Lost in the Twilight Zone

 

It’s funny: everyday I collect news stories on topics I want to write about. In the last week or so, I just keep setting them aside.

I feel like I’m wandering around in the Twilight Zone.

Or, a more up-to-date type experience: I’m in the Upside Down and can’t find my way out.

I’ve written about this before but it seems every day news items are more mind blowing.

The midterms are in less than two weeks.  Almost everywhere it seems that qualified candidates are in a virtual dead-heat with mind-dead, tRump parroting, ultra-right-wing conservatives. And why? I still don’t get it.

In Georgia, voters have a current senator now that is a thoughtful, rational, and even better yet, Christian minister in Raphael Warnock. Yet many are going for brain damaged or just flat-out stupid Hershel Walker.  Not only has he been lying and making ridiculously stupid remarks, Mr. Pro Life has at least 2 women publicly testifying he wanted them to abort his babies with them. In normal times, this would be a total deal breaker for Mr. Walker.  Apparently, the Upside Down is now known as the “New Normal” where it’s OK to be a fool, a liar and a hypocrite as long as you are a Rethuglican.

In Pennsylvania, there’ve been positive and negative takes on Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s debate with snake oil salesman Dr. Oz.  Fetterman had a major stroke less than 6 months ago and is doing amazingly well in his recovery.  He still has some processing issues and needed some accommodation for the debate, to have the questions in text for him to read.  Dr. Oz has been in hot water for his many erroneous medical claims.  Not only that, he doesn’t even live in PA.  In spite of all that, major media is all gloom and doom about Fetterman.  It’s depressing.  The man is intelligent and has some great ideas; Dr. Oz panders to the tRumpers.  His most recent statement during the debate was that a woman’s reproductive care should be up to the woman, her doctor and, oh yeah, local legislators. 

In all the other battleground states, decent Democratic candidates or office holders are struggling to keep even with inept Rethuglicans endorsed by tRump—and some of these clowns are just evil.  Why? Because Rethuglican millionaire/billionaires are pouring in ad money to support the idiots on the Rethug ticket.

A sense of simple decency and kindness barely exists online at all.

I can’t look at major media anymore.  The headlines are infuriating and depressing as Democrats & President Biden are bashed without quarter and tRumpers are fawned over like they’re gods.  No wonder they walk around arrogantly broadcasting their anti-Semitic, racist, ugly views. There’s no blowback. Their own party members won’t say anything and, surprisingly, neither will the Democrats.

The Democratic leadership has been asleep at the wheel almost the entire time President Biden has been in office.  There have been so many blown opportunities for talking points to connect with voters.  It’s like that whole party has OD’d on Valium or something.

I set aside topics I want to write about because going down those roads would only serve to make me more discouraged.  There are only 2 weeks to the election and I want to keep a flame of hope kindled.  From now until the election is over, I’m going to set news aside and just focus on job hunting and writing for NaNoWriMo in November.  If we do have a blue wave or tsunami, I can write about things that need to be changed.  If we don’t, it won’t matter because we won’t have a democracy anymore.

Why Are So Many People Dumb?

 

Lately I’ve only scanned headlines from Daily Sound & Fury because they give me agita.  Many of the articles are filled with capitalized paragraphs and that makes me feel like someone’s yelling at me.  The other reason I don’t read through articles anymore is because there’s a sense of hysteria to them.  It’s pretty clear they want their readers to get riled up.

Having said that, I was intrigued by one of their articles and followed the link to the website.  The article didn’t shout at me and didn’t do anything more but give more information about why so many people are dumb.  Check it out.  It’s pretty enlightening. Made Stupid.

Back from a worthwhile read?  I wonder what everyone thinks about the points made in the article?  I think about my exposure to TV/radio ads when I was a child (say from 1957 until adulthood) and compare it with that of my children who are millennials.  Luckily, during their toddler and preschool years, Rich and I worked opposite shifts so that one of us was always home caring for them.  They had play-outside time and play-inside time that involved toys and for short periods, TV or gaming.

When I was a kid, I was outdoors right after breakfast.  When the streetlights came on, I knew it was time to go home.  I did watch some TV like the Mickey Mouse club and I remember that it did influence me.  I needed to be a Mouseketeer and I sure needed those Mickey Mouse ears.  I must have been somewhere between 3 and 6.  My parents did get me a pair of ears and I wore them every time I watched the show.

I was lucky.  I wasn’t exposed to as many ads because I didn’t watch a lot of shows.  One big reason is that the TV was rarely on.  My parents were Deaf, and there was no such thing as closed captioning then.  They didn’t watch TV because it was too difficult to read speakers’ lips and was a frustrating experience.  However, we did watch Walt Disney, Ed Sullivan, and Combat whenever they were on TV.  My dad had a little residual hearing and enjoyed the performers on Ed Sullivan.  Combat was action packed and easy to follow.  Disney? Classic.  I don’t remember any of the commercials.

As I got older, the jingles and other nonsense went in one ear and out the other.  I’m like that now.  I prefer streaming TV with no commercials.  If I watch regular TV, I read through the commercials.  I didn’t get into the cosmetics, shampoo, cleaning supplies, clothes, cars and any of that other stuff that gets pushed.  The ads are dumb.  They promise the viewer or listener some wonderful things will happen if you don’t buy blah-blah.  It’s all hype.

I am proud that my kids aren’t dumb because of ads they’ve seen.  I am sure it’s because they had a parent with them to help them discern what was true and what was just a come-on.

The article points out that millennials and Gen Z kids probably didn’t have a parent at home with them.  Nowadays in a traditional family, both parents have to work to stay afloat with rapidly rising food and gas prices.  Single parents might have to work two jobs.  Who knows what kind of guidance they get from child care workers or babysitters?

My kids escaped this but some Gen Z kids are growing up in states that regulate what a teacher can and can’t teach.  The curriculums are dumbed down and, as a result, these kids being protected from “offense” don’t learn all the topics they need to know.  Books are banned from libraries and schools.  Many of those books are excellent reads and are banned because ultra-right-wing politicians and parents don’t like certain words or concepts in these books.  If kids are lucky and interested enough, they may find some of these titles at their local library.

Schools fail many students because of restrictions and a lack of funding.  The Rethuglicans never seem to want to adequately fund education.  I learned civics in 8^th grade.  Students today don’t get much civics; it doesn’t seem important.  The article said that half of our citizens can’t name the three branches of government.  How can you make a good decision as a voter if you don’t know how the branches of government work?

Other dumbness that people pick up:

Vaccines prevent disease.  Some vaccines eradicated a disease.  They’re required to attend school.  Yet many adults refuse the vaccine against covid.  Why?  Vaccines are effective.  But it seems these dumb ones believe the misinformation they hear and see.

I’ve been surveying voters in three different states.  More than half support TFG.  I want to ask WHY?  I can’t.  I have to be impartial and just read the questions verbatim.    They are supportive of all the good things the Democratic candidate has done but they would still go with the Repub candidate. Why?  I think it’s because they swallow TFG’s Kool-Aid and become numb to facts.  They’d vote for this clown even though the things he & the Rethuglicans want to do would hurt them.  Duh?

I’ve come to the conclusion that too much media exposure is bad.  I think it kills thinking brain cells of little ones who begin watching TV at such young ages.  They are manipulated to need “this & that” and believe what they see is real.  Growing up, the strong influence of commercials can surely change the thinking process of people exposed to them for long periods of time—like sitting in front of the TV for hours.

The article lists way to reduce the stupidity level of kids in school now.  It’s a nice list but it means that people need to care and get involved.  Do they?  How many adults aren’t swayed by all the BS on the air and on the Net?  I wonder.

Next time I want to focus on anxiety: life happenings, politics, aging, and etc.

I Have Become UN-comfortably numb

Increasing, I feel numb about the news.

Senator Lindsay Graham introduced a bill to ban abortion nationwide, so women in the red states won’t have the option to travel to a blue state instead.  When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, I was outraged: roiling innards and breathing fire.  This? After everything that’s been revealed about tRump’s evil doings, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, mass shootings and the ongoing covid spread, I just shrugged when I read about Graham.  What else would anyone expect from Rethuglicans anyway?  Just one more thing.

I have news exhaustion. 

I was boiling during the four miserable years tRump was POTUS.  When President Joe Biden won the election and took office in January 2021, I hoped for relief of the agita I’d been experiencing since tRump took office.  I felt hope in spite of the fact that tRump and his cronies were spreading The Big Lie.  Blissfully unaware of the plotting going on, TB and I were celebrating his birthday.  After lunch we sat down to watch a program, which was quickly interrupted by coverage of the coup attempt.  I felt shock and anger.  TB and I agreed we never would have imagined such a traumatic thing.  Still, President Biden would bring hope of reconciliation and progress.

It didn’t happen that way.  Suddenly, crisis after crisis began piling on.  Putin invaded Ukraine and suddenly the oil industry prices rose and rose.  The excuse was the war.  The reality, I believe, is that Big Oil could bring in enormous prices during the crisis by jacking up the prices.  Food prices skyrocketed.  President Biden was making great strides in trying to get Democrats and Rethuglicans together to pass critical bills.

Voters only seemed to care that they were cash strapped and insecure about how they would afford gas, medicine and food.

To my surprise, major media began negative bashing of President Biden.  He’d gotten some bipartisan support to be able to pass an infrastructure bill desperately needed.  The mass media focused on any negative little thing.  President Biden’s approval rating tanked.

It was depressing and discouraging.

What else?

We withdrew rather abruptly from Afghanistan.  Thousands of Afghanis had to be evacuated to save their lives.  They found refuge in the US and other countries.  Age old racism reared its ugly head: while white Ukrainian refugees were approved of, many were very vocal about their anti-Afghani feelings. 

Covid continued to be an issue.  Most Americans were just plain sick of it.  These days, I rarely see anyone else wearing a mask.  I still do because I’m immunocompromised.  I just had a third booster along with a flu shot.  The fact that covid still lingers and I could get it from anyone anywhere is distressing.  I put it into a shelf in my brain’s dresser drawer but every now and then, that draw just opens itself on its own.

And what’s going on with Mother Earth?  We’ve been abusing her and now she’s majorly pissed off.  There have been stories of flash floods in Louisiana, Missouri and Kentucky.  The western states all seem to be on fire.  Around the world, there have also been major disasters because of climate change.  Yes, Congress finally managed to get a major piece of legislation passed to start addressing climate change and trying to reverse the near irreversible.  The credit should go to President Biden, who’s been all about trying to work with Repubs on the most recent bills.  He has been successful at that.  Mass media has pretty much ignored his achievements.

That is so frustrating.  Does mass media want a dictatorship or theocracy?  They sure seem to want it, even though it means muzzling.  In Florida, Gov. Death Santis wants copies of everything journalists take down in notes from whatever it is he’s doing.  All the notes and recordings have to be “reviewed”.  Chilling.

Queen Elizabeth died.  I did feel something at the news.  I’d liked and respected her from afar so I felt sad she was no longer in the world, but I told myself how much she’d accomplished in her life.  Besides, now she was reunited with her beloved husband, Prince Phillip.

Every day, there is another awful update having to do with TFG and his evil doings.  The FBI search of his house, more investigations into his fund-raising shenanigans, more details of a very major coup plot amongst 45, legislators in Congress, violent white supremacy groups, and the wife of a Supreme Court justice.  The House Special Committee on 1/6/21 is about to reconvene.  Some of the hearings revealed some pretty horrifying information. 

And the questions floating around all the time is this:  will TFG ever face justice for any of this?  If yes, WHEN?  If no, what are the consequences of these treasonous people getting off scott-free?

Urban Dictionary defines news fatigue this way:

“Becoming tired of the constant negativity or political propaganda in the news. …”  Oh yeah to the hell! “People with news fatigue might decide to stop all news consumption for the purpose of being more at peace and improving their mental health and mood and may then find themselves happier and with more energy to do the things they enjoy.” 

I used to read and keep up with more news sources than I do now.  I used to read “Daily Sound and Fury” religiously.  It became too overwhelming, especially the shouting.  I mean, portions of an article would be in all caps with ginormous fonts.  It gave me a headache.  I began to just skim the titles of the articles and now find I don’t click on any for more information.  I’m at the point I don’t want to open the newsletter email at all.  The same is true with CNN and NBC bulletins.

I’d been following Huff-Post and Crooked Media but am beginning to feel very fatigued looking at those stories too. 

This isn’t like me.  Was I burning out?

I happened on this article from the New York Times.  Yep, I have a couple of the symptoms of news fatigue/worry burn-out: I’m avoiding most of the news and when I do read one of the newsletters I still look at, I feel numb at the headlines.  I think to myself: welp, here we go again.  Nothing’s going to change.  My thoughts are leading me down the road to another symptom: feeling powerless.

Another: some stories provoke an angrier reaction than I normally would feel.  That anger is rooted in fear.  I am powerless; no one is going to do anything about the issue.  It’s all supposed to become the “new normal” and that really pisses me off.  Retreating into numbness helps still the boiling internal waters but it’s also dysfunctional.  I learned from 12 step meetings that numbing myself or dissociating would keep me in a state of powerlessness.  It served me well enough growing up in a dysfunctional household but was totally unhelpful when I became an adult.

So what to do?

At this point, the best thing I could do for myself is unplug for a while.  It would be so hard to do that.  I stay in touch with friends and family online, usually on Facebook.  If I could avoid bringing the news there and blocking news sources from reaching me there, I could have a much more positive interaction there.  It would mean stopping Twitter too.  Can I do that?  I don’t know.

Another thing I need to do is stop checking the news before I go to bed.  I read before I go to sleep and I would get a lot more of that done if I turned my phone and laptop off in the evening.

I should find other happier activities: go for a walk, color, do more reading, watch classic TV shows.  Phone banking has been a very positive activity for me.  I don’t feel powerless when I phone bank.  I’m doing my part to help save democracy.

Here is one more I’ve already put into practice: subscribe to good news only media.  It is so true that reading about small town heroes, animal antics, and bits of trivia are uplifting and can make me smile or laugh.

I’m going to give these suggestions a try because I don’t want to burn out completely, especially not before a crucial election.

Giving Pink Floyd a shout out because my title comes from their song, “Comfortably Numb.”