Good God in Heaven.
I am exhausted.
I am morally worn down, emotionally defeated, psychologically damaged and socially bankrupt.
Why, you ask, am I so completely done in and unable to function? I’ll tell you.
Politics, that’s why. Way too much of my time and energy has gone toward trying to make some sense of the American political situation. I have finally come to the conclusion that there is no longer any sense to be made here, and any effort to understand and react to what goes on in this government is a total waste of time.
I’ve been a political junkie for years. I follow the news, read avidly, listen to podcasts and get updates from Reuters and the Associated Press. I fondly remember the days of yore, when political news reflected actual facts and real events. It used to be fun to debate with family and friends who felt differently that I did about various laws and policies. Those conversations used to feel like a wonderful exercise in logic.
Those were the good old days.
It’s different now.
Now we are faced with a total absence of reality in our political discourse. Progressives like me find ourselves trying to argue with a stream of lies that come flying at us like bullets from an AR-15.
How are we supposed to respond to statements and accusations that are complete fabrications? How can we use logic and facts to counter ideas that are at the same time illogical, frightening and completely fake?
I know; politicians have always used “spin” to shape public perceptions. I know.
But what we see today is different. It isn’t just one party choosing its words carefully to influence our opinions. No. What we see now is a group of elected officials who are absolutely making up lies and repeating them over and over again with such passion and sincerity that they sound like reality.
How does an intelligent citizen fight back against a phantom? How does a thoughtful person run a sward through a ghost?
It’s exhausting.
I find my mind racing, trying to form a coherent explanation for why everyone needs to stop ranting and screeching about Critical Race Theory being taught in public schools.
I mean……..what the hell?
There are American citizens actually fighting each other, physically fighting, because they don’t want their kids indoctrinated to hate white people. Even though NOTHING LIKE THAT IS BEING TAUGHT ANYWHERE. CRT is a set of legal interpretations, put forward by legal scholars. It’s been debated and thought about for decades.
But hundreds of thousands of people believe that CRT is a new book, or a curriculum, or a sinister plot to brainwash our children. Why? Because political leaders keep repeating the lie. Over and over and over again.
Trying to form a logical response is impossible.
As a progressive American, I’d like to be talking about our overinflated military budget. I’d like to be gathering information about the benefits of universal healthcare coverage. I know how to find data to support my opinions. I like doing that!
But I can’t fight against the lie that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen by the Chinese who magically substituted fake ballots on bamboo paper for millions of real completed ballots. I can’t figure out how to use logic to point out that multiple audits, studies, searches and lookbacks found NO fraud. Millions of dead people did not vote. Ballots weren’t changed after the fact.
It’s exhausting trying to think of a possible response. I can’t do it.
There is no Jewish Space Force. There is no international group of pedophile cannibals trying to take over the world. Joe Biden is not a Marxist and the radical left isn’t trying to turn our children into mask-wearing robotic automatons. Nobody is coming for the damn guns.
And while we’re at it, the people who violently attacked the US Capitol and tried to assassinate the Vice President and members of Congress were NOT “tourists”.
Lies are lies, no matter how many times they are repeated.
Trying to push back against them is just too much for this exhausted, aging lefty. I think the fight is out of me.
I just don’t know how to respond to the combination of crazy, ignorant and dishonest that has taken root in Washington DC.
Empty Nest, Full Life 
I think many of us think and feel just like you. I have always been taught to keep up to date on what goes on in our country and others. I believe in checking out what I hear or red to figure out what I believe. However I have found myself drained and totally discouraged about the future. I have had to cut down on how much I expose myself to news for my mental well being.
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I share your exhaustion, and demographic, and your wish to return to a facts and figures political debate. But I fear the latter is not to happen for sometime.
A good, what, thirty to forty precent of the nation’s population have abandoned living in any actual flow of a living history, and opted to revisit the myth making necessity and wound collecting narcissism of revanchism.
From the miss-reading of the fascist threat by the Taft led GOP non-interventionist, to suggesting IKE a commie, Goldwater mainstream, Gingrich a legislative lion, or Palin a palliative, lead, sure enough, to Trump being seen as capable. The Big Lie has a long and winding pedigree.
As for Critical Race Theory. I have some problems with it. I have bones to pick with a lot of Tower Of Babel academia. Yet, when just a couple of years before my birth, white German POWs could chow down at a lunch counter, when returning from Europe Black G.I.’s could not, should give all of us reason for pause, and serious reflection.
These days, I just content myself with the political writings of Michael Oakeshott and the prose of William Gass.
Nice post.. Thanks for the opportunity to respond.
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Thanks for your response. I share your thoughts, and also your ideas on CRT. My point is that people are losing their minds fighting something that is NOT being taught in our schools. It is the idea of people being enraged by mythical creations that has me so upset and overwhelmed. I’d love a reasoned debate on CRT or anything else; but the hysteria in the absence of fact is just defeating me.
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That is their aim – to overwhelm you, to exhaust you to the point where you give up. That’s how they gain and retain power.
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This is a good way to respond to it, but the real question is, what can we do to actually change it? Don’t give up, for starters:)
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I agree. I am totally exhausted by the stupidity and narrow-mindedness and selfishness of so many. How in the world did this happen? I guess better minds than mine have not figured it out, but I lay a lot of the blame on the internet and the control of the news media and politicians by those with a personal agenda.
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Unfortunately, the crazy people are not exhausted, so we can’t be either. I am terrified about 2022 and 2024.
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I just can’t understand why Dems can NEVER take the offensive position….here we are, once again, arguing about nothing when the world is on fire. Maybe it’s time to let the whole damn thing collapse around our ears so we can try to rebuild from the ashes.
When I see us scrambling to defend an arcane legal theory that has NO impact on our daily lives, instead of focusing on the attempt to overthrow the government……I just give up.
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I would encourage readers to learn about the former Soviet Union, Germany during WWII, North Korea, and other communist nations. While what is happening here is terrible (You would understand what is happening in America by reading the Soviet Union’s playbook, which might be why they don’t teach that in public school.), we haven’t yet come close to what will be if we don’t wake up, get our gear on, and communicate and educate one another about the U.S. Constitution, real freedom, and what our responsibilities are today.
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I agree. I was actually a Soviet Studies major in college (believe it or not) and am an avid student of history. I KNOW that we have to keep speaking up, keep pushing back. It’s just that I am exhausted. I am tired of fighting with ghosts, but want to find a way to keep trying.
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You’d be surprised how many people out there understand what you’re saying, many agreeing. It’s just that honest, responsible, hard-working people don’t tend to opinionate, and the media will not give them any attention. But this country remains free because of people who do understand.
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