{"id":3047,"date":"2024-12-16T09:33:26","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T09:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/?p=3047"},"modified":"2025-01-23T13:18:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T13:18:44","slug":"no-news-is-good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/no-news-is-good-news\/","title":{"rendered":"No news is good news"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">I posted this on Facebook a few days ago. But now I come to think of it, maybe it should be here&#8230;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3048\" src=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_4208-300x245.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_4208-300x245.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_4208-scaled-600x490.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_4208-1024x835.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_4208-768x627.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_4208-1536x1253.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_4208-2048x1671.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.acast.com\/6766f4022dc5d9b993aeca62\/676775d715b96146452c4f45\" width=\"100%\" height=\"80px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Waking up to find Bashir Assad, the ghastly dictator of Syria had been deposed \u2013 at least I think he\u2019s been deposed &#8211; it took a superhuman effort not to click on a news website and find out.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">If I do that, I know I will be lost for an hour or more, looking at opinions, seeing what the pundits surmise will happen next, trying to find out about the leaders of the counter-revolution (although I\u2019m not sure how long a revolution has to survive before a counter-revolution becomes an actual revolution\u2026)<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Anyway, I didn\u2019t. After the American election, I swore I was not going to pay any attention to the news anymore. I deleted all my news apps, stopped following sources of news on Facebook, cancelled subscriptions \u2013 I became, if you like a hermit, here on my little boat in Colombia.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">I was doing what I spent five years advising other people to do when I was supposed to be training them to run a part-time business: \u201cStop watching television,\u201d I would tell them.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cStart with the news. The news sucks all the optimism out of you. If some princess somewhere gets killed in a car crash, don\u2019t worry. You\u2019ll get to hear about it somehow.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">This time it was Facebook \u2013 somebody saying: \u201cI\u2019m not a Syrian refugee anymore. I\u2019m a Syrian!\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Of course, I desperately wanted answers. But on the other hand, I\u2019ve now had a whole month without news and I know I\u2019ll survive.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In fact, since a month is a reasonable milestone for taking stock, I think I can say that life is a whole lot better without the constant drip feed of mayhem and hopelessness. It can\u2019t be good for me to be stressing and worrying over terrible things that are bound to happen and over which I have absolutely no control (I won\u2019t itemise them, it&#8217;s too depressing. Anyway, I\u2019m sure you have your own list.)<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">As for the time it took! Doomscrolling, they call it \u2013 a good word: To remain hunched over a screen in an attitude of dejection with a head full of misery\u2026<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Instead of which, here\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing these last four weeks: I\u2019ve been reading twice as many novels as usual, completed a sixth read-through of my own new book (and still found stuff that needed changing). I\u2019ve redoubled my efforts to learn Spanish \u2013 to the extent that last night I was actually surprised when the online tutor said we had reached the end of the session. She said I had done really well. They always say that, but this time I believed her\u2026<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">I have de-scaled the engine, been up the mast (twice), measured the awning (which still doesn\u2019t fit) and repositioned the grey water outlet filter at three o\u2019clock in the morning for reasons too boring to explain.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">And that is all in between endless trips to the supermarket to fill the bilges with beer and iced tea ready for two months in the San Blas Islands which are described as \u201ca remote paradise\u201d (meaning they don\u2019t have beer and iced tea.)<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">These are the important things in life at 38\u00b0C and 65% humidity.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">So, good luck to the people of Syria and good luck to America, but I\u2019ve got my own life to live \u2013 and, as I have a habit of reminding myself, I\u2019m having The Time of My Life.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Two months later, a friend had directed me to an site called Fix the News which only delivers good news. One of the pieces they thought worthy of my inbox was this:<strong>How to survive being online<\/strong><br \/>\nSome timely advice here from <a href=\"https:\/\/fixthenews.com\/r\/ba9e926f?m=b8cbb12e-3338-4444-860a-4c8f90c91370\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/fixthenews.com\/r\/ba9e926f?m%3Db8cbb12e-3338-4444-860a-4c8f90c91370&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1737723234535000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2_Z-E3yzYDQs_WyzhVMEyZ\">Mike Monteiro<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>The only way to defeat a narcissistic sociopath is to starve them. Protect yourself from their bullshit, of course, but move away from it. Let them have their stage, but refuse to be their audience.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t easy. It\u2019s especially difficult because capitalism is an attention economy. The New York Times and The Washington Post love a narcissistic sociopath because they generate clicks and clicks sell ads. Social media loves a narcissistic sociopath for the same reason, but it\u2019s even worse. On social media, we\u2019re the ones carrying their water. Trump says something that he knows will get him attention (i.e. renaming the Gulf of Mexico) and not only does it fire up hundreds of media outlets, who now divert attention to this idiocy, but it also fires up tons of people like me and you, who end up reposting his garbage. Some of us because we feel like we\u2019re media outlets (we\u2019re not), some of us because we\u2019re freaked out and freaking other people out justifies our own freak-out, and some of us because we were once bitten by a narcissistic sociopath under a full moon and we want to generate some of those sweet sweet likes in our direction.<\/p>\n<p>The first four years of Donald Trump was a continuous panic attack. I\u2019m not going through that again. You don\u2019t have to either. They\u2019re on stage, but you don\u2019t have to be their audience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I posted this on Facebook a few days ago. But now I come to think of it, maybe it should be here&#8230; Waking up to find Bashir Assad, the ghastly dictator of Syria had been deposed \u2013 at least I think he\u2019s been deposed &#8211; it took a superhuman effort not to click on a &#8230; <a title=\"No news is good news\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/no-news-is-good-news\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about No news is good news\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3047"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3106,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047\/revisions\/3106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}