real world, there is still a ton of shit raining down on us. Putting your head in the sand will avoid a lot of the crap, but the unfortunate reality is the shit will rain down harder and longer if good people keep their heads buried in the sand.
Everyday there is a new obscenity to deal with. Everyday honest, hardworking Americans have another example of a Trump or a Trump cabinet member spending American tax dollars on private planes, private golf courses and designer clothes.
Avoidance is a strategy, a lot of people that work for Trump use it daily. You are more than welcome to embrace that as a strategy to ignore what Trump is doing to your country and your democracy. Trump only gets stronger when he bullies people into avoiding confrontation. He will call you names, he will curse you, he will accuse you of disrespecting the American flag and veterans.
Yes, avoidance is a strategy, not a good one, but if you feel good about it, that is your right to ignore the hate and the rape that is happening around you. What ever you do, don’t piss off the bully. He might beat you up next.
I think it’s important to disconnect but not disengage. If you’re following 50 stories equally, then you don’t have the mental energy to commit to any one of them. Instead, pare it down to something like 3 issues that you really care about and try to make an active difference.
If you care about gay rights for example, then you already know that Trump was bad for them yesterday and he’s going to be bad for them tomorrow. The specific actions he makes today doesn’t affect on a tactical level what you should be doing to protect them.
Figure out a way you can make a local difference. Donate money to a cause, volunteer, contact your local representative, go to community meetings, educate and get educated. Even the smallest action is likely to be more than the median “outraged” person is doing on Facebook right now. I really think the smartest thing is to just pare down to a barebone set of issues, ignore everything else and trust that other people are fighting the good fight in other arenas, otherwise it’s just too mentally exhausting.
It bears repeating, and I’ll say it again (see Post #6): No matter how weary we all get of all the shit, we still gotta vote!!! AND, as best we can, get as many others as we can out to vote!
Yes, there is a dime’s worth (at least) of difference between the parties!
The more disgusted we get with it all, the more important it is, not less!
To be fair, if you’re here in the U.S. television news doesn’t devote more than a few minutes of airtime a day to our 7 wars, and our elected representatives never even mention it, much less try to do anything to stop them. Half the people I talk to don’t even know we’re at war or think it’s just a little scuffle with some small amount of troops left over in Afghanistan.
Whether the lack of war coverage in the news is the result of American ignorance and apathy for the subject, or our ignorance has been largely *caused by the lack of media attention is a chicken or egg exercise best left to the reader.
However, the situation is what it is; the only way you’re going to be informed on that topic is by actively seeking information about it on alternative media on the Internet, and most people simply don’t have any compelling reason to do so.
I remember Glenn Greenwald saying that the entire reason why we stopping paying attention to our foreign wars was Obama. When Bush was in office everyday the news would talk about his wars in the Middle East and we were seeing daily death counts. Then Obama came in and the news started to give Obama a pass, Iraq and Afghanistan were seen as “Bush’s Wars” and focused more on Obama’s domestic policies instead. When Obama started to bomb Libya and Somalia those too got a pass since the media enjoyed talking domestic policy more and the only times you ever heard of the wars under Obama were the “good” stories like Osamas killing. The worst thing the news media ever done according to Greenwald was relaxing under Obama.