So I'm a few months into my news diet and though I think it's better overall it's still not sunshine and roses everyday. I'm still keeping track of big stories and following two news people who I think do a good job of presenting factual information (Jessica Yellin) and historical perspective (Heather Cox Richardson) and I still get a morning briefing from NPR. Just enough to stay in touch with the world but I'm trying not to do deep dives into any one thing.
But it's hard. I mean y'all are still following things so you are still posting things and sometimes, and I say this with all due respect, some of y'all post bullshit.
And I read it and think...hmm...is this bullshit? Because it has the faint aroma of bullshit. But I have not been paying attention to the news as much lately so maybe it's not bullshit and just stinks because we live in times that often stink. So then I look up the story to double check and...bullshit.
Now what I've been doing, for the most part, is just noting to myself that it's bullshit and moving on. Every once in awhile when the coffee wasn't strong enough or the tolerance level is just not high I will post something that is meant to point out that what the original post was saying wasn't exactly right. But for the most part I've been moving on because what I've really discovered over the past few years is that what is true and what feels true are often different and what feels true will win every single time.
Like right now you are seeing a lot about gas prices and Biden. It feels like high or low gas prices should be a reflection on the President but they aren't. Not really. Never have been. And I've been consistent in talking about this for years. But I know that if I go on one of my conservative friend's posts about gas and tell them that Biden has very little if anything to do with gas prices I will get slammed. So I don't. You are going to believe what feels like the truth.
Which is a real shame actually.
Because feels like truth can lead you to some really bad places.
We should know that by now. We should have been able to see it. We've got climate issues and millions dead from Covid and a wealth gap that is astronomical. But it feels better to say that the planet has always changed and we haven't done anything wrong and can't do anything to change it. For a lot of people it feels good to be part of group that thinks they are being heroic by not getting vaccines or wearing masks. It feels better to say that people should be able to make as much money as they want, while holding out hope that someday we will be the ones making that money.
The facts suck. You need to change. You need companies and big businesses to change. You need to look at how things effect others. You need to understand that you are mostly likely never going to be part of the 1%. There's a reason it's the 1% and not the 99%, most of us aren't going to be that wealthy.
So instead we go with what feels better. What's soothing. What we can get our friends around us to agree to. And we insulate ourselves from the cold hard facts for the comforting feels.
So now I'm doing a balancing act of trying to not be super deep in the news but also not being so isolated from it that I am missing the facts. And that's a trick. Because most news sites are not really good at facts over feels either. They are businesses trying to grab eyeballs and reasoned fact based stories don't do that well. Like I said, I have three choices right now. And one of them is more opinion extrapolation than just straight up facts only.
And I'm trying not to curate my friend list to just people who think exactly the way I do, but more and more people who don't see the world the same way I do have shown themselves out. Or have posted too many really off the wall things and have been hidden away.
So yeah...
That's the latest update. Not sunshine and roses just yet, but at least it's not always thunderstorms and thorns.
Working on it.
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