How to control the overwhelming fire hose of news
Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer and his fellow Democrat, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, held tight to their "no wall" position in a modified version of Napoleon Bonaparte's advice: Don't interrupt your political rival while he is destroying his own approval ratings.
But, as if the real news were not anxiety-inducing enough, Trump and his enablers held fast to his alternative version of reality. He blamed Democrats for the shutdown after promising earlier to take the blame himself. As for the questions about his Russia relations, he held to his statements that the only election conspiracy with the Russians was not his but that Hillary Clinton's campaign worked with a "deep state" of pro-Clinton FBI agents and others.
All of which reminds me of a Harvard study in 2017 that found China's government pumping almost a half-billion fake comments into Chinese social network posts over a year. The posts in fact did only one thing, the researchers said: "shower praise on all things China." Since the fake posts tended to emerge with events that might stir political unrest, the researchers reasoned that their sole purpose was to distract unhappy citizens from the temptation to organize "by stealing users' time and mental energy."
In similar fashion, the constant stream of tweets and statements from Trump that often have only a passing relationship to facts seems to be aimed at reassuring his base more than winning new converts. Pundits often speak of the "perpetual campaign." Trump is making it a reality.
What can we do about "news anxiety," which many in the psychiatric community say is a real malady, particularly in recent years? If you feel afflicted by it, mental health professionals advise limiting news or social media exposure, especially of the more sensational anxiety-inducing sort.
Psychologist Deborah Serani of Adelphi University, writing in Psychology Today, advised steering yourself away from sensational headlines and cable TV news and toward stories that offer depth, explanations and possible solutions to problems at hand.
That's healthy advice. After reporting the latest scandal or atrocity, it is reassuring to know that there is a rational path out of the problem at hand, if only we can persuade our political leaders to follow it.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2019 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
