Life in Activism: Hear Me Out on This, but Things Are Not Actually as Bad as They Seem

Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

This post is going to make a controversial claim, one that on the surface you might consider ridiculous—or, in the current moment, perhaps even delusional.

The state of the country, and indeed the world, is not as bad as you think it is.

In making this claim, I am not saying that everything is hunky dory right now. I am just arguing that things are not quite as bad as they seem.

This is not a point that I am going to argue on any specifics. Rather, my argument is that the nature of news and social media is to make any situation appear worse than it actually is, and that this tendency has grown more pronounced over the past decade. Since political engagement is heavily mediated through news and social media, if you spend time engaged in political news and activism every day—and I believe this is something you should do—then you probably think that the state of the country and the world is at least somewhat worse than it actually is. For the sake of your own mental health, and to retain the ability to engage in political activism over the long run, remembering that things are not quite as bad as they seem is a useful mindset to maintain.

Below the fold, for paid subscribers, I lay out my argument in more detail.