‘Doom-scrolling is a form of digital self-harm – it’s OK to take a break’

Political awareness is important, make no mistake about that. Now more than ever, we need to be aware of what our political representatives believe and what we can do to hold them to account, but there is a limit – political activism should not come at the cost of your mental health.

A good reming though

Activism doesn’t have to mean joining counter-protests or voicing our condemnation of Trump on a volatile social media platform. Some people aren’t prepared to deal with that and that’s OK. Activism can simply be caring for yourself and for others.

And for the people who dont like to see politics, dont try to restrain others. Just go take care.

I didn't know how feasible, but here are currently the steps I plan to take to keep my mental health in check:

1. Actively avoid hearing his voice.

The vitriol and stupidity behind his words and his voice always force my brain to spiral into anger/frustration. It does bother me that print media rewrites his sentences to remove the nonsensical dementia rambling, but when he's speaking, he's lying anyway. Press conferences are out. I wish media could be encouraged to not bother showing up to them, but they love the sensationalism, too. I don't use tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. so I'll have an easier time of this than some. But I'll be changing some YouTube, podcast, and radio news habits (unfortunately, since I do want to support some people). I'm on the fence about last week tonight and the daily show.

2. Not bother to read any story around the latest awful things Trump "said". Focus on print news about political actions.

He spews a lot of hateful bullshit when he feels like he needs media attention, which is pretty much constantly because his brain never developed beyond middle school. I'll keep attention on what actions he and his swamp people have taken politically (including their scams to enrich themselves).

I'm also anticipating lawsuits against and by him on the daily. Dunno what to do about that yet. Maybe only major case milestones or something.

3. Heavily focus on local

I anticipate more of those school board takeover attempts and federal action to suppress blue states and unions. Locally is where the real subversive actions to Trump policy will take place.