I have been avoiding the news for weeks now. That includes the radio, newspaper and, to some degree, Facebook. TV is nowhere in my world. I have been thinking that this avoidance has been because the news is just too painful, and I don’t want more pain. Today I realize that pain avoidance is only part of it for me.
I have known, but until now not fully realized, that the news is mostly an illusion. It stimulates and fills my imagination with notions and images that simply are not real. Perhaps some reporter starts with some real experience, but that quickly becomes a manufactured illusion that gets passed on to me. It is even manipulative, at least to the degree that the news is presented in a way to demand my attention.
I think I have been instinctively resisting the “news” because it is only partly real. I have been refusing to make it a real part of my life by taking in the messages and imagining the content. I have been refusing to let my imagination be filled by the unreliable statements of Trump and the unreliable, uncritical reporting.
This uncritical, unreliable reporting continues after the election. I want the news to repeat the same message that is subtly flashing in my head: “This not real, this is not something you want to pay attention to, this is not true.”