BEAR WITH ME...

 

BEAR WITH ME…

Bear with me on this theory..but I believe daily newspapers kept us as a society from completely going insane…

Now, here is where I got this idea.

First off, most of the readers (thank you) of my pithy remarks probably remember newspapers that were delivered to our homes in the mornings or in the afternoons. These covered yesterday’s news, not hourly news since the internet did not exist.

Secondly, they were limited in size and content by the number of pages and the amount of advertisements they could print on a daily basis. Advertisements were sold to support the cost of the newspaper itself. There was only so much room to print all of the daily events, the sports, weather and the ads for the Labor Day sale at Sears.

Today of course all of that has changed and we are bombarded by events and opinions moments or seconds after they occur. Each and every hour of each and every day. We get opinions, viewpoints, lectures, pleas, guilt statements without stop. Whether we want them or not.

Some of these are real, some are not, some are deliberate misinformation, some are clickbait and now we have some that are Ai generated. No one knows what to believe any longer. There is simply too much thrown at us each 24 hours. We cannot begin to filter everything, absorb everything and get a simple answer to any given situation.

We are subjected to the opinions, viewpoints, hates, and biases of the persons giving their opinion. For example, the news de jure would have us believing that most children want to have their sex changed, or that all white folks hate black folks and vice versa. The same would have you believe that every person owning a firearm is actively looking for someone to shoot. I have owned firearms ever since I was about 14 years old and not once have, I felt compelled to go out into a crowd of people and just hurt someone.

Folks, I hate to tell you this, but there are lots of looney people on both sides of the spectrum. All republicans don’t hate all the democrats and all of the democrats don’t hate all of the republicans. But what do we see and hear from these so called ‘experts’ and ‘influencers’ that flood us with snippets of our country devolving into utter chaos and despair?

I question these reports as either being generated for profit (clicks?) or for significance. Do so called ‘influencers’ really think that people are 100% moved by what they discuss or recommend? Or are people following them just out of curiosity? I can never think of any advertisement I have seen in my life that prompted me to get dressed, get in the car or go on line and buy something because Kim what’s her name suggested it.

 

 

Look folks, we are all trying to stay alive in an ever-changing world. Trying to keep a job, raise kids, be a good husband or wife, pay bills, staying healthy…. is definitely not easy.

Our information comes at us fast and furious and from too many unsubstantiated sources.

Is coffee really bad or good for you?

Is it ok to take aspirin?

Carbs or no carbs?

Democrat or Republican?

Gas or electric?

Vaccine or no vaccine?

There is not enough time in the day or the ability to sift through what is the real story behind each and every fact that is tossed to us by the hour. Once you find out (or think you have found out) the truth behind every news item, it is time to start all over again.

Our parents and certainly our grandparents lived at a much slower pace. The news came to them via 1 or maybe 3 television stations, maybe a couple of decent AM radio stations and printed on perhaps 50 or more newspaper pages. There was zero ‘on the spot’ reporting to view time and time again. You found out about it the next day or hours later.

I once asked my favorite aunt what happened to her on December 7^th, 1941. I knew she was in nurses’ school, but I wanted her rendition of that day.

She told me… “I went to church”

I thought the poor old girls mind was beginning to lose it and I tried to jog her memory without being snarky or cruel.

“Now Aunt Margaret, think back …. something really, really big happened in our history on that day…try to remember, if you can.”

She stared at me with a like I was an idiot and said…

“Of course, I knew it was the attack on Pearl Harbor, but we didn’t hear about it until Monday…we didn’t have a radio.”

It is said that ‘what we don’t know ….won’t hurt you’.

Perhaps we could all do with a little less information each and every day.

See you next week…Peary Perry