Oh my, you really picked A DAY to check the news. Goodness.
I was late for a team meeting yesterday because, 5 minutes before the meeting was due to start, I thought I'd just check in on Twitter and see what was happening. Big mistake. HUGE. Because the first thing I saw was Space Karen giving an honest to god Nazi salute at the inauguration, and I went down the "did I just see what I thought I just saw" rabbit hole, and joined the meeting in a panic 5 minutes late.
Having joined I then blurted out what had made me late to my hitherto blissfully unaware team who all went "WHAT?? Like, for real?" and I had to reassure them that, yes, he did it, and just in case anyone was in any doubt HE DID IT A SECOND TIME and everyone took on this face: 🤯
And don't get me started on the media's "Musk made an odd gesture" crab walk away from what we all saw, and all the ancient/classical historians going "there's no such thing as a 'Roman salute', and you totally saw what you thought you saw", the modern historians going "Nah fam, that was 100% a Nazi salute," all the Nazis going "that was 100% a Nazi salute, we're so back," and all the neurodivergent people going "Can confirm that autism doesn't trigger spontaneous Sieg Heil gestures, so don't even fucking go there."
And news organisations are wondering why people aren't engaging with the news anymore. FML.
I’m confident we will have at least one Aryan-themed outrage every week throughout the undead tangerine’s term. Steve Bannon called it the Friday afternoon flash-bang. Sometimes it’s the daily flash bang, and it steers media narratives worldwide amazingly well into dark unhealthy themes. I don’t want to endure it again…
I still follow the news, but avoid everything with the orange dude in it because it's a repeat. There is absolutely nothing new to learn about him, the situation or the solution.
With Trump, I have deliberately reduced by news input and adopted an emotional distance. I just tell myself, it’s not in my inbox. I have zero role or agency in American affairs. I don’t need to have an informed opinion of Trump’s latest doings because I am entirely irrelevant. I’ll focus my interest and concern level on my inbox.
Agreed - of all the days to peak into the rabbit’s hole. Bit like going to Octoberfest and saying “I’ll just have a shandy”.
I’ve been tentatively peaking at a news app. Set myself a limit of 2-3 Trumpocalypse articles, and then I have to look at something else. Which lasts about 5-10 mins. I’m trying to gradually introduce some of your procrastination tips.
Maybe just look at the headlines, and skim the occasional TL:DR story summary. It gives you the same sense of vertigo and spinning-induced nausea, but in a fraction of the time. The gory details don’t really add anything beyond salaciousness.
man, its hard trying to convince the kidlets to get off their devices and stop consuming all that junk for their brain. They need to read a book or something. Almost got the 19yr old to start on Dune. Although i did notice she stuck it in the pile to go to uni with her. There's hope yet. The 16yr old though needs some guidance. At that age where they want to be perpetually online but at least we are getting discussions at the dinner table when she emerges from the cave and we get to mitigate some of it with adult perspective.
i would posit that not only have they already jumped the shark in a leather jacket and their underwear, they have caught said shark dressed it in a leather jacket and underwear and served it up for dinner.
This time around I'm personally finding it easier to cope with the undead tangerine (thanks Roger S!) than last time. It used to be that whenever the orange menace would do something obviously illegal and/or unconstitutional, a bevvy of earnest commentators would explain in great detail exactly how he could never possibly get away with it, and you could find yourself invested in the process, hoping the politicians, FBI, DOJ, state AGs, non-captured members of the federal bureaucracy or someone else would actually do their job and do something about it. And then of course it was always a disappointment - but sometimes a very long-drawn out disappointment with lots of stressful ups and downs.
Now it is obvious that the US is a broken state, unable or unwilling to resist hostile takeover, and for a substantial fraction of the population actively cheering on their own self-immolation, so the correct expectations are set. Americans get really annoyed when I say they live in a failed state, but I don't know what else to call it. His Orange Majesty will only be brought down by his own ineptitude, but the US has an enormous capacity to forgive the incompetence of white men who identify as rich, so one can't be optimistic there either.
As Ross C says, skimming the headlines is enough - you could probably write the rest of the story yourself even without knowing the details so why bother reading it.
Oh my, you really picked A DAY to check the news. Goodness.
I was late for a team meeting yesterday because, 5 minutes before the meeting was due to start, I thought I'd just check in on Twitter and see what was happening. Big mistake. HUGE. Because the first thing I saw was Space Karen giving an honest to god Nazi salute at the inauguration, and I went down the "did I just see what I thought I just saw" rabbit hole, and joined the meeting in a panic 5 minutes late.
Having joined I then blurted out what had made me late to my hitherto blissfully unaware team who all went "WHAT?? Like, for real?" and I had to reassure them that, yes, he did it, and just in case anyone was in any doubt HE DID IT A SECOND TIME and everyone took on this face: 🤯
And don't get me started on the media's "Musk made an odd gesture" crab walk away from what we all saw, and all the ancient/classical historians going "there's no such thing as a 'Roman salute', and you totally saw what you thought you saw", the modern historians going "Nah fam, that was 100% a Nazi salute," all the Nazis going "that was 100% a Nazi salute, we're so back," and all the neurodivergent people going "Can confirm that autism doesn't trigger spontaneous Sieg Heil gestures, so don't even fucking go there."
And news organisations are wondering why people aren't engaging with the news anymore. FML.
Of all the days to pick, right after the Trump inauguration- it was always going to be ... 'special' lets go with special.
One day down...um...only 1460 to go...
I’m confident we will have at least one Aryan-themed outrage every week throughout the undead tangerine’s term. Steve Bannon called it the Friday afternoon flash-bang. Sometimes it’s the daily flash bang, and it steers media narratives worldwide amazingly well into dark unhealthy themes. I don’t want to endure it again…
Love this comment too - and agree with the conclusion.
And thanks for alerting us to Flash-bangs - that reads about right.
Click bait is bad enough without those in authority doing stuff to encourage it, as well as baiting outrage in mainstream & progressive media.
I still follow the news, but avoid everything with the orange dude in it because it's a repeat. There is absolutely nothing new to learn about him, the situation or the solution.
With Trump, I have deliberately reduced by news input and adopted an emotional distance. I just tell myself, it’s not in my inbox. I have zero role or agency in American affairs. I don’t need to have an informed opinion of Trump’s latest doings because I am entirely irrelevant. I’ll focus my interest and concern level on my inbox.
Agreed - of all the days to peak into the rabbit’s hole. Bit like going to Octoberfest and saying “I’ll just have a shandy”.
I’ve been tentatively peaking at a news app. Set myself a limit of 2-3 Trumpocalypse articles, and then I have to look at something else. Which lasts about 5-10 mins. I’m trying to gradually introduce some of your procrastination tips.
Maybe just look at the headlines, and skim the occasional TL:DR story summary. It gives you the same sense of vertigo and spinning-induced nausea, but in a fraction of the time. The gory details don’t really add anything beyond salaciousness.
I am stealing the shandy metaphor
😂
man, its hard trying to convince the kidlets to get off their devices and stop consuming all that junk for their brain. They need to read a book or something. Almost got the 19yr old to start on Dune. Although i did notice she stuck it in the pile to go to uni with her. There's hope yet. The 16yr old though needs some guidance. At that age where they want to be perpetually online but at least we are getting discussions at the dinner table when she emerges from the cave and we get to mitigate some of it with adult perspective.
If you watch the news as a slightly far fetched sitcom it's pretty good.
The series finale of the United States is in serious danger of jumping the shark 🤷♀️
i would posit that not only have they already jumped the shark in a leather jacket and their underwear, they have caught said shark dressed it in a leather jacket and underwear and served it up for dinner.
I think the shark has now jumped the guy in the leather jacket.
This time around I'm personally finding it easier to cope with the undead tangerine (thanks Roger S!) than last time. It used to be that whenever the orange menace would do something obviously illegal and/or unconstitutional, a bevvy of earnest commentators would explain in great detail exactly how he could never possibly get away with it, and you could find yourself invested in the process, hoping the politicians, FBI, DOJ, state AGs, non-captured members of the federal bureaucracy or someone else would actually do their job and do something about it. And then of course it was always a disappointment - but sometimes a very long-drawn out disappointment with lots of stressful ups and downs.
Now it is obvious that the US is a broken state, unable or unwilling to resist hostile takeover, and for a substantial fraction of the population actively cheering on their own self-immolation, so the correct expectations are set. Americans get really annoyed when I say they live in a failed state, but I don't know what else to call it. His Orange Majesty will only be brought down by his own ineptitude, but the US has an enormous capacity to forgive the incompetence of white men who identify as rich, so one can't be optimistic there either.
As Ross C says, skimming the headlines is enough - you could probably write the rest of the story yourself even without knowing the details so why bother reading it.