… also, I don’t like being angry.
About The Author
Brendan Skwire
Brendan Skwire is a cultural and media critic. He offers nearly two decades of experience as a journalist, video editor, blogger, and community organizer. Skwire has worked for the Philadelphia Weekly, Scrapple TV, and Raw Story, and is a former member of the News Guild.
Ditto on “I don’t like being angry” but I have a whole host of other ish to keep me angry (work i.e. corporate politics). Besides, unless I take up A.G. on “news strike!” “blog strike!” and avoid all contact with the outside world there’s so much wrong right now that’s getting wronger by the day it’s almost impossible to avoid a non-stop simmer of angry.
I don’t like being angry, either. In fact, I really need to occasionally take some time away from news and topical discussions of current events in order to maintain some sense of internal peace. And I am surrounded by so many on the other side of the political spectrum who always seem to be eternally angry. I told my libertarian-ish conservative brother a few years ago that I simply could not live with that perpetual sense of aggrievement that he always seems to be carrying. Being on edge constantly, always on an emotional “war footing” against all manner of forces that, in ones own mind, are aligned in a very personal and conscious effort to crush his values and his culture. That type of anger can work both ways, for good and for ill. But it must be an exceptionally wearisome way to live this very short and precious life that we have.
Well said Mike.
angry when I blogged. What has changed: I reminded myself that really this is nothing more than talking about politics with other people. The World is hardly going to change because of some argument I get into here. We are not manning barricades.
Anger is the second stage of grief over some part of the universe that surprised you in an adverse way. Figuring out what you are grieving helps dampen that reflexive response to perceived assault a bit. Fighting to maintain denial of what you are grieving over prolongs it.
The next two steps of grief are negotiation and acceptance. Unlike death of someone, some situations are still negotiable or resolvable by action of some kind. Clarifying what the anger is about can often enable those actions, while that anger itself provides the motivation to act instead maintaining the paralysis of outrage.
AG is right that we must start managing the sources of our information to discover what is really happening so as to avoid the nasty surprises that allow anger to kick us in the gut.
But that clarity comes at the price of seeing that empathy and compassion turn out to have much higher costs than we had originally assumed. And effective action is much more complicated and involves dealing with people who might be cantankerous or otherwise difficult.
Blogging is a form of communication that is both asynchronous and synchronous. You put something out; you never will know what the effects are. Yet there are the immediate responses in comments that allow you to engage in dialogue and dig deeper into the issue or to get caught up in propaganda or posturing or downright trolling.
As a form of communication, it is only part of a life.
I for one am glad that the progressive blogosphere is becoming less populated with people who are blogging all the time. We are less isolated. And hearing more about the world outside the blogosphere.
It has little to do with grief, and more an unwillingness to listen to bullshit and pretend it’s true.
I may edit this post, or write a follow-up. But basically, it amounts to this: when broadcast TV transitioned to digital, my then-gf and I decided not to get a conversion box. I have been without TV ever since, watching the shows I hear are good via netflix (either streaming or DVD).
I read the news -which allows me to ingest information critically- but I do not WATCH the news.
Two weeks ago on tour, we were in a hotel for a couple of days. My room had TV, so I watched some and I swear to god I felt my brain melting and leaking out my ear.
I long ago stopped watching the news – had the same fluid brain leak reaction – but my problem is less with the BS that is freely catapulted than the truth masked by the catapulted BS. Sometimes I get the idea of total withdrawal from society, albeit not for the same reasons as the Ayn Rand crowd. More succinctly, I have an understanding of how badly stuff sucks and I have very few realistic options.
Aaaaah. Wall Street media derangement syndrome. I get that every time I go to the laundromat and have to endure the stuff that’s designed for an audience of stay-at-home women of all ages. The hyperactivity and shouting and fake enthusiasm is irritating. Just as irritating as when I have to watch CNN on the televisions at the thrift store from which I rescue old books, videotapes, and DVDs.
I’ve concluded that it is grief over a society that no longer exists except in memory and could yet exist with just a little effort. These irritants just poke hard enough at my denial that I live in a hostile environment to provoke my anger. It’s a reflexive response and no amount of rational intention can control its emergence.
We live in a culture that enforces the proposition that you listen to bullshit and pretend that it is true. Call that the Lewis Powell culture. Or the Roger Ailes culture. Or the Karl Rove culture. But because it brings power and wealth, it now has become the default culture. But that’s where we are until we can change the popular culture. “Political incorrectness” and “extreme” this and that have become covers for cruelty and enforced bullshit.
I’d say that it’s grief over realizing that the advertised society (of, by, and for the people; all men are created equal; etc.) never actually existed and frustration with trying to navigate and change the society that actually exists (red pill indigestion). Of course, everyone’s experience is different, but that’s a fairly-accurate representation of my POV.
“The hyperactivity and shouting and fake enthusiasm is irritating.”
THIS. THIS. THIS.
It’s too much for me. if people talked like that in real life, you’d strangle them.
and what’s totally fucked up is that my parents watch more and more tv as they get older, and I swear to god they’re adopting the same speech patterns.
I used to get angry, but now walk away or surf away from troll bait. Spending a lot more free time on photography and experimental guitar these days.
I spend my time running, playing music, traveling, and hanging out with girls.
First of all, I appreciate life and all beings in their struggle for survival. As fladem stated, blogging is about political discourse. I do watch news from many sources via satellite reception: Sky News, BBC, CNNi, CNBC, France24, Italian RAI, Deutsche Welle, RT and Al Jazeera.
I don’t get angry with the news as I have been through drama on the media that was much worse in my lifetime. I do challenge propaganda, I always have since the Kennedy assassination, the sixties and the Vietnam War. I get angry about bad decisions leading to more suffering for the people.
Difficulty is to find the right balance between time spend blogging and just enjoying family life, sports and cycling through a beautiful dune landscape nearbij.
Dune landscape Meijendel
Good old school funny video. Thanks for posting it here. Made my day.
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