Concerning US Election Shenanigans · 6:50am Nov 1st, 2016
It has come to my attention that a lot of people in the US are understandably freaking out about the presidential election. In fact, psychologists in the New York area are going so far as to declare Trump-Induced Anxiety is a Medical Thing. While the problems that plague America cannot be solved on a personal level, our personal discomfort with the election can. Here are a few things you can do to reduce the symptoms of Candidatephobia.
Turn Off the News
Anyone who has been paying attention to the news knows two things: Trump says things many people find extremely distasteful and Hillary has for better or worse been involved with politics since before many of us were born with all the slime that entails. If you did not pick up on these things within a few days of tuning into the election, I am not sure what to tell you.
Regardless of which candidate you support, it should be obvious by now that the election coverage cycles the same few headlines over and over with different trappings. It does not matter how many new emails come out: we already know Hillary is Bad At Email. If you find Trump's remarks about women disturbing, we have seen him run his mouth since his live remarks to Megyn Kelly this time last October. Do you really need another tape to decide if he is over the line or not? Treat the candidates' baggage as categories, make up your mind about where you are holding your nose for each one, and then you will find 99% of the news is redundant. Put your news time to more productive use, like writing.
Read the Constitution
Specifically, Article II (not to be confused with the fic of the same name). If you like digging, a more through analysis of the Office of President of the United States in light of legal precedent, amendments, and other legislation is available here.
The president is Commander in Chief of the army (but cannot declare war), can veto laws if congress approves them (and congress can override that veto), can pardon people, is responsible for receiving ambassadors, and can make appointments to executive offices (still with congressional approval). Notice that in order to do anything, the president requires other people's cooperation, many of whom are beyond their direct control and some of whom you can vote for seperately.
Will Trump's mouth get us some public embarrassment? Sure, but we have survived Biden, Bush, and Jackson just fine, and there are hundreds of people in Congress or serving as staff whose job it is to keep things running smoothly regardless of whether there is a yahoo in the Oval Office. Is Hillary ever going to find a way to "reintroduce" herself in a 'relateable' way? Not a chance, but remember that relating to the issues you care about is more the job of the Congresscritters you elect to represent you and who actually end up drafting legislation. If you do not like something, send them a physical strongly worded letter or five. Stacks of mail tend to send a message.
What Could Go Imminently Wrong?
Of course, even given that a less than optimal president is nowhere near the end of the world, there are some rumors going around of "something" happening on or shortly after election day. The only way to get rid of this anxiety is to sit down, list out what you expect could happen, estimate how likely it is, and then figure out what to do about the part of it that will hit you. This will vary by region, but here is an example case:
Remember to start with the plausible and immediate. The president does not take office until January, so no need to worry about Hillary taking your guns until well after the votes are cast. If you live away from populated areas or in a heavily Democrat area, you probably don't have to worry too much about a mob of angry Trump supporters.
To be honest, about the only situation off the top of my head that makes sense to worry about is people freaking out about the election results akin to the famous toilet paper shortage: everyone expects something to go wrong, so right after the winner is announced, everyone freaks out and buys the stores clean out of basic necessities just in case. Shortage results.
What do we do to solve this problem? Easy: go out now and do one or two weeks of early grocery shopping depending on your budget. Remember to buy food that you eat every day and make sure it will keep -- freeze the meat and get canned vegetables instead of fresh. To be super safe, consider the open + 1 method for other consumables (keep the open dish soap plus one unopened) so you are not likely to run out. Then make sure you top off your gas tank and keep it at least half full until you feel you're in the clear.
Whatever you end up doing, just remember to plan ahead and think simple. The beauty of the above approach (assuming you have the spare cash to stock up) is that you already know about what you need, and when nothing happens, you don't have to see Wal-Mart for two weeks! On the other hand, if you went out and got a year's supply of emergency bucket food off the internet, you've burned a bunch of cash and if nothing happens, you are left with yucko overpriced food you will not want to eat even in an emergency.
But What If the World Really Ends For Real!?
Remember "the end of the world" means more "the end of my current routine." Sometimes an earthquake does come through. 2008 happened. 9/11 happened. But again, most of us lived through those events. Things were scary for awhile and our lives are different now, but we're still getting along. We adapted and moved on.
The only way to deal with these big earthquakes is to let ourselves take a serious look at them as a huge but finite Thing, and then try to picture ourselves getting by in the most likely world that would result from that earthquake. Do not make the mistake of thinking in "infinities" or let your mind stop at "its the end of the world, so who cares?" When we say "infinity" we really mean "its too big to bother with thinking about," and when we say "its the end of the world" we really mean "I have a happy simple death at this point so I don't have to think about it, but I'll totally freak out about the possibility in the meantime instead of enjoying life."
If you do not want to consider highly unlikely world-changing scenarios, that's fine. They happen infrequently and no one could force you if they wanted to. However, if you are not going to engage them with constructive thought, you are not allowed to worry about them at all. If the world wants to end, it will end on its own. Go play outside and enjoy your present moderately undisturbed life while it lasts.
However, if you do want to dwell on these remote possibilities, then you should take them seriously. If you worry about zombie apocalypses all day saying "oh no, the zombies will come and I'm gonna die" until everyone unfriends you on Facebook to end the conspiracy stories clogging their feed, well guess what? You are going to be a coward and hide while all your friends get zombified and your fate will be to wander the wastes alone half-starved and thirsty, too cowardly to end your pitiful existence. First rule of the End of the World: If You Whine In Advance, You Die Last. No Exceptions.
If you want to seriously fear the End of the World, then you have signed up to figure out the most least credible threat, reading up on it, and figuring out what you would like to change about your life to improve your circumstances after whatever the shakeup is. Zombies are overplayed and have been repeatedly demonstrated to be short lived if they even managed to function at all. But what about something relatively more likely? What if the next candidate get us in a nuclear war with Russia?
Educate yourself. Go poking around the internet for civil defense literature. Play around with nukemap -- find the target nearest you that you think the Russians would waste a multi-million dollar bomb on (ex: military base, long runways for jets, major downtown area) and put a 500kt airburst on it. Unless you live downtown in a large city, you will likely find the blast will not even get near your house. Congratulations: you live to deal with the fallout cleanup!
If you bother with the big stuff, you have the responsibility to realize that "big" is still finite. Moreover, you are small, which means you will inevitably get served up a small enough chunk of that huge world-changing event to be a handful but not big enough to end you flat out. You just have to figure out how to handle your "little" chunk of the problem.
As you may have guessed, I did find nukes scary enough to research. I found that I would likely just be dealing with light fallout in my area and that the Nuclear Winter business is more of a scare tactic than an actual Thing. It was only about $25 to get a few things to give me reasonable peace of mind if the worst really happened. Here's my list:
- N95 dust mask to keep fallout dust out of my nose ($5 for 2 at walmart)
- Chemical goggles to keep fallout dust out of my eyes ($4 at walmart)
- Bottle of iodine pills 1/day for 2 weeks to keep radioactive iodine out of my thyroid gland ($10 at a supplement store)
- Bottle of calcium pills 1/meal for 2 weeks to keep radioactive strontium from building up in my bones ($5 at walmart)
- Two flats of bottled water for hanging out at home with no utilities while the fallout settles (Who doesn't have these lying around already?)
- A week of sealed food that does not require major preparation or microwaving (cost varies, but if you have a FEMA kit put together (and you do, right?), you basically have this already)
I put the mask, googles, and pills with my severe weather supplies in a windowless interior room of my house where blown out window glass will not get to. If the emergency alert ever comes, I just run there, duck, and cover, and that is the best I can do, so I have made my peace with that. Now I can play outside and not worry about nukes (or earthquakes, tornadoes, stores closing, power outages, the stove breaking...)
And that is the real take away here: if you are worrying about it, do research and then do something about the parts that are going to impact you. If you cannot do something about it, it will take care of itself. Go play outside.
I don't remember why I followed you (somewhat dense in that regard), but I'm glad I did. Thank you for posting this; as someone with mild anxiety problems, this actually helped a lot.
This is an eminently reasonable and measured response, and I appreciate the time you've taken putting it together. :)
Thanks for being a bastion of reason and harmony!
It doesn't concern me as closely as many on this site I guess, but I've enjoyed reading your blog post anyway. I like your approach to this.
Anyway, if all else fails, refugees are still welcome here in Germany.
Well said.
Well said.
The news/entertainment business is a hot dog stand: it's enticing and cheap, but consuming a little too much will drive up your blood pressure, and consuming a whole lot just might kill you… and even if it doesn't, you'll reek of mustard and sauerkraut.
I think I overextended that metaphor…
4279910
Given I have been not quite dead for awhile now, I would be more surprised if you did remember. Always happy to be of assistance.
4280083
Quite welcome!
4280172
To be honest, I might have to take you up on that offer one of these days, not that it has not been said and immediately forgotten before. What with all this Deutsche Bank stuff, bubbles, and crisis popping up everywhere, not even New Zealand is looking viable anymore
But even then, we will end up muddling through somehow, with any luck in a viable number of pieces.
4280538
Thank you!
4281311
I think you were good right up the the point that you made me hungry.
4281672 Yeah, things aren't looking all too well here, too. We've got a huge rise in right-wing votes due to the fearmongering media and the refugee crisis, and although people are still 100 times more likely to be killed in car accidents, politics are more and more chipping away the citizens freedom in the name of 'terror prevention'.
If all goes to shit I've been pondering moving to Norway. The weather might be on the cold and wet side, but they are rich enough to not become the puppet of banks, aren't bound by EU legislation, I like their brand of social market economy, and the language doesn't seem to be much of a challenge when coming from other germanic languages.
Anyway, if you want to give Germany a try though, I've got no problem providing a couch and sharing meals until you find something suitable of your own. Pony folks gotta stick together.