I need everyone under the age of 26 or so to understand that this current world where we know what the president is doing at all times because you're not allowed to glance at the news without having an update about what one geriatric old man is doing any any time and whatever they're tweeting is the top news story on most given days? And it leaks into your personal life whether you like it or not?
NOT NORMAL.
Let me, An Old™ and a small town museum historian tell you what was "normal".
Back in the before-times, "news" was mostly local stuff. A new restaurant was opening. A store was robbed. The town council is debating whether or not to open a second dog park. The biggest country-wide news story was usually a serial killer somewhere that thankfully wasn't your small town.
When you heard about the president at all, it was some pleasant little surprise like Bill Clinton balancing the budget or some dumb little scandal like Bill Clinton lying about oral sex. It did not affect your life. You did not lose friends over it. You laughed at a few corny jokes by a comedian on late night TV, but it did not affect your life.
And election season was 2-4 months, tops.
You never saw political ads on TV except for right before elections. No one put political signs in their yards except the politicians themselves. The only flag outside of peoples' homes was the American flag and it usually meant that the homeowner was a veteran or ex-boyscout and it did not reveal who you voted for. Democrats and Republican flew American flags in equal measure.
Then Fox News happened in 1996, and created this media machine where they gave rural, conservative-leaning families their one-stop-shop for intoxicating moral outrage. It began to play 24-7 in every home, shop, and office waiting room in small towns. People who used to open with normal topics of conversation like, "We really needed that rain last night" would spontaneously say shit like, "There's a vegetarian-only restaurant opening in California, and Bill O'Reily says that if we don't stop it then cow farmers are going to be illegal in a few years". Or, "They're building some kind of Temple to Allah in Minnesota, and they're even allowing children inside-- What next, outlawing Christianity?? Sean Hannity said it and he knows what's what!".
They thought it was the best thing ever because Fox News told them about the stories that "Big Media" was "hiding" from them.
Because it was sensationalist bullshit that didn't actually affect their lives, except it gave them one hell of a persecution complex that affirmed all of their fears of end time prophecy, and everyone knows how good it feels to be vindicated and affirmed, especially when religion's in the mix, right?
It was a winning formula for ratings, though, and Democratic Centrists cooked up their own 24/7 news networks to cash in on the demand for a similar outrage noise machine for blue households.
Then, Trump happened in 2015.
Trump played these networks like a goddamn fiddle.
It was WEIRD to us that every news day began or ended with updates on what Citizen Trump was doing, or trying to do, or had attempted to do but was blocked from doing by his cabinet. It wasn't unheard-of for presidential scandals to leak into the news.... But this? This felt weird.
We knew it was weird. Even then.
But every fucking news story was so bonkers? That we couldn't look away?? So rating skyrocketed and media companies began playing more and more shit about Trump because when they looked at the ratings they realized Trump was like a car wreck: We couldn't look away. Not even during commercial breaks. Trump was a fucking goldmine.
Fast forward to today.
The year is 2026 and you can't be friends with someone on the opposite side of the political spectrum without some BDSM-like rules about what is and isn't allowed laid out beforehand. You can't read or watch the news without being told exactly what Trump did in the past 24 hours. Everyone's nerves are shot all the time, everyone's tired, and reading/watching the news feels like playing Russian Roulette with your very last Fuck to give.
I need you to know that this isn't normal.
This is an aberration.
Do not listen to the talking heads who tell you it was always like this people were just "less informed".
I need young people to understand that we had a thriving, informed society that functioned for 250 years without this 24/7 media circus where we have to sacrifice a portion of every day to worrying about the future president's/current president's/former president's latest fuckup.
You are going to feel WEIRD when he's gone. The same way that you constantly poke a bruise because it feels weird that it aches.
The media will try to find the next Trump to fill airtime with.
YOU will feel unsettled because it will feel like you're behind on the news because you aren't hearing the newest moral outrage.
PLEASE LET THIS MADNESS DIE WITH TRUMP.
Do not be stupid like we were. Do not allow one egotistical motherfucker to enrich media corps. Do not make the political personification of a car crash become your favorite hate-watch.
Please be smarter than we were.
