I may not be typical when it comes to consuming current events. I don’t allow any notifications on my phone except my kids can emergency-bypass text me, and breaking news headlines. I have a hard time understanding social media posts where people vehemently declare “I just don’t want to see anymore! No cable news networks no mainstream media! I’m protecting my peace period for the next four years!”
My first thought is always: Becky, your privileged apathy is how we got to a place in this country where there’s a convicted felon doing his best in the first 10 days of an administration to completely dismantle our democracy. You wanted cheaper eggs and you got the cheapening of the Constitution. The nation is being sold out to the highest bidders while you play Candy Crush. The Joker himself opened the gates of Arkham and every Batman villain throughout history is in charge of this kakistocracy while chaos rules, and you pick out matching bland marble countertops to match your bland curtains and protect your precious peace.
Chaos, in fact, is the strategy. A “flood the zone” approach was strategic by Trump and MAGA Democrats have a hard time focusing and resisting when so many huge swaths of Project 2025 (Trump alleged he wasn’t a part of) come to light: from mass deportation and illegal governmental firings to international trade wars and the botched “pause” of federal spending.
But which issues do Americans care about, and how much do they care? An AP survey found that about two-thirds of American adults say they’ve recently felt the need to limit media consumption about politics and government because of overload. After the election, viewership at MSNBC and CNN was down over 50% (up over 10 percent at Fox) though MSNBC ratings have surged 61% since the inauguration after announcing Rachel Maddow would be going live at nine p.m. five nights a week for the first 100 days of the Trump administration.
Where is it possible to find balance? I don’t mean to use the phrase in an overly Zen way—as a reiki master I could get down with that, but I’ll admit that balanced chakras aren’t going to rescue the democracy. Balance is crucial. We need to be aware of what’s going on around us, and not doom-scroll 24/7/365. We need to be plugged in and engage in unplugging for our mental health. We need to choose news outlets that report the news as neutrally and accurately as possible—and of course we will indulge in confirmation bias but it can often be good to consider the views of others even though they may be vastly different from yours.
Occasionally we find people in our lives that we don’t want to completely avoid for four years, so we find ways to get along. Or do we? Some, often for very personal reasons, understandably don’t want to interact with friends or even family members supporting a new president who immediately launched broad-sweeping measures to eradicate protections around diversity and LGBTQ programs, in addition to health care, the environment, controversial cabinet and staff appointments of questionable individuals.
Dr. Martin Luther King said: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” And he also spoke about silence: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
I follow an influencer and until now loved her content—it was about personal growth, attachments, emotion. But one day she posted the “staying out of it” and “protecting my peace” speech and I realized how much of a turnoff it was. Did I expect her to enter the political arena and start posting about Senate confirmation hearings? Absolutely not. But I was disappointed. It's devastating Harris didn’t win. But to turn a blind eye completely to what’s happening now is exactly what the Trump administration wants, taking power away from engaged citizens who need to be elevated in midterm elections less than two years away.