Brendan Leonard is another one of those quirky writers, like Andy Kirkpatrick or Marc Twight, whose writing I almost always enjoy. This short article, about IRL1, is a good subsidiary read for todays Hard Thing which is no “socials” or news media. My only real “social” is Twitter, which is either a place of “isms” – sexism, racism, ableism, sizeism, ageism, and misinformation or the last bastion of free speech, depending which side of the political spectrum you fall under. Lefties will claim the former, libertarians the latter. Note that this simplistic division implies we have reached the end of times where there is no middle ground.
Anyway, todays Hard Thing was no socials or news. Like most people I have an ambivalent relationship with news. I feel like I should keep up in case there is something I should or could do, but also realize that despite what the “socials” say about “one man changing the world” most world, country, state, and even local events are outside my sphere of influence, therefore knowing about these events has literally no upside. Am I trying to live in a bubble? Yes, but lets admit almost all of us are, and I am not convinced that we are not the happier and healthier for it. The modern world is no place to live if you want health and happiness.
As to the socials, I quit the Metaverse a decade ago thinking the fake world with fake people doing fake things was toxic to human health. Tik-Tok/Snapchat – what else is there? - I never joined as I have always assumed these sites would be akin to the Metaverse, only worse. That leaves Twitter, which is actually my source for most news because, as far as I can tell the legacy/mainstream media/fourth estate (whatever term you want to use), has become so corrupt, pathetic and manipulative that it is not worth using for bum paper.
If you think todays hard challenge is really easy, you should try it. Most of us are either hopelessly addicted to scrolling (doom or otherwise) or prey to the dopamine drenched validation we get when people like our posts.
Weirdly, as I think I have a mild news and Twitter addiction, todays challenge was probably the easiest so far. Perhaps I am not quite as enslaved as I thought. Today’s picture is the pile of garbage I picked up on my six kilometre walk today. I was thinking, as I picked up trash, that it would be really interesting to see all the garbage I have picked up in the last few years all stacked up in one pile. I bet it would be a really big pile. You may notice, that every item in that trash bag (also picked up along the way) is actually a wrapper or container from some kind of junk food or drink. Every single item. Imagine if we stopped producing junk food on good farm land and packaging junk food into plastic, cans, and waxed paper coverings. Can’t stop capitalism though can we, or at least that what the capitalists want you to believe.
1In real life
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