My limited writing of late skirts the edges of frivolity from time to time, then rushes headlong into its muck. Poor writing, they say, is better than none at all. My writing in recent weeks fits the bill of better than none. But now I wonder whether “they” are right? When all I can muster are half-hearted attempts that fall on their faces, might I better serve myself by resting my fingers and allowing my frazzled brain to relax and unwind from what feels like an unending period of angst and anger and fear?
I do not recall whether I read it, or made it up; regardless, this thought resides in my brain: Frantic irrational reactions to fear claim energy best stored for that moment when one must pounce to survive.
That idea seems rational and right at this moment. I read the stories in the news about Trump’s Russian connections and claims about his dalliances with prostitutes and a host of other potentially damning information. Along with those stories, I read frantic reactions, assertions that THIS is the smoking gun we need, THIS is enough to cause us to stop this travesty going forward, THIS better command our attention. I wish the media would simply collude in silence with reliable members of the justice community, passing on information and encouraging behind-the-scenes explorations of best courses forward. The dribbles and drabbles finding their way to the newspapers and fake news sites, which blow up simple things (thereby making everything in the news subject to accusations of “fake news”), enable Trump and his minions to use their well-polished gas-lighting techniques to confuse and obfuscate. Trump does not know how to respond to silence; he cannot understand being ignored. When he baits the media, the media should redirect its attention elsewhere. When he tweets, the media should say, “Trump tweeted…what’s news about that?” and go its way, leaving his tweets to languish in the sewer occupied by his followers.
When enough incontrovertible evidence is amassed, then the pouncing should begin in earnest. Only then. In the interim, a steady stream of citizen resistance should be used to make his way forward hard and unpleasant. The news should report on that resistance and, when the time is right, fill the airwaves and newspapers and social media with FACTS that cannot be disputed. And when Trump and friends gas-light to dispute them, the media must expose, over and over and over, the bastard’s fraudulence.
This experiment in social media governance will not end well. Whether it ends in armed insurrection or martial law or nuclear holocaust, I predict it will not end well.
