It Is Hard to Avoid the Toxic

The Internet would probably have always gotten here sooner rather than later, but the Trump Administration's 24/7 bullshit probably pushed it quicker. I refer to the fact our news is now toxic.

I don't mean a Pollyanna-ish way - the "what has become of civility" way. I get that news is generally focused on bad news, that sells eyeballs, not good news. But the news is now TOXIC. Every item is now a moment of outrage.

Just the last few days we have been SHOCKED AND APPALLED that some normal things are happening.

• Mario Cuomo (D-Gov NY) lied over Covid deaths
• Ted Cruz (R-TX) took a vacation while his state was freezing
• Joe Manchin (D-WV) is blocking the new initiative to raise the minimum wage
• Lauren Boebert (R-CO) doesn't know what an amendment is
• Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) is losing his family over impeachment vote

Everything isn't outrageous all the time. And new "news" groups are worse than facebook. Look at this brain-fart of a story from TV. Bdien's dog is ugly and unpresidential!

This crap is almost impossible to ignore. It requires you to check out mentally from the news, which leads to an uninformed populous, which then elects idiots. 

For me, the New York Times is LESS crazy than others, but that doesn't mean "not crazy". I miss the LA Times of the Chandler family. From the late 1970s until it was purchased by the Chicago Tribune group - it was relatively centrist paper, that grew more left leaning as the California Republican Party rode the rails to crazy town. But it was NOT anti-Republican.

The LA Times was the biggest home delivery paper in San Diego when I went to grad school there (late 1980s) and San Diego is (and was) a very conservative town. Which leads me to believe that people didn't want a helping of outrage with their morning coffee.

I think I will resubscribe to the home delivery of the New York Times. The full paper was more relaxing than the splash headlines.