when i was back in boston a few weeks ago, i spent a couple days hanging out at my brother’s house.  my brother has one of those giant fuck-off plasma screen televisions, and every available cable channel known to man.  and as i spent some time one morning flicking through news station after news station, with screaming headlines in primary colours and slick plastic talking heads, i was overwhelmed with a single reflexive reaction: revulsion.

and so i turned it off, and walked away.  probably one of the only times i ever have.

confusing too, given my former status as a political junkie, but i seem to have lost my appetite for it.  i’ve known, intellectually, how the politrix of media plays out – the mass marketing of fear and hype, preying upon the simple desires of the public to have complex, grey issues distilled down into an easily digestible message.  but for the first time, instead of railing against it, i’m content to walk away.

i’m not interested in playing out my part in the artificial drama any more.  i’m not willing to allow myself to be worked up into a frenzy, or polarised, or take up arms for my side. because even battering against the facile stereotypes and misinformation, feels like playing into their hands.

these well-worn tropes only work when they can define themselves in opposition to something.  when people act in defiance against something.  more and more, it seems to me that the intentional devisiveness taking place in america only serves to undermine *everyone’s* best interests.

and so while i read the ridiculous headlines about “death panels” and socialism (as if!) and nazis in relation to the healthcare debate, i no longer feel the need to weigh in.  i’m happy to nod along with others, but  the level of invective being slung around has reached absurd heights.

really? nazis? joker satire? over *healthcare*?  it’s reductio ad absurdum spun out of control – it all seems like a preposterous joke, and i can’t relate in the least.

so if you’re wondering where my usual ire has been these days, with so much to rant and rage about, there’s your answer.

i just can’t.  i can’t dignify this kind of rhetoric with a response.

which is a shame really.  not for me – but for all those out there who invest immense amounts of time and energy is a war which cannot be won.  because like all wargames, there is only a zero sum outcome in which we *all* lose out.

updated: just in case, like me, you need a bit of humour to see you through, check it: jon stewart v. town hall crazies and death panels

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