I don’t know how to feel when I watch videos about politics. I’m starting to notice that I absorb the emotions of the people speaking. For example, when I watch someone who seems to be angry, frustrated, and filled with vitriol, I find that my heart races, I start to pump up my chest, and mimic the emotional state. When I watch someone talk about the news in a calm, slow state, I often slow down, finding my body relax, sometimes to the point of getting bored or wanting to fall asleep (or more likely, change the channel).
I just watched a video that a friend sent to me and the speaker was talking about how people in the mainstream media will often use very loaded language, overplaying and drowning out the facts of what is happening. In this specific case, he was talking about a journalist who claimed that Trump were a fascist, a madman, and deranged. I as well don’t like language like that—I think it hides what one is feeling subjectively by judging someone “objectively.” Trump is not a madman, per say, but he makes the speaker most likely feel mad, feel confused, feel lots of things.
However, where I often get confused in these videos is that the one speaker will accuse the other speaker of doing almost the same thing. This guy’s videos use a lot of loaded language towards the mainstream media, one such example being “falling into their trap”—it implies that the mainstream media is hunting you as they would an animal and they have set up a trap to catch you, and presumably, kill you.
The challenge is that speaking with a different emotional state—whether calm, relaxed, full of joy—doesn’t seem to drive as much attention. To get attention on an internet full of people vying for attention, one almost has to pump up the seriousness of it, add to the drama. So everything is “breaking news” or “devastating” or something else that may evoke fear or anger, typically. And one of the best ways to do that is to say there is an enemy that has evil intentions against you.
But perhaps this is me saying that these people are evil. It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend in Oakland, California a few years back. She said, “Jim, I’m tired of giving people evil genius credit.” Genius.
I don’t think these speakers are trying to instill this fear in us, I think they just feel it. I think being in the media or being in anything related to politics these days can bring a lot of pain and trauma. Back in the day, if I wrote something in the newspaper, I may have heard some feedback about how people didn’t like it, but it would take maybe 24 hours or more, because maybe it would come in letter form. Today, seconds after posting something, I can be attacked by millions of people and praised by other millions. Every part of an article I write could be dissected and picked apart for being good or bad and proving that I’m full of love or full of hate. It seems like it may cause so much misery.
So I want to pause to remember that being in the public eye can bring a lot of pain these days and to respect and honestly appreciate those who have the courage to put themselves out there. I may not agree with what you say but I appreciate that you’re willing to say it.
Now let’s see if I do it more.
