Addicted to Politics

I don’t write about them terribly often, here.

I mostly discuss politics elsewhere.

Anyway, the toxicity and vitriol is starting to make me feel

rather irritable and gloomy. Perhaps it’s time I take a break

from them for awhile? I have been reluctant to because

I feel like staying in the loop and updated as much as

possible is important. I fear of being blind-sided to the point

of being trapped.

At the same time, I won’t have as much time for them once

Fall Term begins. I’ll have to return to skimming the highlights,

which I don’t perceive to being truly informed.

It seems like most media outlets aren’t really informing enough.

It’s more editorial with few solid examples to support the arguments

these days. To really be informed, one has to go straight to the data

and form one’s own opinion (which should be done anyway I guess).

If you even know how to decipher much of the data in the first place.

Hardly anyone does this, it seems.

There was a time journalists were political watch-dogs that looked

out for the people. They held the feet of public figures to the fire,

no matter whom they were or which party. Of course, rhetoric

and propaganda has always existed, but the media outlets are saturated

with it now. Credibility appears to be at an all time low.

I’m tired. I need a break, but I’m afraid to take one.

It almost seems like the higher-ups want us working stiffs to be

too tired to keep ourselves informed (most of them). They want to

exhaust us to the point of reluctant compliance–resignation–

so they can do what they want regardless of how many people

will be screwed by their policies (or how badly).

Maybe I’m falling into the paranoid conspiracy-theory category and

I’m not exactly being specific about which politicians, parties, corporations,

etc, but the general political atmosphere is just mentally draining.