If you were starving and I offered you a nice, juicy apple—you’d thank me, devour the apple, and move on with your life; however, if you were starving and I offered you a mealy, rotten apple covered in mold, dirt, and worms—you’d probably say, “no thanks,” and continue on to the next gas station to buy yourself a chicken sandwich or something. That’s because we’re not that incredibly stupid. (I mean, most people are stupid but not “incredibly” stupid—at least, most people are somewhat functional). Even though the rotten apple might have some type of nutritional value to it, ultimately, it’s gross, filled with worms, and will give you stomach problems. It’s not worth it.
And, as a side note, this also reminds me of something Cher said back in the day. I forget what show she was on, but she was commenting how people are more concerned about what they put in their car than what they put in their mouth.
But what we stick in our mouth isn’t the only method of consuming things. Far from it.
In fact, most of the stuff we consume on a daily basis is consumed by our eyes and ears.
If you wouldn’t accept a rotten apple from someone, why would you accept rotten media, rotten news, rotten music, rotten television, rotten gossip, etc.? You don’t think being on a daily diet of awfulness streaming into your brain adversely affects you?
Look, back in the day, I got super obsessed with the New Wave of French Extreme movies. Every night I’d watch some new horrific horror movie. After a while I could really tell it was affecting me. I didn’t like it. To this day, I’ve pretty much cut out horror movies from my life. Sure, I’ll occasionally watch the latest flick people have been stooping praise upon, but I certainly don’t make horror movies a part of my nightly viewing experience.
Let’s take the mainstream news, or MSM (mainstream media) as some people call it. I don’t care what side of the political debate you fall on; I don’t care if you strictly watch Fox News or MSNBC. They all have a product to sell you. And it’s not the products for which they go to commercial breaks. Let’s be clear, they all look at their ratings and numbers.
Their product is Dismay.
Every night, these mainstream news media outlets are shoveling out a constant stream of dismay to the public. Everything is bad, everything is ruined, everything is going to shit. Your president is fucking up, your government is failing you, the prior administration was evil, these people on this side want to run your life, these people on this other side want to indoctrinate you. Then, you turn the channel and see John Taffer yelling at someone for running their business into the ground. Turn the channel again and you’ve got Cardi B actively aiding in the destruction of musical evolution with some laptop generated song about the forecast for her genitals. Turn the channel again and you’ve got a “reality” show where a woman cattle calls a group of men to play games for her affection. Another flick of the station and you’ve got a show dedicated to people neglecting their pets in horrible ways. Further on down the list will be MTV which now completely focuses its entire programming schedule on a group of people watching other groups of people hurting themselves on camera. Same thing goes for VH1, which currently focuses hours upon hours of a show that deals with infidelity and broken hearts.
It just never ends.
And even if you try to put on a comedy or something you think is light-hearted, the writers for the show will find some way to shoe-horn in some character proselytizing about how a huge segment of the population (which probably includes you) is inherently racist and evil.
So, before you get to work, on your drive to work, and when you get home from work, all you’ve been seeing and hearing is how the government is falling apart, the world is coming to an end, war is breaking out, crime is on the rise, the economy is falling apart, love is dead, the glaciers are melting, the national parks are on fire, child trafficking, mass riots, civil unrest, we have to lock down our businesses and live for two ears, and on top of all that you’re an evil racist bigot and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Now wonder that by the time you get to work, all you have to deal with are asshole costumers, grouchy coworkers, aggressive drivers, and entitled little shits that want to take out all their anger and frustration on you.
And that’s just the people you meet in person.
What about online where people can be as awful as they want and remain somewhat anonymous? Don’t even think about checking the comment section for some kind words. Don’t look at Twitter for reasonable discourse. And people are addicted to these social media sites that are constantly accessible on their phones—which, in turn, basically never leave our side.
As a society, we’ve chosen to devour the rotten apple…by the bushel and by the pound.
Is there any wonder why the depression rate in the US has tripled since the pandemic?
(https://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/depression-rates-tripled-when-pandemic-first-hit/)
According to Mental Health America, suicidal ideation continues to grow among adults and a growing number of youth live with depression.
(https://www.mhanational.org/issues/state-mental-health-america)
It’s a rare occurrence when an MSM outlet takes a break from the chaos to talk about how some organization just built some homes for veterans, or how some school in some city opened up their gymnasium to shelter flood victims. Ask yourself, when is the last time you heard a good piece of news or heard anything positive these days?
We have actively fostered and cultured an environment fueled by negativity.
You have to realize that mainstream news channels have a product to sell to keep you coming back. That product is dismay. Watching it gets you mad and that’s what keeps you coming back.
Why is negativity more addictive than positivity?
Let’s say you’re an artist, a musician, a writer. Let’s say you’re someone that puts something out into the world; something you’ve worked hard on. This could be anything. Think about the time you got a compliment on your work. It made you feel great, right? Now remember the time you got a really bad review of your work. How long did that negative critique stick with you? Probably all day. You probably lost sleep over it. It’s all you could think about.
Ever have a positive interaction with someone in public? How fast did that good feeling go away? How fast did you forget about it? Ever have a knock-down, drag-out argument with someone in public? Does that still fester with you to this day?
Exactly, we hang on and hoard the negative shit far more than we do the positive stuff.
What do I think we need to do about it?
Just like caffeine, you need to cycle off it for a while. You have to detox from all this stuff for a while. You have to realize that social media is an addiction; consuming the News is an addiction; consuming negative energy is an addiction.
In regards to depression, the top 3 things you need to do to feel better and improve your life before you start popping pills to solve your problems are the following:
- Get enough sleep. As simple as this sounds, most people don’t get enough rest. Six hours won’t cut it. You need 7 to 8 hours of solid sleep every night. You have to sleep; you have to rest. Develop good sleeping habits.
- Get your nutrition in check. Stop eating garbage; stop consuming sugar in every meal; stop being lazy about what you put in your mouth. Make an effort to primarily shop on the outskirts of the grocery store as opposed to the aisles in the middle. Buy and cook your own chicken, salmon, and beef. Have a fistful of protein for each meal and a side of vegetables and fruit. Cut the shit. You know what’s bad for you to eat, so stop eating it. Drink more water, eat healthy. Get your shit together. Stop eating garbage.
- Get exercise. If there’s one thing you can do to live longer, to feel better, and to turn your life towards a better direction, it’s exercise. Whether it’s walking or weightlifting, you have to get active. You can’t sit on your ass all day at work, sit in the car on your way home, then sit on the couch for the rest of the night. You have to move. You have to be active. You have to get off your ass.
Those are just three things you can do to improve your body and your health. It’s certainly not a comprehensive list but it’s certainly a start. And that’s just the beginning.
- Instead of listening to that daily political podcast on your way to and from work, how about listening to music again. Listen to full albums, not just random shit. Try different genres and expand your musical palette.
- Give the news channels a break. The world will do fine without you constantly checking in. Give it a rest for a week. Remember when you were a kid and never could understand why your parents watched the news because it was so boring? Yeah, cause it is fucking boring. Try something else.
- When you’re at a redlight in traffic, don’t touch your phone. Realize it’s an addiction. When you get home from work, put your phone in another room.
Detox, detox, detox. All this nonsense needs a break. It’s an addiction. Realize it’s an addiction. Sugar is an addiction. Negativity is an addiction. Your phone and social media is an addiction.
After all that, take a look at yourself and think about where you want to be in the future and how you want to look.
I’ve been noticing an annoying trend around me in the places I go. People grocery shop in their pajamas. People go to movie theaters in their pajamas. People get on planes wearing their pajamas.
The world is not your living room. People have become self-centered, entitled brats who want the world to cater to their comfort.
Turn your car stereo down when you drive through a neighborhood. No one cares what you listen to and they don’t want to hear it. Save your phone conversation for when you’re in private. No one wants to hear your conversation. Return your shopping cart where it belongs. Look presentable when you’re in public. Try to eliminate crutch words like Uh, Um, You Know, and Like when you’re having a conversation. Sort it the fuck out.
One thing that always annoyed me with Star Trek was how, on occasion, a character would talk about the culture in the future and how there is no war, no poverty, no currency, no death penalty, and everyone lives in a utopian society of peace and tranquility. Even though this is completely unrealistic and sounds like it came from the back of Karl Marx’s childish imagination, you can at least take a page from this and apply it to your own life. Imagine the future around you and where you fit in it. Now how do you get there?
A world with no pollution? Okay, how do we get there? A world where everyone takes every word you say seriously? Okay, how do you get there?
If you want people to take you seriously, you have to speak like you know what you’re talking about. What you say has to make sense, it has to have authority, and it has to be succinct. If you want people to see you and respect you before they know anything about you, you have to look like you care about your appearance and your health. If you want people to treat you well, with courtesy and respect, you have to go through life exuding that same courtesy and respect towards others.
But this won’t happen overnight. And it certainly won’t happen if your mind is festering on a diet of trash media and information.
Consider the apple and give the rot and trash a break.
