२ ऑक्टोबर, २०१९

“The world right now can feel oppressively negative, and I find myself exhausted and weepy after a day of watching the news cycle.”

“Self-care can sometimes mean turning off my phone and watching YouTube videos of unlikely animal friendships for a few hours. It’s not sustainable to be tapped in 24/7, and it’s okay to give yourself a day of eating cookie dough while being wrapped in a million blankets before getting back out there to fight the good fight.”

Writes Katie Wheeler at WaPo. The rest of what’s there is a very simply drawn comic showing a woman hearing about the news, despairing (“Nooooo!”), and running home to sit, wrapped in a blanket, in the dark. I’m calling attention to this not because I think the drawing is particularly good but because of the open awareness — at The Washington Post — of the natural, predictable human response to the excessive and unbroken negativity of the news. And yet the denial is there: the woman who turns away from the news media’s ugly hysteria will only withdraw for “a few hours,” and after which she will “get back out there and fight the good fight.” She won’t really change. She’ll certainly still vote the “right” way, and she will never doubt that the “oppressively negative” news is really the news and that she has a duty to attend to it — after a modest break for “self-care.”

And “getting back out there and fight the good fight” is deceptive. This woman was only consuming the news, which isn’t really “out there” and isn’t really “fighting.” It’s rather passive, and it’s absurd to think that by watching media, you’re some kind of activist. If you withdraw, calm yourself, and reflect intelligently, you might become critical of how the media manipulate you into the fake activism of obsessing over the news and the lame virtue of believing that you are “good” because you’re alarmed and feeling pugnacious about what you’re passively absorbing.

७८ टिप्पण्या:

daskol म्हणाले...

If they can get you to donate money, it's all worth it.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

It's an expansion of the news cycle into not attending the news, not a respite from it.

"It's so bad that there's no escape."

You even click on our ads when you don't click.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

There's permanent respite in framing it as a system of soap opera, audience and advertiser revenue. Then it's just bad behavior in the media itself and stupidity in a large enough audience to consume it.

Lawrence Person म्हणाले...

Funny how our smug news media never pauses to consider the possibility that we hate them, personally.

tim maguire म्हणाले...

They are fighting the...fight. On twitter. Which is what passes for activism these days unless your professor leads you out on the quad for a climate rant.

The part I object to is “good.” There’s nothing good about the fight Katie Wheeler is fighting. She is the oppressive negativity the rest of us need a break from.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

A Strong Woman - Marge Piercy
https://marecromwell.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/a-strong-woman-poem-by-marge-piercy/

Formerly. Today it's all weepy woman instead.

stevew म्हणाले...

Well said. Who are these people that get themselves so wound up emotionally that it affects their physical health?

As I've mentioned before, I've tuned out of most of the shout-fests on tv and the internet. I do keep up with current events, but in the way of my choosing and on my terms. I studiously avoid obvious click-bait, though am sometimes not as good at it as I'd like.

WaPo and NYT should publish an article for these over-wrought folks teaching them how to cope other than by binge watching cute animal videos and scarfing cookie-dough ice cream by the bucketful. Oh wait, this person's anxiousness and suffering is a feature not a bug of their publishing operations!

Off to work today, lunch meeting in Boston, candidate interview this afternoon, and no shortage of calls to fill the rest of my day. Don't break anything while I'm away please.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

The latest is that wanting to know who the whistleblower is is obstruction. I gather it's witness intimidation. Persumably that would only be obstruction of the next whistleblower, however. Think of that on your day off.

David Begley म्हणाले...

Easy solution. Dems just drop the impeachment stuff. And stop harassing Trump.

rehajm म्हणाले...

She's a leftie so why isn't she elated at all the impeachment talk? Oh I see- the cartoons tell us she's depressed by climate change and gun control and immigration a few other leftie talking points are getting her down...

...on the bright side the news is not bad enough to move to Canada!

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Trump is scaring the kids. Scott Adams says no it's the media that's scaring the kids.

Obama's the one who should have scared the kids, but the media butted out.

Mr. Forward म्हणाले...

"The latest data from the Census Bureau monthly surveys tell a different story. Real median household income—the amount earned by those in the very middle—hit $65,084 (in 2019 dollars) for the 12 months ending in July. That’s the highest level ever and a gain of $4,144, or 6.8%, since Mr. Trump took office. By comparison, during 7½ years under President Obama—starting from the end of the recession in June 2009 through January 2017—the median household income rose by only about $1,000. . . ."
Wall Street Journal via Instapundit.

rehajm म्हणाले...

That's some pretty lazy activism.

Mike Sylwester म्हणाले...

Democracy Dies in Darkness!

wendybar म्हणाले...

Thanks to tim maguire for saying it like it is. She IS the negativity. And she WON'T vote the right way. By the sounds of her article, we know EXACTLY which way she is going to vote.

Jersey Fled म्हणाले...

Seems like all we have left is psychosis. And am I wrong in thinking it is primarily a woman thing?

Mike Sylwester म्हणाले...

There's lots of good news.

For example, US Attorney General William Barr and John Durham recently interviewed Joseph Mifsud in Italy.

Real progress is being made in Barr's effort to inform the public how the RussiaGate hoax was concocted and developed.

That is very good news!

Laslo Spatula म्हणाले...

Weepy women comforting themselves with cookie dough.

When feminists feel sorry for themselves you get a flash of insight into what they really think of women.

Which often seems to look like Daddy Issues.

I guess eating cookie dough is better than baking cookies in Sylvia Plath's oven.

I am Laslo.

Howard म्हणाले...

Blogger rhhardin said... Formerly. Today it's all weepy woman instead.

I suppose when you are focused on fetishizing the media soap opera and enjoy Hollywood RomCom Cosplay, your band-pass filter excludes the silent majority of strong women.

stlcdr म्हणाले...

She's an emotional idiot.

Fernandinande म्हणाले...

The world right now can feel oppressively negative

Pestilence, War, Famine, Death, Fake News and Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Greg Hlatky म्हणाले...

Well then, don't watch it. Do something useful. Enjoy the outdoors, volunteer for something non-political.

whitney म्हणाले...

I think this would be a good place to have a boredom tag. Or maybe a lack of boredom. I don't have any links but I think a good bit has been written on the lack of time people spend just doing nothing. I mean don't just turn off the news, turn off your device, stare out the window, pick up an extremely difficult book, like The Aeneid or something , you'll be staring out the window a lot. Everyone's got this existential dread but it does seem occasionally you should reflect on how good the world is right now. We live in a world of abundance the likes of which have never been seen by so many people before. The only time you're ever hungry is when you're dieting. That is amazing. Think about it.

Kevin म्हणाले...

it’s absurd to think that by watching media, you’re some kind of activist.

That’s gonna leave a mark.

Fernandinande म्हणाले...

As Nosferatu predicted

Those who were in the realm for knowledge
Will become impoverished at the change of King:
Some exiled without support, having no gold,
The lettered and letters will not be at a high premium.

Kevin म्हणाले...

A real activist cuts out all the people in her life who don’t fully agree with her every opinion.

If she could read the minds of her cats, half of them would be on the street.

That’s how you know who the good people are.

Quayle म्हणाले...

I have a new personal policy. I leave my phone home when I go out to dinner and also often when I go to the grocery store, the home store, on various errands, or to the movies. Nothing “bad” had happened by not having it with me. A lot good has. I find I listen more intently to my dinner partners.

Kay म्हणाले...

You can’t “fight the good fight” by just reading the news. You have to comment too!

Oso Negro म्हणाले...

Katie Wheeler is an artist and illustrator based in Seattle, according to her byline. Is there anyone, anyone who reads this blog who cannot infer her politics from that with 99% accuracy?

Unknown म्हणाले...

First World Problems.

Dave Begley म्हणाले...

"I guess eating cookie dough is better than baking cookies in Sylvia Plath's oven."

Classic Laslo.

iowan2 म्हणाले...

The only option is to spend 2 hours watching youtube?
This person is rich, beyond the imagination of the wealthiest Kings for all of history.

The fact is, we all are rich. Compared to any period of history, the wealth, the lowliest amoung us have, is fantastic. The amount of time available to all, that is not required for attaining food, water, clothing and shelter, is amazing.

Darrell म्हणाले...

The news cycle has become a work of fiction now.
Perhaps she should be crapping in a box and mailing to all her news sources.

bleh म्हणाले...

Something about that seems sexist. A woman is weary and tired and she needs the occasional break for self-care or else she’ll be hysterical or something. So she wraps herself in blankets and eat cookie dough. Exactly how many cats are there with her, under all the blankets?

Johnathan Birks म्हणाले...

Pretty rich coming from WaPo.
Have a cookie. Pet a bunny. Just get off the internet.

Wince म्हणाले...

This woman was only consuming the news, which isn’t really “out there” and isn’t really “fighting.” It’s rather passive, and it’s absurd to think that by watching media, you’re some kind of activist.

But look at how her concerns have evolved globally since 40 years ago...

Calgon, Take Me Away!

mesquito म्हणाले...

Amusing Ourselves To Death

chuck म्हणाले...

you might become critical of how the media manipulate you into the fake activism of obsessing over the news

If you don't know who the mark is, life is one disaster after another. Funny how that works.

Clyde म्हणाले...

I hope that Trump crushes the Democrat candidate in 2020, just so the exhausted, weepy, blanket-wrapped, cute-animal-video-watching cookie-dough-eaters can continue their lifestyle for another four years. They deserve it.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

Adam Schitt and HIllary are thrilled everyone is so depressed.

Ignorance is Bliss म्हणाले...

Self-care can sometimes mean turning off my phone and watching YouTube videos of unlikely animal friendships for a few hours. It’s ... okay to give yourself a day of eating cookie dough...

If your idea of self care is more time on the internet and poor dietary choices, that might explain a lot of why you are the way you are...

Leland म्हणाले...

Well stated Althouse. The news seeks to create these dramas, so that Katie Wheeler will tune in everyday and watches through the commercial breaks such that she doesn't miss a thing. She'll never know how much she missed because she obsessed with consuming the news at the editor's pace.

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"you’re alarmed and feeling pugnacious"

In the case of liberal women, what they feel alarmed and pugnacious about is that Trump is still there. The negativity stems from Trump.

Kudos to Althouse for occasionally being alarmed at prog propaganda. But she has yet to draw a line. As long as the Althouses of America, and other people in what's left of the middle, passively sit back, play word games, and profess to be "neutral," progs will stay on the attack, figuring that at some point those nice people will give in.

gilbar म्हणाले...

There's PLENTY of good news out there!, for instance:
Rashida Tlaib openly comes out as a TOTAL Rasist

Hey Skipper म्हणाले...

Laslo FTW.

Michael K म्हणाले...

your band-pass filter excludes the silent majority of strong women.

Howard is the only one who can detect them on the left.

CJinPA म्हणाले...

Feminists can't possibly think the unending stream of "politics is battering me emotionally" takes is helping their cause, can they?

From election night 2016, with group after group of Hillary supporters weeping for the cameras, to now, they insist that we accept their emotional displays as substitutes for policy arguments. They've done more to reinforce stereotypes of the hysterical woman than any old-school sitcom or TV commercial.

iowan2 म्हणाले...

For me it is almost impossible to understand how disconnected the people have become from news. SIRIUS radio, cable tv, Streaming services, self directed news feeds from Alexa, Siri, browsers Chrome, Edge, Safari. A self directed choice of news aggregaters, Twitter, facebook, instagram. All of this is self directed content.
People have to make conscious effort to block out time and then choose, news sources and formats.
That is most likely part of the influence on polls that make them unreliable. We are all living in our own bubble.
But in the left right divide, I find conservatives much better informed on a wider range of topics. Conservatives (at least me) search out leftist thought. I watch (TV or radio is on) a fair amount of liberal content. A couple of blocks of FOX and I pretty much have their content for the day, so CNN and MSNBC are the background noise of my life.
But newsies are the minority.
So big news makes it through to the masses, Plane crashes, huricanes, serial killers. The white noise that is something,something ukraine, does not get heard by the ear, let alone attach political identity to it.

Freeman Hunt म्हणाले...

Was everyone always so neurotic?

Crazy World म्हणाले...

Trump broke them.

reader म्हणाले...

So it all comes back to Cathy (the comic strip) even for progressive women.

CWJ म्हणाले...

"Well said. Who are these people that get themselves so wound up emotionally that it affects their physical health?"

Do they really exist? Times are good. What has Trump and the evil Republicans actually done to any of these people to provoke such a response?

bagoh20 म्हणाले...

I look fondly back on my childhood. It was the late 60s early 70s, and despite all the turmoil including the Vietnam war, life and the culture seemed so upbeat and fun-seaking. The culture was positive and forward looking - exploring new ideas and still appreciating much of the old and traditional. It was though the eyes of a child/teen, but my parents also seemed happy and upbeat.

Today, in almost every measurable way, life is easier and better. The economy and what people can buy with their labor is the best it's been in our entire lives, as well as all of history. The poorest people in America have things that kings could not get in the past. Health and convenience is at levels inconceivable just a few decades ago.

It's very unfortunate that people are not capable of enjoying what we have RIGHT NOW! We are riding a wave which will not last forever, because they never do, but it's crucial that we enjoy it while we have it.

What is ruining it for people? Poor education, envy, sloth, selfishness, and self-righteousness, but the real robbers of joy and peace are the two key things that are missing as a direct result of all of those; perspective and gratitude. You can't be happy unless you appreciate what you have. In other words, you can't be happy unless you want to be.

tcrosse म्हणाले...

What is ruining it for people?

Plastic straws.

mockturtle म्हणाले...

Withdrawal is always the wrong tactic. Get out in the world and you'll see that it's not as grim as the MSM would have you believe.

tcrosse म्हणाले...

FWIW a marketing guy from a huge company that manufactured refrigerated cookie dough told me that as far as they could tell 40% of the stuff never saw the inside of an oven. Which is why they pasteurize it.

bagoh20 म्हणाले...

We will get another recession, no matter what happens in politics, although I think it will hit much harder and faster, and last longer if Trump is not reelected. I'm a business person who lives off of investing and employing people, and I'm a daily worker as well. I can tell you unequically that most of the economic benefit we are experiencing right now is directly due to the confidence given to people like me by Trump's policies and attitude, and also just from the fact that our country was still able to elect someone with those values. We wondered if that was lost forever. People feeling free and confident enough to spend and invest their time, money and labor, and know that it will be allowed to pay off is what makes the world run and progress. It's not politicians, not equality, not diversity, and not love. It's self interest, ambition, freedom, and justice.

CJinPA म्हणाले...

I look fondly back on my childhood. It was the late 60s early 70s, and despite all the turmoil including the Vietnam war, life and the culture seemed so upbeat and fun-seaking. The culture was positive and forward looking...

We don't have a culture anymore, we have many cultures vying for supremacy. I can't see this ever seeming upbeat and positive.

Marc in Eugene म्हणाले...

Perhaps Katie can find an appropriate series of ASMR videos to watch and listen to (there's a large number, featuring both men and women) in order to cocoon herself. Personally, can't think of anything creepier and less likely to relax me, but then I'm special, I guess.

RNB म्हणाले...

The Most Woke Man I Know was bemoaning on Facebook this morning that he was skipping his regularly-scheduled Tuesday call-in to a 'conservative radio program.' The reason: He just could not face up to listening to the station's programming while on hold.

(TMWMIK is periodically shocked to find that there are people who do not agree with his opinions. A while back, he was so horrified to read of a poll indicating that some people in our state did not share his opinion of Brett Kavanaugh that he publicly contempleted emigrating. Possibly to Ecuador. Until he decided that climate change would make that nation uninhabitable in a few years.

(He's still here.)

Original Mike म्हणाले...

“Self-care can sometimes mean turning off my phone and watching YouTube videos of unlikely animal friendships for a few hours."

I've been binging on math videos the last couple of days. Waaay more interesting. The visualization that modern techniques can bring to learning are phenomenal. I wish the internet had existed when I was in my prime educational years.

BJM म्हणाले...

"So?"

Yancey Ward म्हणाले...

Althouse putting up a post just for rhhardin.

Owen म्हणाले...

Much wisdom here. And not a little humor. I’m looking at you, Laslo.

Yancey Ward म्हणाले...

We have made great advances in suicide techniques with the rise of the internet. Perhaps Wheeler should check them out.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM म्हणाले...

As passive as it may seem, cultivating, marinating and wallowing in hatred for Trump is the duty of every 'Resister' to maintain readiness in between Antifa clashes, Vagina-hat marches, baby-killing, fake-news dissemination, and smear-campaigning

Earnest Prole म्हणाले...

The cruelest right-wing parody of this piece would be word-for-word verbatim.

Jim at म्हणाले...

Blaming others for a condition created entirely by herself.
How .... leftist of her.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM म्हणाले...

yeah, well maybe it gets this way when all your shit eventually comes back to bite you in your big, fat, cookie-dough packed ass.
Especially if you are 'Toria' Nuland, Alexandra Chalupa, Hillary, etc.

but it also goes for the 'men'--

rumor has it Mifsud taped Strozk's conversation laying out the Trump take-down scheme.
---the tapes Barr recently listened to in Italy.

rcocean म्हणाले...

We're at peace and has some of the lowest unemployment and highest stock prices ever. Crime is down from 2009 and all in all this is a very good time to be alive.

Yet, the media gives us negative Trump stories and downer news 24/7. Things are JUST AWFUL - 'cause Trump. So, they not only drag us their crazy left-wing world, they keep us from appreciating how good things are. Needless to say this is all deliberate.

Maillard Reactionary म्हणाले...

Repeal the 19th Amendment. It's our only hope.

PM म्हणाले...

How does she do it, I ask myself. How can she rouse herself to action again and again? What a human being.

Nancy Reyes म्हणाले...

Every time I read one of these hysterical articles (and there seems to be several every week) I wonder: Don't these people have a life?
Do they have babies who need changing? A child who needs help with his homework? A job where they earn money to support their family? An elderly parent or spouse to care for?

Bunkypotatohead म्हणाले...

She'd be much happier if she converted to Republicanism. Trump did, and he seems pretty cheerful.

Maillard Reactionary म्हणाले...

Nancy @6:15: Nah. They're beyond all that. These people don't reproduce, have families, or take responsibility for much of anything except how they look when they go out.

But wait until they're old and in the hospital--and it comes to all eventually barring accident--and they'll get an education in reality real fast.

It's not pretty, and it doesn't care how you feel right now.

And neither do the staff.

JamesB.BKK म्हणाले...

Such a girlie story, top to bottom. Didn't the emotional appeal of news come about and then accelerate after women were granted sufferage and then those bad j-schools started teaching busybodies about agenda journalism instead of reportage? The bright side is that plastic surgeons and psychiatrists appreciate the consumption of (uncooked) cookie dough in despair. More fructose and other carbs ladies. That'll surely get you right.

mockturtle म्हणाले...

Phidippus suggests: Repeal the 19th Amendment. It's our only hope.

Frankly, it wouldn't bother me a bit but it also would not solve the problem. Most of the Deep Staters are men. Most of the globalists are men. Most of the NeoCons are men. While many women [sigh!] tend to be more naive and emotional, it is men in positions of power that are more apt to get things done, and not necessarily good things, as we have seen.

Tina Trent म्हणाले...

I remember when all the reporters in Boston who fashioned themselves memebers of "the Benjy Brigade," defending a truly evil rapist whose crime was so bad EMT workers who rescused the woman were sickened, was found to indeed have been the attacker thanks to DNA.

"Benjy" had eluded an earlier DNA test by mixing his sample with a fellow inmate's. He also got a "college degree" in "poetry," won PEN awards, and was celebrated by John Silber at Boston U, judges, and an army of law professors in addition the half the journalists in the city.

When the real DNA test proved his guilt -- as had other evidence and also the victim, his elderly neighbor, who knew him before he left her for dead, the reporters and other suporters went into mourning. One wrote about curling up in bed for days. Another couldn't stop crying. I challenged them and the law school faculties to apologize to the family of the now-dead victim: only one did and only in print. They'd spent years calling her a racist, calling her in the hospital to accuse her of things, and even helping Benjy access her hospital room by phone to abuse her on her deathbed.

Even after the DNA, John Silber testified "Benjy" should be released anyway because he had convinced himself he was innocent and was therefore "innocent."

When journalists weep, it usually means they don't have enough humanity to have the correct feeling: shame.