This is an excellent statement of where we are now in America. You hooked me with the Invasion of the Body Snatchers reference. I remember the first one in the 50s. Today the scary thing is living in Trump’s world.
It is scary, but I believe that this is not just about Trump. There is something in people that has been easily activated by Trump and MAGA. And we see some of this around the world, not only in the USA.
However, I do not meet it so solidly and with such a confidence that this is the way to be, anywhere else than in the USA. I do not meet that resistance and "screaming" anywhere else. The pointing-out of people who are still human as the abnormal ones.
And since that country has a lot of influence on the world, we all suffer from it. And that makes it reasonable for me to worry about it, even when I just meet it with some mandolin fans in the USA, because the numbness will allow for the political situation to escalate, making everything much less great in the end.
I agree with you about something in us being activated by Trump — what we’re capable of doing and being. Very scary, and we’re witnessing it every day. Thank you for your writing and the excellent body-snatcher metaphor.
Wow, you came back with a bang! It's so sad to think we are living in a dystopia. I wonder why some people are so afraid to speak while many seem to be screaming all the time. Or is it this effect amplified by social media? I haven't witnessed it in real life beyond the normal filters most people have.
Since I'm in Mexico, I'm close to the topic of tariffs. While I'm not in any way justifying what the cartels do, I do think if I was running a country that struggles with so much addiction I wouldn't only focus on the outside influence but in what's leading so many Americans to buy this stuff (fentanyl and others) from Mexican, Chinese or other mafias. Even if the US magically got rid of the Mexican and Chinese cartels, someone else is going to pop up as long as there are customers.
Yes, thanks :) I was leaning on a thin wall over a cliff for a while, and then, suddenly, it broke and I fell down. That cracked an eggshell I had begun to build around me, and that's what made the bang. Now I'm free again.
Social media has an effect on how people see and understand news. It directs our searches and findings alike, and it provides us with mass-opinions, embraced by likes and shares, to an extent where it can be difficult for anyone to make up their own mind based on trustworthy information. We get what others want us to get, nothing else.
However, some people, and that was a shocking discovery for me, seem to not take in anything at all from what is going on in the world. One thing is that they may not understand how tariffs are to be calculated – that is honestly a wasp's nest of silliness and stupidity in disguise as politics anyway, and the so-called reasons are made out of thin air, pure populism, difficult for a thinking person to make sense of, since there is no sense. But another thing is how it can be possible to not get at least the headlines, the main words, when these are being repeated by all media every day, over and over again? And then, for those who know more, that it becomes cardinal for them to deny the fact that this is what is being said all the time, even claiming that it is not?
About the fentanyl and the raw materials for creating it, I can't see a good connection to punishing importers of everything made in a certain country. Especially not when, in fact, almost everything is imported from these countries, as the USA doesn't produce very much on its own – especially not when considering the full process including all parts and machines, etc., of which almost for certain many elements come from other countries. Tariffs on that basis will just increase the prices, there will be no change in how anything works, apart from some companies going out of business and some people losing their jobs.
I agree with you that fentanyl and other drugs will be bought or produced anyway, no matter which countries are being exposed to tariffs. If there is a market for this, someone will provide it. The exact channels may change, and if importing it becomes too expensive or complicated, it will just be produced locally, in one form or another. A shady side of it is that the society is using plenty of fentanyl legally, so it needs to be produced, the USA cannot function without it – meaning, that if the ingredients are not coming from other countries, they will for sure be made in the USA, and some of it will then no doubt flow along illegal channels.
Dealing with the problems that create the drug addiction is a much more feasible way forward, but that involves acknowledging that the USA itself has a responsibility and that some serious thinking and doing needs to be done – and that is not in line with populism, so that will not happen in the current political climate, where more points are given to the politicians if the blame others than if they themselves deal with the problems.
What I meant with the social media comment is that, in real life, at least in my life, I don't see people afraid of speaking their mind or cutting ties with people who think differently. Maybe I'm just privileged enough to be surrounded by open-minded people.
There is no good connection, and there are probably a lot of hidden reasons behind what happens between these countries. It makes me a bit sad because we had had a friendly relationship with Canada and the US until now. In fact, despite what the news portray, we are quite a pacifist country. Our last war was in 1910. Well, we did send some symbolic help during WWII, but it was minimal.
I see two other aspects to this that are not being discussed enough: who is really going to get affected by the tariffs and also, the root of addiction and the role of all these meds. I suffer from chronic pain myself (though I don't use anything harder than a muscle relaxant here and there) and I think it's worrisome how many young(ish) people are suffering enough to use and abuse these drugs. But, as you said, that would entail self-accountability.
I'm glad you are back! I had missed your texts!
Do let us know how your mandolin journey is going, besides the tariffs.
That seems reasonable – to be different on social media than in real life, I mean. After all, whatever being said suddenly becomes permanent, always there to be used against those who said it. And the distance, physically, seems to make it easier for people to sort of "not smile" while talking, as would otherwise be considered polite in real life. So, they become less polite, often trying to say something faster than they should, and even not having good possibilities to correct what they said, as the reactions have already been made by others, and people tend to stick to those, no matter what changes are being made to the original claim.
I trust that you are peaceful, and Trump's treatment of you is completely unreasonable. But he doesn't seem to see people, only numbers, which even are wrong – or maybe he doesn't even see those, but simply spins off some nonsense that is based on nothing. The effect is evil, nevertheless.
Your additional aspects are very relevant. Tariffs tend to end up making everything more expensive, for everyone except those who have been granted an exception, ;) Should we guess that several of Trump's friends have been granted such one? But in any case, basically everything get more expensive, since everything has been made of or by the help of things from abroad.
I can see how musical instruments seemingly gets more expensive in Europe too, and several of them are no longer in stock. Even if they are from China. The whole world has been disrupted by this "trade war", because everybody importing or exporting is worried about what will happen next and doesn't want to end up with a mountain of goods that suddenly become too expensive to sell – so they all just wait and see.
About pain relief medicine: This is no different from anything else, and Trumps stupid ideas have no effect whatsoever on what is available. Only the exact price on the exact day may be different, but if one source becomes too expensive, the resellers will find cheaper sources. It counts for both the legal and illegal drugs. It simply is how a market works.
It is indeed worrying that people become dependent on drugs. It can have many reasons. I have myself had problems with the acid production in the stomach, making the doctors tell me to take some medicine for this. What they didn't tell, however, was that it would create a physical dependence, so that it would hurt, literally, to stop taking it. It took me a while to find a way to get rid of it, but it was possible, though not by the help of the doctors.
Abuse of drugs can start like that: a prescribed medication, after which the doctor loses interest in the case and doesn't follow up in order to end the medication. Or side effects of the drugs, that requires some other drugs, from which a dependence develops. But, of course, some drugs are not really taken to cure anything else than the feeling of not fitting into the world, which the drugs then help to provide a temporary escape from.
There are many more ways to develop an abuse, and many more things to abuse. It includes even food and soft drinks, and other stuff that is severely propagated through excessive marketing.
Pills against sadness, depression, may make it look normal to not be sad, and a disease to be treated, if someone is occasionally sad. The natural understanding of what is normal is being washed aways by such drugs, and it is very problematic that so many people get them. Headache pills, well, we do have a lot of headache, but maybe better try to find out what causes that – and react on what we find out.
But that's a problem: too little sleep, too little time or money to cook proper food, too many disturbances from the surroundings – all such things are not to be fixed, because nobody will accept to participate. The workplace will not allow for starting work later or having an extra vacation, the neighbors will not accept to let you sleep in the morning because that is when they enjoy life by being noisy, etc.
My general guess is that if we could allow each other to do in life what is naturally felt to be right, such as sleeping longer or going for a walk instead of working with the computer right at that time, we could improve health for all of us a lot – and save much of the medicine, and much of the risk of developing abuse and dependencies, much of the need to escape the world.
I don't think I'm that different on social media than in real life. Are you? I mean, sure, I try not to post irrelevant stuff that only the people closest to me get to hear, but I understand your point. The problem is, I think, that some people no longer separate their online life from their real one.
Oh, you touched on a point that I'm passionate about: the overprescribing/misprescribing of psych meds. Those things ruined years of my life, when it turned out I just needed some talk therapy and to embrace that I'm neurodivergent. Angry? Take a pill. Sad? Another pill. We've pathologized totally normal emotions. I don't deny that some people do need medical help. But most of us need what you say: a healthy diet, time to decompress, a walk outside.
This is an excellent statement of where we are now in America. You hooked me with the Invasion of the Body Snatchers reference. I remember the first one in the 50s. Today the scary thing is living in Trump’s world.
It is scary, but I believe that this is not just about Trump. There is something in people that has been easily activated by Trump and MAGA. And we see some of this around the world, not only in the USA.
However, I do not meet it so solidly and with such a confidence that this is the way to be, anywhere else than in the USA. I do not meet that resistance and "screaming" anywhere else. The pointing-out of people who are still human as the abnormal ones.
And since that country has a lot of influence on the world, we all suffer from it. And that makes it reasonable for me to worry about it, even when I just meet it with some mandolin fans in the USA, because the numbness will allow for the political situation to escalate, making everything much less great in the end.
I agree with you about something in us being activated by Trump — what we’re capable of doing and being. Very scary, and we’re witnessing it every day. Thank you for your writing and the excellent body-snatcher metaphor.
Wow, you came back with a bang! It's so sad to think we are living in a dystopia. I wonder why some people are so afraid to speak while many seem to be screaming all the time. Or is it this effect amplified by social media? I haven't witnessed it in real life beyond the normal filters most people have.
Since I'm in Mexico, I'm close to the topic of tariffs. While I'm not in any way justifying what the cartels do, I do think if I was running a country that struggles with so much addiction I wouldn't only focus on the outside influence but in what's leading so many Americans to buy this stuff (fentanyl and others) from Mexican, Chinese or other mafias. Even if the US magically got rid of the Mexican and Chinese cartels, someone else is going to pop up as long as there are customers.
Yes, thanks :) I was leaning on a thin wall over a cliff for a while, and then, suddenly, it broke and I fell down. That cracked an eggshell I had begun to build around me, and that's what made the bang. Now I'm free again.
Social media has an effect on how people see and understand news. It directs our searches and findings alike, and it provides us with mass-opinions, embraced by likes and shares, to an extent where it can be difficult for anyone to make up their own mind based on trustworthy information. We get what others want us to get, nothing else.
However, some people, and that was a shocking discovery for me, seem to not take in anything at all from what is going on in the world. One thing is that they may not understand how tariffs are to be calculated – that is honestly a wasp's nest of silliness and stupidity in disguise as politics anyway, and the so-called reasons are made out of thin air, pure populism, difficult for a thinking person to make sense of, since there is no sense. But another thing is how it can be possible to not get at least the headlines, the main words, when these are being repeated by all media every day, over and over again? And then, for those who know more, that it becomes cardinal for them to deny the fact that this is what is being said all the time, even claiming that it is not?
About the fentanyl and the raw materials for creating it, I can't see a good connection to punishing importers of everything made in a certain country. Especially not when, in fact, almost everything is imported from these countries, as the USA doesn't produce very much on its own – especially not when considering the full process including all parts and machines, etc., of which almost for certain many elements come from other countries. Tariffs on that basis will just increase the prices, there will be no change in how anything works, apart from some companies going out of business and some people losing their jobs.
I agree with you that fentanyl and other drugs will be bought or produced anyway, no matter which countries are being exposed to tariffs. If there is a market for this, someone will provide it. The exact channels may change, and if importing it becomes too expensive or complicated, it will just be produced locally, in one form or another. A shady side of it is that the society is using plenty of fentanyl legally, so it needs to be produced, the USA cannot function without it – meaning, that if the ingredients are not coming from other countries, they will for sure be made in the USA, and some of it will then no doubt flow along illegal channels.
Dealing with the problems that create the drug addiction is a much more feasible way forward, but that involves acknowledging that the USA itself has a responsibility and that some serious thinking and doing needs to be done – and that is not in line with populism, so that will not happen in the current political climate, where more points are given to the politicians if the blame others than if they themselves deal with the problems.
What I meant with the social media comment is that, in real life, at least in my life, I don't see people afraid of speaking their mind or cutting ties with people who think differently. Maybe I'm just privileged enough to be surrounded by open-minded people.
There is no good connection, and there are probably a lot of hidden reasons behind what happens between these countries. It makes me a bit sad because we had had a friendly relationship with Canada and the US until now. In fact, despite what the news portray, we are quite a pacifist country. Our last war was in 1910. Well, we did send some symbolic help during WWII, but it was minimal.
I see two other aspects to this that are not being discussed enough: who is really going to get affected by the tariffs and also, the root of addiction and the role of all these meds. I suffer from chronic pain myself (though I don't use anything harder than a muscle relaxant here and there) and I think it's worrisome how many young(ish) people are suffering enough to use and abuse these drugs. But, as you said, that would entail self-accountability.
I'm glad you are back! I had missed your texts!
Do let us know how your mandolin journey is going, besides the tariffs.
That seems reasonable – to be different on social media than in real life, I mean. After all, whatever being said suddenly becomes permanent, always there to be used against those who said it. And the distance, physically, seems to make it easier for people to sort of "not smile" while talking, as would otherwise be considered polite in real life. So, they become less polite, often trying to say something faster than they should, and even not having good possibilities to correct what they said, as the reactions have already been made by others, and people tend to stick to those, no matter what changes are being made to the original claim.
I trust that you are peaceful, and Trump's treatment of you is completely unreasonable. But he doesn't seem to see people, only numbers, which even are wrong – or maybe he doesn't even see those, but simply spins off some nonsense that is based on nothing. The effect is evil, nevertheless.
Your additional aspects are very relevant. Tariffs tend to end up making everything more expensive, for everyone except those who have been granted an exception, ;) Should we guess that several of Trump's friends have been granted such one? But in any case, basically everything get more expensive, since everything has been made of or by the help of things from abroad.
I can see how musical instruments seemingly gets more expensive in Europe too, and several of them are no longer in stock. Even if they are from China. The whole world has been disrupted by this "trade war", because everybody importing or exporting is worried about what will happen next and doesn't want to end up with a mountain of goods that suddenly become too expensive to sell – so they all just wait and see.
About pain relief medicine: This is no different from anything else, and Trumps stupid ideas have no effect whatsoever on what is available. Only the exact price on the exact day may be different, but if one source becomes too expensive, the resellers will find cheaper sources. It counts for both the legal and illegal drugs. It simply is how a market works.
It is indeed worrying that people become dependent on drugs. It can have many reasons. I have myself had problems with the acid production in the stomach, making the doctors tell me to take some medicine for this. What they didn't tell, however, was that it would create a physical dependence, so that it would hurt, literally, to stop taking it. It took me a while to find a way to get rid of it, but it was possible, though not by the help of the doctors.
Abuse of drugs can start like that: a prescribed medication, after which the doctor loses interest in the case and doesn't follow up in order to end the medication. Or side effects of the drugs, that requires some other drugs, from which a dependence develops. But, of course, some drugs are not really taken to cure anything else than the feeling of not fitting into the world, which the drugs then help to provide a temporary escape from.
There are many more ways to develop an abuse, and many more things to abuse. It includes even food and soft drinks, and other stuff that is severely propagated through excessive marketing.
Pills against sadness, depression, may make it look normal to not be sad, and a disease to be treated, if someone is occasionally sad. The natural understanding of what is normal is being washed aways by such drugs, and it is very problematic that so many people get them. Headache pills, well, we do have a lot of headache, but maybe better try to find out what causes that – and react on what we find out.
But that's a problem: too little sleep, too little time or money to cook proper food, too many disturbances from the surroundings – all such things are not to be fixed, because nobody will accept to participate. The workplace will not allow for starting work later or having an extra vacation, the neighbors will not accept to let you sleep in the morning because that is when they enjoy life by being noisy, etc.
My general guess is that if we could allow each other to do in life what is naturally felt to be right, such as sleeping longer or going for a walk instead of working with the computer right at that time, we could improve health for all of us a lot – and save much of the medicine, and much of the risk of developing abuse and dependencies, much of the need to escape the world.
I don't think I'm that different on social media than in real life. Are you? I mean, sure, I try not to post irrelevant stuff that only the people closest to me get to hear, but I understand your point. The problem is, I think, that some people no longer separate their online life from their real one.
Oh, you touched on a point that I'm passionate about: the overprescribing/misprescribing of psych meds. Those things ruined years of my life, when it turned out I just needed some talk therapy and to embrace that I'm neurodivergent. Angry? Take a pill. Sad? Another pill. We've pathologized totally normal emotions. I don't deny that some people do need medical help. But most of us need what you say: a healthy diet, time to decompress, a walk outside.