what are we doing here?

the constant news and media cycle has us constantly jumping from one tragedy to the next outrage. we don't get time to breathe. we don't get time to think, or meditate, or grieve, or be angry about any one given thing. we are forced to be mad or upset about everything, all the time, all at once.

this is extremely apparent after school shootings. as a father, every time there is a school shooting, it almost brings me to my knees. I almost always get the notification in the middle of the day as my own kids are at school. the video of children walking in a straight line, fleeing the violence in the place that is supposed to be safe for them... and how calm and normal they look, how this has become just a normal part of every day schooling. the media covers it for the obligatory 12 hours, and then, as long as there is no juicy scandal to cover like there was with Uvalde... we all just move on.

we give dead schoolchildren 12 hours of our time. we say our thoughts and prayers, then we move on to being angry about the phrase "thoughts and prayers." the bodies of our children are still warm when we move on to the next thing to be angry about.

because it's always anger, isn't it?

I'm going to share some photos here of social media posts I saw in the direct aftermath of yet another rash of anti-ICE and anti-fed riots. I want you to really read them with an objective mind, let yourself feel emotion, and then, before you react in a more visceral way, take an introspective look at what emotions were stirred up.

"no mercy." "terrorists." "I voted for this."

I'll include one more, penultimate example: Brian Kilmeade of Fox News calling for the "involuntary lethal injection" of mentally ill homeless people. "just kill them."

what the hell are we doing here?

there was a time when we fought against ideas like this. there was a time where protest was celebrated as one of our most important rights as Americans. there was a time when we didn't agree with the popular protest movement... but we at least agreed that they shouldn't be designated as terrorists for the simple act of protest.

people like the accounts above shouldn't be celebrated with ad revenue and fandom, they should be cast out of society and relegated to the dregs. calling for the genocide of the mentally ill homeless in our society should be reason enough for an immediate firing and casting Brian Kilmeade out of the industry permanently. it should be enough for a psychiatric evaluation.

proudly admitting that you voted for the designation of your neighbors as a terrorist organization, calling for the merciless beating of protestors, there was a time when that would be rightfully called un-American.

this isn't a blog post in mourning, though. when I ask "what the hell are we doing" it is not a call for calm, it is not a call for peace, it is not a call for 'making up' or 'finding common ground' with the people that want their neighbors beaten, jailed and killed.

it's a call to action for those of us who can to fight back.

we have to reclaim the information environment

it's time we talked about the disgusting places that we spend our time in online.

when I am anxious, I find one of the most helpful things to do in that moment is to clean my office and, often, the rest of my house. there is plenty of research on the effects of organization and disorganization on the human psyche, how a disorganized house causes a disorganized mind. it causes stress, anxiety, frequently makes you angry, and oftentimes the thing that helps when you're feeling the most anxious about something you cannot control is exerting power over something you can.

we need to take this same approach to our information environment.

we have to stop debating

the time for debate is over. I do not mean this hyperbolically, I mean that there is genuinely no point in debate anymore

debate is what happens between individuals who are living in a shared reality. debate is what happens between individuals who are both willing to be convinced. debate is what happens when there is no audience, or when the audience is also willing to be convinced. debate is when the primary purpose of the debate is to be convincing, not scoring internet points.

there is no more debate to be had with the type of people who are calling for "no mercy" in the military and government's treatment of protestors. there is no more debate to be had with people who want to mass murder the homeless and mentally ill. we have to stop pretending like these are normal times and the people with whom we are interfacing are normal people.

Elon's Twitter is not a place for debate. the algorithm is keyed in on outrage. the people on the right left on the site are not interested in being convinced, their audiences are not interested in listening, and there is no shared reality