General

The news these days is generally bad.

To wit:

• Global warming continues apace and not a whole lot is being down by governments to slow it down sufficiently to give us time to adapt
• Related to the above, there is a growing sense among some in the public of, “Well, it’s gonna happen, anyway, why sacrifice or make changes now? It’s too late!”
• Russia invaded Ukraine in February and the conflict has been bloody and filled with atrocities and war crimes on the Russian side. This has had ripple effects on the global economy
• Speaking of the global economy, the combination of the pandemic and mysterious other things which economic experts often never seem to fully explain, has lead to, among other things:
  • Shortages of various products, everything from certain types of food to electronics
  • Inflation. It’s back, baby!
  • Profiteering thanks to unfettered capitalism allowing companies to raise prices under the cover of “inflation” to make even more profits off of everyone else
• The pandemic continues, with cases rising in some places and the sixth wave (or second Omicron wave, as some call it) subsiding. The “good” news here is most pandemic restrictions are gone, so people are basically left to fend for themselves in most settings. Also, most people think either the pandemic is over or the worst is behind us, so yay?
• Mass shootings continue apace (another one today in the U.S. Thoughts and prayers).
• The slide away from democracy continuing in the U.S., along with what will undoubtedly be fun side effects for Canada
• TikTok. Yes, just TikTok.

There is good news, too, of course, even if you sometimes have to look for it. Here’s one I found on the CBC News site (from yesterday) about Angela Lansbury receiving a special Tony Award. Lansbury is an absolute delight and still active at 96.

But generally, it is bad. And the bad stuff always gets promoted over the good, for various reasons.

I subscribed to the Next Draft newsletter by Dave Pell. He’s a good writer, covers the stuff you’d expect to be covered, and does it with both observations both witty and cogent. But today as I was reading about the brutal Chinese treatment of the Uyghur minority, 61% (that’s over 42 million people) of Trump voters apparently believing the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, and other maladies of the world, I scrolled down to the bottom of the newsletter and hit the unsubscribe link.

I’m not going to avoid the news, but I am going to keep a tighter control on how and where I view it. Part of that I’ve already started: Checking the news is no longer part of my morning routine. I do it later in the afternoon. I figure if the world suddenly starts to end, I’ll probably find out, anyway.

I feel better already.