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You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Stream of Consciousness / Everything Seems to be Going Faster

Everything Seems to be Going Faster

by John Cole|  April 27, 202312:52 pm| 114 Comments

This post is in: Stream of Consciousness

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I don’t know what is going on anymore. And it is not for a lack of trying. Every day I sit down, and I check a number of news sites, blogs, magazines, twitter, etc., and try to catch up on what is going on. And I will find something, read about it, go to look somewhere else for more info or a different perspective, do some background reading and try to understand the issue, and before I have formulated a coherent, deliberate, and worthwhile thought, I’ll see eleventy-seven other things pop up that deserve my attention and concern.

I mean just look at the front page of every news page- there is just so much shit happening it is hard to even attempt to keep up. It’s a constant bombardment of shit I don’t know or understand. Here is the lead story on the WaPo:

Everything Seems to be Going Faster

The amount of brainpower required to process everything in that headline and story is too much.

“OK- UAE, so Asia next to Saudi Arabia. Need to remember history of UAE. Don’t recall our relationship with them. What is the dynamic/relationship with Saudi Arabia. Are they Sunni/Shia? Any involvement in Yemen mess? Relationship with Iran? I think it’s a monarchy, dunno if authoritarian or figurehead. Oil, of course. What is China’s goal? Is China actually doing anything new or different than what we do? Who wrote this? Do they have a history of pushing an agenda? Why is this surfacing now? Who leaked this? Who did they leak it to? Was it a strategic or accidental leak? Who benefits by this? Is this saber rattling? Are American corporate interests pushing this? Is this part of a coordinated effort?”

And on and fucking on.

It’s just too much. And that’s just one of hundreds of things I see every fucking day and I simply can not process it all. It’s just too much news. Too much stuff I can not control. Too much stuff I can not understand or have time to understand.

And this is not even going into the hundreds of daily domestic assaults on democracy by Republicans.

It’s hard to not be overwhelmed.

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Reader Interactions

114Comments

  1. 1.

    stacib

    April 27, 2023 at 12:58 pm

    I’m glad it’s not just me.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    April 27, 2023 at 12:59 pm

    I let you guys filter the news for me.

  3. 3.

    cain

    April 27, 2023 at 1:00 pm

    I think we need to let our foreign policy people worry about that. We need to focus on the domestic side – we have a fascist party that is gunning for all of us. For me that is the threat that is closer than anything else. I’m not going to worry about China – that’s Biden’s job. My job is hold the GOP accountable and reduce their grip on politics to the point that they let go.

  4. 4.

    kindness

    April 27, 2023 at 1:01 pm

    I just read that article.  I’m not really bothered about it.  I mean, what is one facility in the UAE going to do really?  As leverage the US can pull all of it’s defense contracts from the UAE, but that would only seem to play into the hands of Putin & China.  I guess I’m more of a whatever! on this.  Let China spend it’s money.  The Saudis & the UAE are allies, but only to a point it seems.

  5. 5.

    bbleh

    April 27, 2023 at 1:03 pm

    It’s just too much. And that’s just one of hundreds of things I see every fucking day and I simply can not process it all. It’s just too much news. Too much stuff I can not control. Too much stuff I can not understand…

    It’s okay, there’s a simple solution: just … stop trying! Adopt a rigid, dogmatic set of beliefs, preferably one that leaves most decisions to an authority figure, avoid all contrary input, and when you can’t avoid it, angrily deny its truth or existence.

    In short, join today’s Republican Party!

  6. 6.

    Sean

    April 27, 2023 at 1:05 pm

    I feel like this constantly. I read so much information that I just have to file away in the “horrible shit that’s coming” file because so much of it is beyond any form of control for a normal person. If worrying was currency, I’d be in the top tier earners.

  7. 7.

    eclare

    April 27, 2023 at 1:06 pm

    @cain:   Agree.  I trust Joe to have the right people in place to analyze this and come up with conclusions, if any.  There is only so much I can focus on.

  8. 8.

    Layer8Problem

    April 27, 2023 at 1:06 pm

    @bbleh:  “join today’s Republican Party!”

    Don’t be stupid, be a smartie . . .

  9. 9.

    trollhattan

    April 27, 2023 at 1:07 pm

    @kindness: I’m waiting for Gy-na to bring Belt & Road to some of our freedom™-loving Confederate states. Pretty sure I’m not kidding on this.

  10. 10.

    raven

    April 27, 2023 at 1:09 pm

    Maybe you shouldn’t have given up sports.

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    April 27, 2023 at 1:09 pm

    @cain:

     

    Relating to your comment:

     

     

    Spilling the end game before they can coat it in Frankl Luntz-Approved dogwhistles.

    Emerson Gravely (@Emerson_Gravely) tweeted at 7:07 AM on Wed, Apr 26, 2023:
    Ron DeSantis calls for a Constitutional Convention of the states in order to remake the Constitution and the nation into some form of far right authoritarian rule. https://t.co/gRCRUtS0T8
    (https://twitter.com/Emerson_Gravely/status/1651196180385128450?t=-rSTtp6iuKn4CCOT3widjQ&s=03)

  12. 12.

    narya

    April 27, 2023 at 1:11 pm

    I’m with Baud. I rarely click through to get more detail on links here, but I’m glad there’s a place I can go if I want to know more. I watch Chris Hayes, and I (more or less) follow Marcy Wheeler, plus I dabble a little in various trial proceedings (E. Jean, but especially the Proud Boys)–but, as an example, I did not follow every single day of testimony in the PB case. But I just don’t have bandwidth of the type you mention, John; I just cannot.

  13. 13.

    scav

    April 27, 2023 at 1:12 pm

    Just because they’re now hanging a “water fountain” sign on a fire hose (Gotta fill those 24 hours! Vacuum the world!!) doesn’t mean we need to drink from it. Basic knowledge about the stuff you can actually influence is one baseline and expert knowledge about the things one more nearly controls is the important direction.  Most of the other stuff is a hobby.

  14. 14.

    Craig

    April 27, 2023 at 1:15 pm

    Dubai, UAE. Tons of empty condos where Chinese billionaires launder money. The People’s Army has interests there. I’m more interested in the report I read last week about Chinese Police Stations in the continental USA. I couldn’t really parse that, and now I can’t find it.

  15. 15.

    Eolirin

    April 27, 2023 at 1:16 pm

    @scav: I would add that we also have a moral obligation to bear witness to atrocity, as difficulty as it is to do, and within the limits of necessary self care.

  16. 16.

    Suzanne

    April 27, 2023 at 1:18 pm

    I think filtering/curating is critical. Both for one’s own mental health, but also to separate signal and noise.

  17. 17.

    Burnspbesq

    April 27, 2023 at 1:19 pm

    Focus on what’s truly important:

    (1) Republicans are trying to destroy America, and must be stopped;

    (2) this year’s NCAA lacrosse tournament gon’ be lit. Six teams (Notre Dame, Duke, Virginia, Maryland, Johns Hopkins, and Cornell) have a legitimate shot at the title.

  18. 18.

    Doug R

    April 27, 2023 at 1:21 pm

    Saudi Arabia-Sunni with that death cult Wahabbist sect that OBL belonged to. Iran-Shia. Iraq-majority Shia but Saddam and his cabal were Sunni.

  19. 19.

    Percysowner

    April 27, 2023 at 1:24 pm

    @Baud: ​
     This is where I go when news gets overwhelming.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    April 27, 2023 at 1:24 pm

    Wait another 20 years or so. Light speed has nothing on the perceived pace of events (and also that of the calendar) relative to age.

  21. 21.

    PJ

    April 27, 2023 at 1:27 pm

    @scav: ​
      Yep. Before the 24 hour news cycle, and social media, and Twitter, etc., most people would just check on those news a couple of times a day, when they read the paper in the morning or watched the evening news.

    I find that, for me, trying to get a handle on everything that’s going on in the world is a mechanism to assuage my anxiety about the current state of things, or just my own life, as if reading about all these things is going to prepare me for what comes next in society or my own life. But all it does is increase the anxiety. We all have limited power to do anything. Trying to know everything will not help with that.

  22. 22.

    scav

    April 27, 2023 at 1:27 pm

    @Eolirin: But not to the exclusion of other things.  It does no one any good to rush around witnessing things and more things and still more things and not doing actual remediation of the wrongs one can personally address.  Mrs Jellyby isn’t exactly a role model.  But generally, yes.

  23. 23.

    rikyrah

    April 27, 2023 at 1:27 pm

    @Burnspbesq:

    (1) Republicans are trying to destroy America, and must be stopped;

     

    I completely agree. While the rest of the world is important, of course.

    We cannot take our eyes of the ball of the full-blown fascism that is happening in the Red States.

     

    From the TN3 to the Montana 1- duly elected legislators are being sanctioned and threatened with expulsion just for representing their constituents.

     

    These ghouls want to ban books AND put children BACK TO WORK.

    The anti-Trans genocide bills are off the chain and need to be stopped.

     

    I care about the rest of the world, but, if we fall internally, we can’t help the rest of the world.

  24. 24.

    Yutsano

    April 27, 2023 at 1:28 pm

    Focus on this:

    When’s the damn wedding?

  25. 25.

    Juju

    April 27, 2023 at 1:29 pm

    Well, you’re doing better than I am. When I saw UAE I was thinking Ukraine, but my brain is lack of sleep gorked right now. The dogs do not like storms and I must do something about it now, now, now!  Also, autocomplete and autocorrect keep messing with my mind.

  26. 26.

    Roger Moore

    April 27, 2023 at 1:30 pm

    I don’t think this are actually happening a lot faster. We’re just better able to find out about all the stuff that’s happening, to the point it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the firehose of information. To a substantial extent, I think the right solution is to take a step back and not let yourself get overwhelmed. When something like this comes up, make a note of it but don’t feel compelled to dig too much deeper. Instead, wait and see if you hear more about it and only start digging when it becomes part of a larger pattern.

  27. 27.

    hw3

    April 27, 2023 at 1:31 pm

    Amen. Wonder if a curated list of good sources for followup information makes sense?

    I worry that these lists themselves become increasingly difficult to curate as more and more non-human generated content is flooding our media landscape.

    Scary thing about the rise of AI generated content is this line between who’s doing what will become even more blurred. Don’t even get me started on deep-fake potential for bad actors.

    Reason I love this community is the willingness of folks to constantly pop bubbles of bullshit. Just worry that some day we will all be forced by sheer volume to throw up our hands.

  28. 28.

    trollhattan

    April 27, 2023 at 1:32 pm

    @Percysowner: ​ This is where I go when news gets overwhelming.

    I see your problem right there. :-)

  29. 29.

    Juju

    April 27, 2023 at 1:32 pm

    @Layer8Problem: why would I want to be a chalkie fruit flavored candy that makes your tongue raw if you eat too many of them?

  30. 30.

    pieceofpeace

    April 27, 2023 at 1:37 pm

    Be ruthless and clean up your inbox – make bookmarks for Read – Right Now!. Later – important, Later – for interest/fun, or whatever you choose for titles.

    I agree completely with you.  Brain was frantically overwhelmed, so purposely left the enticing computer home for 1 week.  Then reduced incoming mail by ½.  Doesn’t fix it entirely, but had to leave it, then revisit, in a healthier frame of mind, to know what to do.   Cathartic and good for reducing stress….life is more balanced and new creative interests popping up.

    Best of luck!

  31. 31.

    narya

    April 27, 2023 at 1:39 pm

    Here’s another thing I’ve noticed in my own brain, thanks to hanging out here: I cannot follow EVERY damn thing, and not everything is of the same urgency to me. BUT I know there are others who are paying attention to things that interest me less/aren’t in my wheelhouse, so I can trust that someone is paying attention, and I can reorder my priorities if I need to do that, or leave the following-very-closely to someone else here at BJ.

  32. 32.

    Josie

    April 27, 2023 at 1:41 pm

    I always think back to what I was feeling during the Cuban missile crisis. I was a college sophomore, away from home and scared of what was happening. I called my folks to get some direction, and my mother told me that all we could do was trust President Kennedy to handle things and go on with our lives as best we could. It sounds simplistic, but it’s pretty good advice, especially with foreign policy. I am just grateful that President Biden is in charge right now, since I know he appoints good people.​

  33. 33.

    cain

    April 27, 2023 at 1:41 pm

    Let’s kick some GOP ass instead. I’m refreshed and ready to go!

  34. 34.

    BruceFromOhio

    April 27, 2023 at 1:43 pm

    It’s hard to not be overwhelmed.

    It is. The challenge is getting the signal-to-noise ratio down to a level that allows enough information in without drowning.

    @Baud: this has definitely helped. The BJ front pagers have a knack for timely and relevant (Anne, Betty, Adam, WG, PE) while balancing with “good for me” content (Levenson, Anderson, M4, P Eddie again).

    I’ve cut the inputs down to what aligns with my plans, my beliefs, and my interests. Helps to focus “what do I need to know?” Socializing directly in person with actual humans definitely helps scratch that itch.

  35. 35.

    tobie

    April 27, 2023 at 1:43 pm

    Unlike others here, I am worried about China’s new aggressive strategy to establish itself as a, if not eventually the, world’s superpower. China has bought up resources in most of Africa. It is now actively gaining a foothold in Latin America. Brazil and Argentina are aligning with them. Paraguay and other countries are under pressure. China’s eyeing Taiwan in ways we haven’t seen before. It’s beefing up its nuclear arsenal in ways we haven’t seen before. And, BRICs has succeeded in getting more and more countries to decouple their currency from the US dollar. Yesterday, Indonesia announced it would do so.

    More so than Russia, I think China represents the US’s biggest geopolitical challenge. One bulwark against it would be if Mexico, Canada and the US join forces as each other’s supply chains. Biden and Trudeau have been talking about this, which is good.

  36. 36.

    CaseyL

    April 27, 2023 at 1:44 pm

    Remember “Think Globally, Act Locally”? That’s good advice.

    There is little to nothing we can actually do about international stuff.  We can make a point of supporting certain countries (Ukraine!) to the best of our ability, but we can’t do much more than that, and IMO gathering a lot of information about bad things happening everywhere overseas is a prescription for despair.

    What helps, I think (and what life experience has borne out) is to pick a few things that: a) are of particular importance to you; and b) that you can actually have some impact on.  Stick with those as much as you can, and train yourself to ignore the lures of other issues/events/causes that are terribly important, or terribly interesting, but simply overwhelming.

    Life is not Pokemon:  you do not, in fact, “have to catch them all!”

    Also: I’ve found I have much lower anxiety/rage levels since I stopped watching TV news (and listening to radio news) and got off Twitter.   I do rely on sources – including, very much, BJ – to keep up on what’s happening, but I also avoid sources that will just feed the rage-despair loop.

    Hope that helps.

    And seconding Yutsano: How are the wedding plans coming?

  37. 37.

    kindness

    April 27, 2023 at 2:00 pm

    @tobie: China (Xi) has Empire aspirations no doubt.  Empires though…they work till they don’t any more.

  38. 38.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 27, 2023 at 2:04 pm

    I know the UAE because it’s so politically weeeeird and because I’m interested in theme parks and they built some there.

    If I recall correctly, it’s basically a republic of monarchies, a structure that I don’t think exists anywhere else. The individual emirates are monarchies but the UAE has a rotating presidency between these monarchs.

    Weird ambitious things done with oil money. Nominally friendly with the US but, uh, this doesn’t mean they’re good guys.

  39. 39.

    Tony Jay

    April 27, 2023 at 2:10 pm

    ‘Things’ are always happening somewhere. That was true back when Ogg was in the valley next to Ugg and it’s always going to be true. The difference is that there’s now a global infotainment industry dedicated to telling you how IMPORTANT it all is and how you SHOULD be VERY worried about it.

    You’ve got a Government run by smart people who listen to actual experts, let them get on with it and concentrate on your own business. If there’s anything you really need to have an opinion on you’ll smell the burning and hear the bang in good time.

    Plus, rest assured, if it all gets crazy enough that ‘something must be done!’ I’ll just shed this human skin and reveal the true, awesome glory of My Father’s wrath to some melonfarmer. No charge.

  40. 40.

    Ohio Mom

    April 27, 2023 at 2:11 pm

    Jerry Springer died, 79, of colon cancer. I remember when he was mayor of Cincinnati (I voted for him) and a local six o’clock newscaster and commentator (I watched him), and his aborted attempt to get back into Democratic politics after that disgraceful career as a talk show host.

    He had a full life, my list isn’t the half of it.

  41. 41.

    Antonius

    April 27, 2023 at 2:15 pm

    Preach, my brother.

  42. 42.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 27, 2023 at 2:15 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    after that disgraceful career as a talk show host 

    Why did he do that given his education and previous jobs?  A boatload of money?

  43. 43.

    JustRuss

    April 27, 2023 at 2:16 pm

    @kindness:  Yeah, seems like a weird story to lead with. So China has a base in a country we’re nominally sorta allied with…um, duly noted.  On the other hand “China! Oogida-boogida!” is one of the planks in the Republican platform…seems like somebody at WaPo is on-board.

  44. 44.

    cmorenc

    April 27, 2023 at 2:18 pm

    @John Cole:

    I mean just look at the front page of every news page- there is just so much shit happening it is hard to even attempt to keep up. It’s a constant bombardment of shit I don’t know or understand.

    Same principle applies with trying to follow all potentially attention-worthy world and domestic events as one of my guitar instructors said about trying to learn all the worthwhile material there is on guitar: “don’t try to drink from the firehose” – at any one time, pick no more than one or a small handful of things (or pieces) to work on practicing and doing reasonably well with with before moving on to other ones, rather than trying to tackle everything of worthwhile interest at once.  To do otherwise is the path to frustration rather than enlightenment.

  45. 45.

    UncleEbeneezer

    April 27, 2023 at 2:18 pm

    Greetings from Grantsville, WV where my MIL grew up.  Lovely scenery and ONLY two Dixie Swastika flags on the long and very windy drive in!

  46. 46.

    Raoul Paste

    April 27, 2023 at 2:19 pm

    This was an encouraging comment thread. It validates the onslaught of information and issues, yet kind of says “take heart and fight the good fight”

  47. 47.

    cope

    April 27, 2023 at 2:21 pm

    @Craig: Maybe this?

    https://apnews.com/article/china-us-overseas-secret-police-stations-c6198ea361d07500604a80f0d31573cc

  48. 48.

    tobie

    April 27, 2023 at 2:21 pm

    @kindness: This is true. Careful what you wish for. But till that happens China’s hostility to the US and efforts to win over historical allies is not something that can be shrugged off. If it’s successful, this will make a difference in our lives.

  49. 49.

    djwid

    April 27, 2023 at 2:23 pm

    @Baud: Same

  50. 50.

    frosty

    April 27, 2023 at 2:26 pm

    Anne Laurie curates the news for me. Last night she had something I hadn’t seen before, which puts me in your situation, John. I’m trying to cut down from 3-4 hours of B-J and news daily so I can get something done!

  51. 51.

    Kelly

    April 27, 2023 at 2:27 pm

     

    John Prine had a moment like this, being overwhelmed by news. It lead to his song “Dear Abby”

    “I was in Europe and my first wife and I stopped in Rome for the day. I wanted a newspaper and all they had was the International Herald Tribune which is all the tragic news in the world crammed into six pages with no sports results and no comics. And yet here’s ‘Dear Abby.’ She was the only relief in the whole paper. and that’s where I wrote most of the song – in Rome, Italy that is.”

  52. 52.

    West of the Rockies

    April 27, 2023 at 2:28 pm

    This is a very complicated case, Maude.  You know,  a lotta ins, a lotta  outs, a lot of what-have-yous.  And a lotta strands to keep in your head, man.

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    April 27, 2023 at 2:30 pm

    @Roger Moore: I dunno… when there are 15 or 150 grand juries investigation / working toward indictments against the former president – that adds a lot to the pile.

  54. 54.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 27, 2023 at 2:31 pm

    @rikyrah:I care about the rest of the world, but, if we fall internally, we can’t help the rest of the world.

    Yes if democracy fails here that would have disastrous consequences throughout the world. Tankies won’t like this assessment but it is true.

  55. 55.

    eclare

    April 27, 2023 at 2:32 pm

    @Tony Jay:   Very wise.  And a bargain on Wrath!

  56. 56.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 27, 2023 at 2:32 pm

    OT: What do you think of someone who thinks that suicide and depression are funny?

  57. 57.

    eclare

    April 27, 2023 at 2:33 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer:   Which shirt did you go with?

  58. 58.

    Layer8Problem

    April 27, 2023 at 2:36 pm

    @Juju:  Pfft, you already are a candy:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jujube_(confectionery)

  59. 59.

    Roger Moore

    April 27, 2023 at 2:38 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    I dunno… when there are 15 or 150 grand juries investigation / working toward indictments against the former president – that adds a lot to the pile.

    Sure, but look at what a lot of news associated with those grand juries looks like.  The grand juries work in secret, so very little of what they’re doing is actually available.  Instead, the media tries to find little scraps of information and blow them up into something story-worthy based on those scraps and a lot of speculation.  Most of us could safely ignore all that stuff and wait for the grand juries to indict or not.

  60. 60.

    trollhattan

    April 27, 2023 at 2:39 pm

    @Kelly: ​”You are what you are, and you ain’t what you ain’t.”
    r.i.p. John Prine

  61. 61.

    eclare

    April 27, 2023 at 2:40 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:   As someone with good friends who have struggled with depression and with a relative who committed suicide, I fail to see the humor.

  62. 62.

    Roger Moore

    April 27, 2023 at 2:40 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    What do you think of someone who thinks that suicide and depression are funny?

    That sounds like someone to avoid if at all possible.

  63. 63.

    Layer8Problem

    April 27, 2023 at 2:45 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer:  Geez, you’re only two counties to the left of my Mom’s.

  64. 64.

    Layer8Problem

    April 27, 2023 at 2:48 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:  I don’t know how it was delivered, but possibly someone in denial of their own impulses along those lines?

  65. 65.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 27, 2023 at 2:49 pm

    @eclare: @Roger Moore: Unfortunately they are hard to avoid.

  66. 66.

    Ohio Mom

    April 27, 2023 at 2:53 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: My guess is, either a combination of yes, greed and cynicism, or he wanted to leave his disabled daughter a fat trust fund. Or maybe all three.

    He was hailed as a “young Kennedy” type when he started in Cincinnati politics. After the show, he wanted to return to politics but discovered the show cast too big a shadow. So he may have rued those years in the end.

  67. 67.

    Juju

    April 27, 2023 at 2:54 pm

    @Layer8Problem: I know. I get stuck in your teeth. That’s what I live for.

  68. 68.

    Soprano2

    April 27, 2023 at 2:57 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: I think that’s gross and disgusting myself.

  69. 69.

    eclare

    April 27, 2023 at 2:59 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:  Ugh.

  70. 70.

    Steve in the ATL

    April 27, 2023 at 3:08 pm

    @Ohio Mom: life lesson from Jerry: don’t pay your hookers with personal checks!

  71. 71.

    Baud

    April 27, 2023 at 3:11 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    He helped so many people find their true fathers.

  72. 72.

    Windpond

    April 27, 2023 at 3:12 pm

    That’s why I look forward to watching Ted Lasso, season 3. A tiny shard of light in an otherwise overwhelming world that is causing sensory overload and tampering with my serenity.

  73. 73.

    Sure Lurkalot

    April 27, 2023 at 3:16 pm

    @Ohio Mom: I went from college to full time work and had no kids, so I never watched much daytime TV. I heard of Jerry Springer but had no idea what his show was like. Ditto Oprah, Ellen, The View and countless others whose names I don’t know.

    Oprah has foisted a myriad of charlatans into the mainstream, some of whose quackery has ruined people’s lives. Mr. Springer’s show seems to have mostly affected his own future, which I gather from your political support of him, may have been a good one for him and others. Fame and fortune creates perverse incentives.

  74. 74.

    rikyrah

    April 27, 2023 at 3:17 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    OT: What do you think of someone who thinks that suicide and depression are funny?

     

    I would give them links to the suicide hotline, and tell them that you are there, if they need to talk.

    Either they are crying/screaming for help.

    Or, they’re sociopaths.

  75. 75.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 27, 2023 at 3:20 pm

    @rikyrah: I would go with an evil sociopath. And the people laughing at the “joke” are just as bad. That’s the part of the press that favors Modi.

    see #65

  76. 76.

    Sure Lurkalot

    April 27, 2023 at 3:21 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Instead, the media tries to find little scraps of information and blow them up into something story-worthy based on those scraps and a lot of speculation.

    Not 24 hours after Carlson was canned there was speculation he will run for president. Every day since, more and more. As you point out, sound bites signaling nothing get woven together in narratives only to be debunked the next day. Can’t wait until this stuff is AI generated /s.

  77. 77.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    April 27, 2023 at 3:22 pm

    Pfff

    You think you’re overwhelmed, today is the NFL draft and I can’t figure out who the Chiefs are drafting😱

  78. 78.

    Ohio Mom

    April 27, 2023 at 3:24 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: In fairness to Springer, that was in the days before ATMs. If you didn’t have cash on hand, and couldn’t get to a bank because it wasn’t regular banking hours, all you had were checks.

    Credit cards weren’t as prevalent as they are now either, and even if they were, there would still be that paper trail. That’s how Springer’s “purchase” was found out, when the police busted the, as they called it, prostitution ring.

    IIRC, Springer then resigned his seat on City Council; I moved here after he had made his comeback.

  79. 79.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 27, 2023 at 3:25 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Speaking as someone who has lost an old friend to suicide, and known and loved many people with depression: Suicide and depression aren’t funny, but not-funny subjects can be the basis of humor, if handled with some delicacy. There are terrible things we can sometimes only mentally deal with by laughing at them.

    So I think I’d have to know more about the context to make any kind of judgment.

  80. 80.

    gene108

    April 27, 2023 at 3:27 pm

    @tobie:

    Unlike others here, I am worried about China’s new aggressive strategy to establish itself as a, if not eventually the, world’s superpower.

    The Chinese are in it for themselves and not some sort of goal that would help other countries like the U.S. did with the Marshall Plan or what USAID does.

    One of the most glaring examples is Sri Lanka, which defaulted on a mountain of debt last year as it grappled with a spiraling economic crisis. But cracks emerged far earlier: After struggling to cough up enough money to Beijing in 2017, it signed over the rights to a strategic port, fueling alarm of the dangers of China’s lending practices. In Pakistan, which owes nearly one-third of its foreign debt to China, protests have erupted around a major port project. And in recent weeks, debt-laden Zambia has been tensely wrangling a restructuring plan with China, its biggest bilateral creditor.

    The BRI has “fallen on hard times,” Kugelman said. “I think that many, many countries have realized that they simply don’t have the luxury of an economic structure that can withstand the type of loans that have been coming in from China for so long.”

    Some of that can be attributed to the haphazard way in which the BRI was executed. To advance the initiative, many Chinese firms were so focused on administering projects that issues of economic feasibility and risk were not prioritized, said Yun Sun, the director of the China program at the Stimson Center.

    “The Chinese did not think through the economic viability of a lot of these loan projects because their priority was [to] glorify BRI, to implement projects to ensure that BRI materializes and is happening all over the world,” she said.

    As Sri Lanka buckled under its debt, China officially gave it a two-year debt moratorium in early February—and it’s just one of dozens of countries that have now been offered at least a partial reprieve. In 2020, China delayed debt repayments for 77 nations. But that has also left Chinese lenders swimming in risk, Parks said, leaving Beijing in a precarious economic position.

    “They’re in a kind of firefighting mode,” Parks said. “They are frankly ill-equipped for the challenge that they’re up against right now because they don’t have a long history of being an overseas lender in times of crisis.”

    https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/02/13/china-belt-and-road-initiative-infrastructure-development-geopolitics/

  81. 81.

    Baud

    April 27, 2023 at 3:28 pm

    Some good news.

    US adult cigarette smoking rate hits new all-time low

  82. 82.

    Kay

    April 27, 2023 at 3:28 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    Do you remember him on Air America? Was on a local station in Toledo. I listened in my car. A Ford Taurus! I liked the Taurus because it was the car everyone had – no one paid any attention to you at all in a Taurus.

  83. 83.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    April 27, 2023 at 3:31 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
      you can’t fight in here, this is the war room

  84. 84.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    April 27, 2023 at 3:32 pm

    @Ohio Mom: I remember his support as a TV announcer in Cincinnati when the local contemporary art museum displayed the exhibition of Robert Maplethorpe’s photographs, the ones that sent Jesse Helms into a tizzy and let the GOP screw over the NEA.  The museum director was sued for obscenity; a case he and his lawyers won.

  85. 85.

    cain

    April 27, 2023 at 3:35 pm

    @Baud: In Paris, I saw a fairly decent number of young women smoking. Strangely, it’s more women than men. Then again, men do cause women a lot of anxiety and I can see how a nicotine drag would help.

  86. 86.

    gene108

    April 27, 2023 at 3:37 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    OT: What do you think of someone who thinks that suicide and depression are funny?

    As in mocking or making fun of people for being depressed?

    Or laughing at their own delusions* while depressed and contemplating suicide?

  87. 87.

    Baud

    April 27, 2023 at 3:39 pm

    @cain:

    I think smoking is still fairly popular overseas.

  88. 88.

    Steve in the ATL

    April 27, 2023 at 3:43 pm

    @Ohio Mom: I’m not condemning him for it–consenting adults and all that.  Just a funny way to lose your office. Today, of course, he would simply have had his lawyer pay it and fraudulently list it as a legal expense.

  89. 89.

    wonkie

    April 27, 2023 at 3:43 pm

    I get it, John. Yes, it is overwhelming. Objectively so. And overwhelmed people can become seriously depressed. I cope by choosing to not pay attention to most of it. After all, my paying attention or not paying attention is probably not going to affect the outcome. So I am pretty good about only paying attention to things I can affect. Thus, I donate money and write GOTV letters for races nationwide but pay little attention to foreign affairs. Also, and this is the result of despair, I have let go of caring about many things.  I am grateful to be old and childless and I simply don’t think about the future beyond the next election. If anyone asked me about that future, I would say very depressing things since I have no hope. So, I just do what Ican do and think about that and don’t think about anything else.  I hope that you and everyone else can find ways to cope.

  90. 90.

    trollhattan

    April 27, 2023 at 3:44 pm

    @cain: ​Growing up in Generation Surgeon General’s Report among my cohort, girls and women smokers outnumbered boys and men, and that has continued since. My kid grew up in Generation Juul and she reports the same, far more girls vape than boys. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
    Since tobacco killed dad, I’m foursquare in favor of killing the tobacco industry, with prejudice. It is truly an industry with zero benefit to humankind and yet we tolerate its existence.​

  91. 91.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    April 27, 2023 at 3:46 pm

    @Baud: ​
      Looks like I picked the wrong week to start sniffing glue

  92. 92.

    Princess

    April 27, 2023 at 3:46 pm

    @Craig: Chinese police stations in Canada too. “Police stations” is our word. They claim they are used for processing documents of Chinese nationals in North America, to make life easier for them.

  93. 93.

    Delk

    April 27, 2023 at 3:49 pm

    I just got a new transit card and had to activate it. They asked for the expiration date and it was 02/38. Confused me for a second.

  94. 94.

    Old School

    April 27, 2023 at 3:50 pm

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:

    You think you’re overwhelmed, today is the NFL draft and I can’t figure out who the Chiefs are drafting😱

    Hopefully you aren’t the Chiefs’ general manager!

  95. 95.

    trollhattan

    April 27, 2023 at 3:51 pm

    @Old School: ​Scoop: Chiefs trade up to select hot young QB prospect.

  96. 96.

    trollhattan

    April 27, 2023 at 3:52 pm

    @Delk: ​Talk about long-term planning.

  97. 97.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 27, 2023 at 3:54 pm

    @gene108: Yeah, that’s the distinction. With or without empathy?

  98. 98.

    trollhattan

    April 27, 2023 at 4:02 pm

    Attn Betty: do you know where the fuck your governor is, now? Even for him this seems a stretch.

    https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1651612597731446785?cxt=HHwWgsC-pYa62ustAAAA

  99. 99.

    WereBear

    April 27, 2023 at 4:06 pm

    When it comes to Republican disasters, the firehose can fill my (imaginary) pool where I will float above the drama with a giant rum drink and under a real parasol.

    I will look down and think about how long I’ve waited for the collapse of this particular Tower. (Tarot reference.)

  100. 100.

    Tony Jay

    April 27, 2023 at 4:06 pm

    @eclare:

    If it comes down to it, I’ll take my payment in the terror of bad people. Delicious and non-fattening.

  101. 101.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 27, 2023 at 4:07 pm

    @Delk: The new card I got a few months ago expires in 09/38.

  102. 102.

    cain

    April 27, 2023 at 4:12 pm

    @trollhattan: I think the consumption helps people with whatever mental health issues they have but it does cause addiction and bad health. I’m in favor of getting rid of it as you are.

  103. 103.

    Craig

    April 27, 2023 at 4:35 pm

    @cope: yep. That looks like the original. I saw it sourced somewhere else.

  104. 104.

    EmanG

    April 27, 2023 at 4:39 pm

    It’s the thing they don’t tell you about life growing up. It’s every goddamn day…

  105. 105.

    Burnspbesq

    April 27, 2023 at 4:42 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Didja hear about the one in Nebraska?

    There’s a Democratic state legislator that has a trans kid. Some nimrod filed an ethics complaint saying she has a conflict of interest because she voted on (against) the hateful anti-trans bill pending there. And the Republicans are fixin’ to bar her from further participation in the current session.

    I shit you not.

  106. 106.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 27, 2023 at 4:51 pm

    @Burnspbesq: They sure do seem to be trying to make it so “Second Amendment remedies” are the only ones left.

  107. 107.

    Mart

    April 27, 2023 at 5:03 pm

    It is simple to understand. Saudi Arabia and UAE were fighting a proxy war in Yemen vs. Qatar when Trump unleashed on Qatar while we have 14,000 troops there. Then Jared Kushner gets about $3B from both sides. See? Simple!

  108. 108.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 27, 2023 at 5:45 pm

    @Burnspbesq: I guess someone could introduce a bill to outlaw pasty bigots and they’d all have to recuse themselves.

  109. 109.

    CaseyL

    April 27, 2023 at 5:57 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Depends entirely on context.

    People who have survived suicide attempts may use ultra-dark humor as a coping mechanism.

    People who have lost someone to suicide may do the same thing.

    As some people here know, one of my close relatives recently attempted suicide (and is currently in the hospital).  My Mom and I got into a VERY dark-humor interlude talking about it, and I can tell you absolutely it’s not that we think suicide is “funny,” but we did need that kind of humor to decompress.

  110. 110.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 27, 2023 at 6:21 pm

    @CaseyL: A Prime Minister doing it from a podium at a public event is inappropriate

    See my later comment #65.

  111. 111.

    Gary K

    April 27, 2023 at 7:39 pm

  112. 112.

    UncleEbeneezer

    April 27, 2023 at 8:29 pm

    @eclare: Protect Trans Kids 😊

  113. 113.

    Tehanu

    April 27, 2023 at 10:55 pm

    @narya: ​
     

    I just don’t have bandwidth of the type you mention, John; I just cannot.

    Yeah, me either. Even if I had the time, which I don’t. I try to keep up with the headlines and that’s about it.

  114. 114.

    Ryan

    April 28, 2023 at 4:55 am

    Do you remember the Trump years?  I was refreshing WaPo’s front page every 10 minutes.  Of course, most of those stories were trivial.

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