Electing What to do Now

A lot of Life in the Boomer Lane’s friends have declared a break from all things political: The constant stream of 24/7 news in their homes has been silenced. Political conversation has stopped. All reference to our newly-elected Nero-in-Chief has ceased. Anger and depression reign, taking up residence with that part of their souls that already houses genocide, poverty, gun culture, and unfair parking tickets. It’s completely understandable. It may not be productive, but it’s understandable. LBL is aware that sometimes, we must vacate the house of our higher selves in order to take up temporary residence in the damp, sort-of-creepy basement.

To those who can relate, LBL would suggest that perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at the news and the conversations and the thoughts that are being abandoned. Is that even possible? LBL has taken a hard look at her own stream of information sources, and she has decided to make some changes.

Back in 2016, and lasting until 2020, LBL meticulously followed every breath that POTUS took. Like airplane passengers who must stay awake during the flight (If they don’t, the pilot will crash the plane), LBL believed that only if she tracked the minute-by-minute spewings of our Person-in-Chief, would she save democracy from certain demise. As soon as Biden was elected, she no longer watched (Insert initials of your choice)24/7 news. She trusted Biden to make mistakes, but not to end the world as we knew it.

She is also newly aware that her enemy is neither the newly-elected president, nor the opposition politcal party nor the giant dark cloud that seems to be hanging over our heads. It’s disinformation. Disinformation goes deeper than politics. It forms our opinions of the vaccines we give our children and ourselves, our trust of science and of the media. LBL has started to look at organizations like News Literacy Project, Neweum ED, Center for Media Literacy, and FactCheck.org, that exist to teach people how to think about issues (as opposed to what to think about issues), as well as to provide evidence that many reported events that have spread like wildfire on the internet, may not be valid.

She still consults her Apple newsfeed, as well as the outstanding daily newsletter put out by Heather Cox Richardson. She subscribes to the New York Times daily newsfeed. She has now added Tangle, an outstanding overview of news topics with no specific agenda, other than to keep people informed. The goal is to get smart on all sides, left right and center.

She has also started to read other sources, ones that deep dive into specific topics. Instead of panels of experts who discuss the attention-grabbing news of the moment and then work it to death on TV, she consults those who discuss actual events and share heir deep thoughts. Her new go-to news sources now include Substack, an online platform which includes political writers across a wide base. Contributors include Robert Hubbell (teaching people to “think better’), Robert Reich (former Secy of Labor), Steven Bechloss (journalist, filmmaker), and Aaron Rupar (indie journalist of US politiocs and media). She always gets value out of these contributors.

As humans, we tend to create our own reality, based on personal experience, hearsay, and natural inclination. Then, having created a reality, we act as though it were true. We often miss the fact that most of our “How-could-I-do-otherwise?” behavior is actually a choice, and that there are a variety of choices we can select when life hands us what appears to be, at first glance, a steaming pile of dog poop. It never occurs to us that our reactions are often outcomes of what others tell us we should be feeling or believing. Like Sargeant Friday of “Dragnet“ vintage TV fame, while talking to a witness who is giving way too much extraneous information, LBL is at the point where she is directing Mother Earth (to simply provide) “Just the facts, Ma’m.” She will then form her own opinion. Analysis absolutely has its place, but not at the expence of facts.

Loyal Readers may be concerned that their entire day will now be spent reading news and political essays. LBL assures you that her own day allows for only for 10-15 minutes of this stuff, five if she has an early apointment. Especially provacative reading may demand a deeper dive in the evening. She’s a fast reader, for sure, but she is challenged in the attention span department. Anything over 15 or 20 minutes generally drops off a cliff. That’s enough to get her day started and leave lots of room for everything else, including whether she should screen in her entire wraparound porch.

All comments are welcome, especially the porch thing.