Somewhere along the way, I gave the New York Times my email. Getting a few emails a day about top stories seemed like a decent trade-off to track my Connections streak. However, over the past few months, these emails have become mini cardiac arrests, delivered straight to my inbox. When Donald Trump and JD Vance were on the campaign trail, there was nearly always an inflammatory quotation to pull for a headline. This has increased tenfold since Donald Trump was inaugurated: ending birthright citizenship, pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, and sending out ICE raids to sanctuary cities. All truly worrying and real actions that will impact millions of people the world over. And then there are the more unconventional ones: renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and invading Greenland and Canada. Less than 24 hours into the start of Trump’s second term, I started to wonder who these headlines were helping. It certainly wasn’t me. And nearly all of my like-minded family and friends were similarly anxious.
I am by no means arguing for anyone to stop reading the news. But being informed is useless if you do nothing with the information. I still read the New York Times, I’ve just unsubscribed from their mailing list. It is important (especially right now) to consume accurate news. It’s part of being a responsible and active citizen of the world. However, accurate and helpful dissemination of the facts is also part of being a responsible journalist. And I don’t think exhausting all of my energy reading inflammatory stories about something Elon Musk said on X/Twitter is particularly helpful for me. It is, however, helpful to Musk and Trump.
If I am too paralyzed by fear about the state of my country (fear that is increased exponentially by a New York Times column entitled “Does Humanity Have a Future?”), I am unable to take any action that will fight Trump’s policies that I disagree with. I cannot donate to mutual aid organizations, volunteer in community centers, or connect with my loved ones if I am too distracted by something one of his cabinet picks did or said. The modern American right wing relies on their opposition being confused, divided, and distracted. It’s a smoke-and-mirrors political movement. If I want to spend the next four years fighting for the people I care about, I need to stop playing directly into Trump’s hands, and I need to stop being stuck in a cycle of being so scared that I can’t do anything. Sitting around and worrying is exactly what Trump and his cabinet want me to do because they know that individual action can fight their policies. They know that engaged communities who care about each other are harder to pit against each other. It’s easier for them if I am stuck reading headlines and spiraling.
Aside from wasting my valuable time and energy on unnecessarily terrifying news articles, there is another pattern I am trying to quit because it is unproductive to my resistance. I’m sure it is a near-universal experience for students in the Bi-Co: you are talking to someone, maybe about politics, maybe not, and some aspect of the democratic system or a human right is brought up (free speech, free elections, checks and balances, etc.) and someone (I have been this someone) says “Well, for however long that’s going to last….” I have had this conversation about four times a week since Nov. 6, and I am finally done with it. It’s usually followed by five to ten seconds of silence in which we each process the loss (hypothetical or not) of this cornerstone of American democracy. Once again, who exactly does this benefit? It doesn’t make the person saying it or the person hearing it feel better or empowered or motivated to act.
So, I’ve made a resolution to stop this fear-mongering rhetoric in my daily conversations. When I did, I realized how many of my conversations were so deeply unproductive. In my extra free time, I have been able to reflect on what I want my next four years of resistance to look like. For me, it has to start at the smallest level: intentionally navigating the Bi-Co community in order to maintain my values. I am only a first-year; Trump will still be president when I graduate in 2028. I have to pace myself.
