Bad News Blues

In the early morning hours of New Year's Eve, an old and dear friend posted on Facebook that it was 5 a.m. and he was having "revelations."  I think he was just trying to craft a clever Happy New's message, but began with a kvetch about the "constant negativity" on the nightly news, in the newspapers and elsewhere (probably this blog), and declared the American people to be tired of it.  His insight was that advertisers would be more "positive" in the coming year, and cited the reformed New Year's resolutions Allstate Mayhem Guy as an example.

His post drew a couple of harmless comments to the effect of yes-give-us-more-good-news, then his sister -- a huge Trump fan -- joined in with her take on what she saw as negativity.  In her view, "NBC, ABC, CNN and CBS are all Democratic, heavily slanted and out to put down our President and make him look bad.  When do they report what he does well?  They bring negativity about him to their newscasts.  My choice is Fox."

Well, holy shit!

Shame on me, but I couldn't help commenting that I found it LMAO funny that Trump voters would now be complaining about too much negative news!  (My friend didn't vote for him, but his sister obviously did.)

The notion of a liberally-biased media forcing ever-increasing, wearisome, god-awful negativity on the public is a peculiarly conservative assumption.  It's closely related to the well-known conservative longing for the "good old days," when everything was better -- because today is hell, so #MAGA.

The desire for more positive "good news" is a form of wishful thinking, but it's also human nature, nothing new.  We all feel that way at times.

But let's not carried away with it.  If you actually reject information simply for what you perceive as negativity, if you close your eyes and ears to "bad news," you're willfully shutting yourself off from facts and knowledge.  It's your choice, but nobody ever promised the news would always be good.  You're not required to enjoy it, but it's advisable to be aware of it.  It's best to know.

My insight is this:  Don't hide from bad news because there's plenty of good in this world.  It's all in your perspective.  Good news is where you find it.

Variations on the theme:

"We all know the world is going to hell.  You might think 2017 was the worst year ever.  But you'd be wrong.  In fact, 2017 was probably the very best year in the long history of humanity.  We need some perspective as we watch the circus in Washington and focus on the bad news -- but the backdrop of global progress may be the most important development in our lifetime.  The most important thing happening right now is not a Trump tweet, but children's lives saved and major gains in health, education and human welfare."  -- Nick Kristof, NY Times, 1/7/18.   
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/opinion/sunday/2017-progress-illiteracy-poverty.html


"People always ask, Is the world getting better or is it getting worse?  Depending on whom you ask, there will always be a different answer.  I've come to find that one of the reasons I believe the world is getting better is because we have access to information on how bad the world actually is."  -- Trevor Noah, Time Magazine Optimists issue, 1/4/18.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/opinion/sunday/2017-progress-illiteracy-poverty.html


The next link is an article about a news website which intentionally changed its content to "Good News Only" for one day.  Spoiler alert -- they lost almost all their readers instantly.
https://qz.com/307214/heres-what-happened-when-a-news-site-only-reported-good-news-for-a-day/


You could always escape into the wide world of sports.  Many do.  I'm a fair sports fan myself.

"I always turn to the sports section first.  The sports page records people's accomplishments.  The front page has nothing but man's failures."  -- Earl Warren, Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court


Life's a mixed bag of good and bad, including the news.  It will find you, so deal with it.  And when your psyche demands an occasional dose of pure rainbows and lollipops, you can find that too.  There's no shortage of puppy videos on the internet, and that's OK.

Lastly, beware those 5 a.m. revelations!  Mr. Mayhem has already broken his New Year's resolutions.