Only 3 more months of chaos
Election years in the US are now monumentally stupid - online and off
"Politics is the entertainment branch of industry." — Lewis H. Lapham
The next 3 months in the US will be chaotic, and based on what we’ve seen I predict this holds true for all election years going forward, no matter the candidates. The perfect storm of new technology, unhinged culture, and polarization seem to all align now each season. 3 more months of chaos and then 3 years of apathy (or simply people living their life) is an easy prediction of the future, followed by hopefully a better set of (non-geriatric) candidates next time (but who knows). Then the cycle begins again. Oh, by the way, everything will be fine after.
It’s normal to feel confused, upset, anxious or depressed about this state of events. I don’t think there’s a conspiracy to have it happen, sure, the media wants you to feel this way in the short term but only in-so-far as trying to get you to click on something or share a story. So let’s talk about a few things I think understanding will help.
Way too much division, histrionics
Many in the country are divided, which was maybe inevitable here, but increasingly so over things that are simply untrue. The country or democracy is not ‘over’ if a particular candidate wins or loses, for example. Both parties want you to think that’s the case. This is pure histrionics on the part of, well, everyone. I’m sorry if you believe this but it’s the same thing as finance media or professional ‘doomers’ telling you “the big crash is coming” again and again every month. They are hijacking deeply religious/apocalyptic circuits of your humanity.
Various entities are perfectly fine keeping you addicted to watching the financial and political spectacle on 24/7 news or social media when you should be living your life (or buying index funds, if you need more investment analogies). Remember, in both political and financial areas progress is a sine wave not a straight line. So things of course happen and there’s setbacks, but if you zoom out everything generally looks better.
News cycles over dumb things
The media knows most people aren’t changing their minds on who to vote for, so instead they latch on to altogether silly things to create news cycles. There’s just not that much that happens every day, so headlines must be manufactured. Note how in many cases it’s not even about the issues themselves, it’s just spectacle and ad-hominem attacks (things you, dear reader, should know when to be above the fray of participating in). The thing is, no particular side or outlet is not guilty here. It’s all a mess and part of the subprime attention bubble. Again, play stupid games, win stupid prizes, if the media outlet you work for does this they deserve the audience they get.
It’s always “the most important election ever”
This is now said every election year, because media have to ham everything up. But on what dimension? How would you even define this within historical context? There’s no real parameters here. And yeah, it’s of course important because it’s the one in front of us, but to use the superlative “ever” is just absurd. I will accept “dumbest” as an answer though.
Even smart people fall for parody
The internet has always had parody, memes and edits. I don’t know how you have been a functional adult for the last 10 years online without realizing this (and if not, perhaps the joke is on you). But we still see people of all ages, not just baby boomers, falling for these things and thinking a joke, edit or meme was serious. Of course, in a different timeline maybe there wouldn’t be so much of this and the discussions would be broadly more serious. But we don’t live in that timeline. We live in the dumb one. Of note I’m unsure if AI changes the calculus much on these things, you should dig deeper into finding context and questioning what you see and what you read already. That’s always true online, where there’s already infinite content.
Political influencers and media must feast
Like locusts, political influencers and media pros have a short window where lots of people are interested in politics once every 4 years. This window shrinks while the commentariat get louder because it’s a very brief time they get amplification to try to increase their reach and influence while people and algorithms are interested in their beat. Also, ad dollars and sponsorships reach an apex and then recede. It’s all just incentives.
Everything is sports now
Throw in the added tribal bloodthirst of politics with how everything is treated as “us vs them” team sports and it makes sense how things are covered and why people get so heated. But really we’re all on the same team and have to work together. I’m sure some of you disagree or whatever, and that’s fine, it’s your freedom as an American. I’m not going to persuade you otherwise, just like I can’t tell Bulls fans to root for the Knicks (but everyone is still in the same arena, we’re all still on the same planet, etc, you get it).
No one in any party of government is coming to save you
I don’t believe anyone winning is going to be some magic cure to improve your life, and from reading commentary it’s sad some believe the government has this sort of power. Ultimately we are in control and must navigate an increasingly broken, complex world. The only good news for you as an individual is with so many yielding their autonomy to things like governments or pharmaceutical companies, it’s a blue ocean for those with high agency to decide to improve their situation.
Honestly, it’s best to just ignore the circus
I have been on vacation since last week and missed a few cycles of news and social media commentary. The thing is, my life is precisely the same (probably better) without having participated in it. I think it’s fine if you really want to, hey we have internet discussions around lots of obscure topics. As long as it’s not causing your blood pressure to spike or things to get under your skin, go for it. But if political commentary is taking up more than a small slice of your time or mental bandwidth, it’s probably time to reassess. Remember, if any news is legitimately important, it will find you.
No one gets to the end of their life and wishes they spent more time on fighting with strangers about politics. Instead, do things you’ll view warmly and that improve the world and help others. Make art. Focus on your business. Write a longform piece with citations instead of getting caught in the microcontent circus or simply passively consuming news if you are passionate about an issue. Or, ignore all of it, remember this is always an option.
I imagine I might be one of your oldest living readers (!!) and thus will take a lived experience, hard earned stance here.
It took about fifty years of apathetic citizenship to get us here. And that apathy worked to ingrain even more apathy in our citizenry. And Voids - will be filled.
The disenfranchisement you felt in San Francisco re housing costs? Happened because no one voted to make certain you got yours instead of Big 3: Pharma, Oil or Government --or the VERY Big For profit, Insurance Industry who has managed to evade the List and most won't put them on that Big 3, but I'd put them at the very top.
So I am going to kick your in the behind and remind you that you're either part of the solution or part of the problem. Your level of apathy (by those before you) caused this and continuing to ignore it, wallow in the disenfranchisement, will change nothing.
Those who have the power to drive your world, run it how they want to, whether it be Media, or those on the List? They WANT you apathetic; need you to be apathetic.
It is your right to give them what they want, voting is not compulsory in the US, and thus you can disengage as you wish. But you must accept that by doing so, you will get little of what you want, too.
And you don't get to complain about the Void being filled in a way you don't like....
Have a good Friday.
Now imagine being a Canadian and being bombarded with this "most important election ever where democracy will die" while have no horse in the race. It's exhausting and somehow impossible to avoid.