I deleted my Apple News app today. In this constant state of fear and clickbait I was filling myself with dread (and giving myself a lot of homework, verifying sources and double checking with other sites).

Today, the news media no longer has direct access to me, through my phone. If anything catastrophic happens, I will find out about it the same way humans always have - through other people.

The mainstream media aided and abetted unfettered lies of too many people for too long, for views and clicks. It was just capitalism being capitalism, but this time the price is democracy and I refuse to be an active party to an institution which no longer has any integrity.

The pivot at the end, to try and save face, was far too little, far too late. The media doesn’t get to make money hand over fist platforming a serial rapist who makes headlines for a decade and then at the buzzer say “lol oops he’s fascist [now] and bad for our country” the week of the election. They made this bed and now we all have to lie in it.

When all of your “news” is distilled through the uber-rich newspapers and television networks, sane-washed to avoid defamation, libel, and slander - is it actually news? Or is it just a watered-down live blog designed to keep people complacent and docile? Afraid for their lives always, for fear of stirring the pot, and losing everything. Just keep your head down and things will work out.

No longer.

Please don’t mistake my message. I know the idea of “fake news” as a propaganda term has gotten us to where we are today, and we are about to see if the promises to dismantle democracy and take America back a hundred years are fact or fiction. I am saying consume factual, independent media curated by people you trust. Use critical thinking. And always trust but verify.

Next, read books. Fiction, non-fiction – doesn’t matter. Widen your world views and expand your horizons. Visit fictitious utopias in your mind’s eye and watch oppressive post-apocalyptic dystopias crumble by the hands the resistance, written by independent creators who participate in a craft because it is a passion, not because it made them a billion dollars.

Movies and TV I will leave to you, but I would say ditch all the paid shit and give your library a visit. With a free library card, not only can you read for free to your heart’s content, but you can access independent streaming services for free, too, like Kanopy and Hoopla. They won’t have Despicable Me 8, but you may just learn something or support independent artists.

Most importantly, disconnect in all the ways you need to maintain your sanity. The world’s problems were not created overnight nor will they be solved in that same time. The road is arduous, but worthwhile. When we all recuperate we will become more powerful, collectively, because you cannot control a free mind.

I am signing off for a while, to protect my inner peace. Disappearing into a book or an old puzzle, maybe an backlogged video game. The horrors persist, but so do we. I don’t know who, if anyone, will see this, but if it helps at least one soul it will have been worth it. Take care of yourselves and your neighbors. We’re all we’ve got.

#resist #persist #riseup #live #fightback #reading #news #puzzle #hobby #media #resistance #disconnect #offline #mentalhealth #takingabreak #TootPause

p.s. I leave you with this very important, if long overdue clip from the complex mind that was Prince. take from it what you will.