Columnists
Tea and cookie time
It’s Sunday. It’s November 3rd, and if you aren’t concerned about the outcome of the USA Presidential Election, you should be. Whatever the outcome, we’ve got a huge pile of problems in this old world. If the USA has decided to elect a deranged, Putin-loving, hatred-towardswomen spewing, psychopath as their President, then we’re in for a heap of hellfire and brimstone. Oh yes we are!
Like a lot of all y’all, I’m sick of all the hatred and rhetoric being slung around by politicians and trolls. As it turns out, it’s not just the politicians and trolls in the Good Ole US of A. Right here in Canada we’ve got a whole lot of verbal abuse volleyball going on amongst the elected officials, both provincially and federally. I’m not so naive as to believe this is a brand new phenomenon. I know mudslinging is as old as cave drawings. The difference now is, it’s a digital world. We can’t open a browser, view a newsfeed or listen to a broadcast without being assailed by vile rhetoric, unsupported conspiracy theories and unadulterated malarkey. Recently, I chatted with a friend who admitted to being addicted to watching and listening to “the news”. My friend said it was the first thing they did every morning and the last thing they did every night. They watch the news on broadcast television. Could it be we’re addicted to the high we feel when our minds are assaulted this way? Have we learned to love the tension, the stress, the angst and the foreboding? I think we must thrive on all of those feelings. The pure rush that anger brings is like a sugar overload. It just isn’t as fattening.
Making voters feel anxious is a very calculated objective. Triggering the voters’ emotions has a huge impact on the decisions voters make. Sometimes, a voter has already made up their mind about one candidate, but are inundated with negativity aimed at the candidate and that will, in some cases, make the voter rethink their choice or, simply not vote for fear of making a mistake. When there is a wide space between two candidates, like Harris and Trump, it’s easy to drive a wedge in or fill that space with potential doubts, slander, garbage and personal issues. When the public is overwhelmed with information— lies or truths—a feeling of panic sets in. Instead of taking a deep breath, checking the source of the information or looking for more reliable, unbiased coverage, voters just give into it and latch onto the junk being spoon-fed to them.
seeing quite as much violence and hatemongering, but we are getting a lot of nasty, emotional bombast, which makes most of us feel ill-informed and unacquainted and a bit queasy. The void between political leaders, here in Canada, is widening. It might be a good time to go on a political news diet. Give yourself the time to process what you’re hearing and ask yourself why the election campaign has changed from platform issues to private and personal issues. If you’re breathless and swamped by it all, switch your telly to the Aquarium Channel and pour yourself a cup of camomile tea. It works for me. Sometimes I need a cookie, too.
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