Call it a coping mechanism — or a bad habit — but terrible news inevitably leads me to Twitter. It’s an endless cycle; I get a notification from a news app, scroll through the story and immediately head to Twitter to see what others are saying. Seeing others vent about the chaos unfolding around us is simultaneously anxiety inducing and therapeutic. One feels less alone when others panic with them.
The problem is that the cycle invites inaction. With so many issues arising every day, the last part of our process has become scrolling through media to purge internal fears onto a public forum for comfort, only to be blindsided by the next crisis immediately after.
Exposure to trauma across the nation only exacerbates the trend. Take the killer Kyle Rittenhouse for example: When the news broke that the court found him not guilty of murdering the two anti-racist protesters he shot and killed in Kenosha, Wisconsin, I and those around me felt disempowered. Events far from Oregon felt as though they were stripping me of my agency. This is the crux of our inaction problem; inundation of national crises blinds us from taking action on individual tasks, even those right in front of us.
This phenomenon feeds perfectly into a national liberal agenda. The current moderate Democratic agenda works through an institutional approach that is designed to inch the status quo leftwards. Tangible action is reduced to feeble campaigns calling for people to vote in the distant future. Improvement has become a long-term consideration, maintaining the illusion of progress while being careful to not upset the general national hegemony. This comes in the shape of trickle-down progressivism, where focus on national improvement is promised to yield local benefits. Our media reflects this; a majority of news covers mainly national-scale politics.
The crisis cycle adds to this. With constant exposure to mainly national politics, the sheer amount of catastrophe becomes a breeding ground for passivity. Ending each piece of news by simply scrolling through media is a liberal dream. Disillusioned consumption replaces tangible action. With our focus on the national scale, the liberal agenda can assert dominance, ensuring meaningful change remains only a promise.
There is, though, a path to breaking the cycle: local work. My dejection following the horrifying Rittenhouse verdict and powerlessness surrounding national problems distracted me from the fact that there are problems in my own community that require help. Here in Eugene, houselessness remains an issue that is talked about but not acted on. We can start here. Locally, there are many ways to help the houseless. Volunteering with Eugene Mission, donating food and supplies to Food for Lane County or even simple monetary donations are necessary places to start. Lesser known, but extremely effective forms of aid, include the Neighborhood Anarchist Collective and Food Not Bombs, both of which provide zero-barrier mutual aid to unhoused peoples and those in need.
When crisis strikes, it’s inevitable that we will panic. It’s essential to remember that feeling bad or having sympathy by recognizing a problem does nothing. Even if it feels better, dread cannot overcome the passivity institutionalized by a national-focused liberal agenda. With every catastrophe, the news cycle that ends with personal panic only leads to more disasters gone unaddressed. We have a responsibility to end the crisis cycle that bolsters a status quo agenda. I do as well. Writing and consuming media cannot be an end in itself. It must be a catalyst.
