Stress and Misinformation

Uhm, OK. So - you may have, if you read it, caught up on me being not entirely sincere in my last post. I maintained a tactical insincerity to circumnavigate various filters, we might say, that exist in my mind.
There may be even actual malice in the design of the document. Malice I then also chose to keep. Malice towards you, the reader, well knowing that it's ... well ... 'probably' ... entirely undeserved.

I don't suspect that "jig" to last - but I'm also not here to say that I wrote was wrong. It's just the delivery, like, the theme - and here we have a different one. Whatver 'controversy' there is, in essence it's just an artistic choice.
So, I did however have to leave some things out - and the one I remembered after I had already uploaded the post, well, is that actually - after 3+ hours of not sleeping, I eventually got up, ate a cereal bar and somehow all of the drama dissipated from my mind.

But yea. The issues I mentioned are still there. Though, in other words, the question is more like: In my current state I find it curious that all the things that used to be so prevalent ... aren't there anymore. It's an utterly unmagical experience; And if I were more balanced about it there's other directions than "crash and burn" I could take this into.


But also, you may have noticed that the concept of 'stress' has been evolving, as per my writings, as of late. And so I'm starting to understand stress a little better, but mostly in context of matters of faith or belief.


And as I "ascend" in my understanding of the topic, I get a bigger picture of the issue at large. So that I could state, that there's a lot of detail we could get into - but I rather further my own understanding to maybe get an even better idea of what else there is.

But that doesn't mean that I want to focus on stress in this very narrow way. Often enough, I would hazard the guess, a very nice way to test a theory is to take it the most basic things we can find. Like, does gravity work? Drop an apple - as opposed to recalculating G for every spot on the planet to formulate a sound theory for why it might differ from place to place. Not that it's complicated - I assume. It's just an example.

But ... as for me, I can only pretend like I know what I'm doing. In reality ... the stuff I wrote about happened, now I started a video on the redwashing of Squid Game and now I'm left with a theory that just ... falls in place here. As though I actually knew what I was doing.


And yes: My message here isn't to hope for some magical intervention by God to save you from whatever you think you need saving from - it's more that the mysteriousness of the ways in which God does work are a lot closer to us, practically, than it might seem. You know ... this God ... that's effectively just made up, it needs to be distant and unreachable; Such that you can never know the truth and are always bound to your faith. And from that we learned a few things - generalizations, patterns, such and such - where, based on that principle, something such as baptism can be viewed in a negative light because it does require a degree of commitment. One that the Church can technically adjust by making it more or less easy. Anyhow - as things are more and more theoretical, there's a growing chance for getting everything so entirely wrong that everyone involved might start to feel stupid.
But if you set yourself that criterium ... of connecting with the Living God - and to filter out on that basis, you should be fine! Maybe not as well as me - but I was also like, built for this. Also for 'it' to work entirely within the boundaries that God has set for Himself. Which, mind you, is a progressive piece of philosophy. Or Woke! Or Liberal! Like ... to be mindful of personal boundaries. To keep your own respectful to others, just as also so and so therefore respecting those of others. That sort of thing.

And yea, that's awfully convenient for me! And while I complain about it sometimes - in essence ... . Hmm. I mean: I have like a priority VIP ticket in life. Despite my low "income", I've got it all made for me. That, sure, on the lower ranks of society - which is however also the whole problem for me. That I'm stuck on the lower ranks while I should be on top of it all. So, what I want and what I can aren't aligned all the time - and that now and then is a source of stress I cannot ... easily manage. And yea, that takes me straight to the topic I had on mind.


Which is: THAT kind of stress.

I suppose it's similar to being forced to watch someone rape your entire family. Except when you hate them enough. I suppose. I guess. I don't wanna know for sure. But I suppose You needed to have been deaf and blind and stuck on some exoplanet to not have seen traces of this kind of stress becoming more and more dominant matters of our day to day.

The George Floyd protests come to mind. Specifically because that's the kind of stuff I'm curious about here. And it also goes both ways. Which is ... part of the problem here.
I mean - whenever Dim Tool speaks about "civil war" - it's fair to laugh at him because he is who he is, but we should not forget that he is thereby catering to a crowd that's also ... like ... built for a very specific purpose. All the fearmongering heightens the stress levels of an audience captured by the content - that stress seeks relief - and that's how we get to a "both sides" of these protests that I haven't seen highlighted this way before.

Because, just as there were people on one side that 'have had enough' - there are people on the other side that see that as a threat; And 'having had enough' just as much - or maybe even more - who however felt emboldened to show as much. Next to all the others that just want to see the world burn.


So, the issue is this: Somehow people are more and more dissatisfied by how things are going. Like, every election cycle we're tasked to set the course for the next season, as it were. Supposedly things are supposed to get better each time we're able to course correct. That's however how driving works. But often enough what we get is like running perpendicular to what anyone thought they were voting about - all the while all the bad stuff we didn't want still keeps on happening. If it doesn't get worse. Anyhow, so the emotions.
We then are being tasked to 'calm down'. But the problem is that the tools of calming down eventually aren't enough to counter the effects of the things that get us heated up. So at least the observations would suggest. So, no matter how hard we try - our stress levels keep on going up, until something can be found to very profoundly calm us down again.

To us this might be simple. And by 'us' I mean basically everyone. We just say: Hey, eventually enough people are pushed over the edge, shit hits the fan and best luck and wishes to everyone after that. But if you see this and the possibility for revolt makes you uneasy, what do you do? Well, I'm sure that most people wouldn't have what it takes to just "mount a counter-rebellion". Because ... how? How would one even come to think in these terms? And if everyone is angry at you, how are you going to motivate people to get angry, just in the way that is convenient for you?
Well, however one would go about it - what we're facing, currently, looks an aweful lot like someone did it anyway.


So, when we're talking about it - it might read as a threat. But it really is just facts. Now, Dim Tool wouldn't have a strong leg to stand on - but I'm continuously surprised by how often these folks are confronted with 'their own shit' - and they can just wiggle out like "I never said that". Because, while Dim Tool wouldn't have a strong leg to stand on - everyone else that never mentioned a civil war does. So-to-speak.
So yea. They're all walking in lockstep but nobody knows what's going on. Right!


Eventually though, they might be found out - and then things change. Then all the stressed out people find themselves united - and then ... we might have ourselves a little gore-fest. Right?
Probably just in the abstract sense - but anyhow.


And one way towards this, such as a peaceful revolution, is to raise some awareness about this. Else the message would be: Hey, no matter how hard we fuck up your lives, you ought to enjoy this because the one thing it makes you wanna do you can't - but you also can't do anything else so fuck you and be quiet!

In a situation like that it's anyhow pretty much inevitable. Like ... duh! And ... I'm not sure if we should be ashamed of such feelings. I mean, maybe.
I mean - as it stands I'm enough anti-Israel to sympathize with all the people throwing rockets their way. Like, if I had to make a political statement on this matter through actions, I'd probably throw with rockets. Or ... launch/shoot them. But at the same time I don't want anything to do with Hamas. Well, sure, they're a bit like Jedi in that they teach their Younglings to grow up as such - but that doesn't really sell me on them. But neither am I sold on the Anakin Skywalker approach.


Like, I'm sorry - but - this whole stress situation has me at the point where seeing some Israeli family happy over some hostage release fuels me with something opposite of joy. It makes me wanna throw up. And for every Israeli "Buhu" there sure would be a Palestinian "Buhu" - and yea, maybe we should look into what the real ratio between the two is; But that's beside the point.

Then there's us. Christians. We're supposed to forgive. But really, whom are WE to forgive, in THIS situation? Do we feel like lending our other cheek to Israel or to Palestine? Either way we should come to terms with it and look for a solution based on that - as opposed to throwing fuel into the fire!
Or if we must, perhaps do so more equally. Like, yea. If they wanna duke it out - let them, perhaps, but please make it fair! And no, we actually don't HAVE TO. So ... that's that. This is a rhetorical statement.


But yea. The only thing that really keeps me from going down "that" road is the belief in some non-violent way. So, hypothetically, if that way didn't exist - what then? I guess we could tell each other to eat shit until we at our calmest are beyond the threshold and then ... THAT's life!

And to that end, I don't think that 'their' strategies to calm us down are a bad thing. I mean, they'd be bad in the sense that they'd delay the inevitable - but ultimately, as excuses get weaker, more and more people grow sick of them.


Bottom line: Stress is a tension. It affects our behavior in that the ways our own internal, mental energy connects with our thoughts, beliefs, motivations and maybe more. If stress has a cause and we experience the stress as negative, we eventually learn to move around it. Sometimes we come up with crazy inventions to circumvent a problem. Like, it's ... "crazy" ... how often stress has pushed me like over the edge and into great performance. Like, Destiny PvP or such things. To say, it's fascinating how this shift in energy can affect us.
Stress is however a tension we cannot really control. We can control it indirectly, but in and of itself, stress is like heat. To say: It happens and when it happens it is happening. You can remind yourself of that and raise a conscious veto against whatever you were about to do - step back, breathe in, calm down. Or ... bite on your ... fingers. Or whatever. It actually helps! And if just to satisfy your own perfomative demands of superficiality. But, I think pain is like "anti stress" in that it motivates withdrawal from whatever it is you're doing. Here it is when there's nothing to withdraw from ... that it goes the other way again. Or - if it just keeps you from going where you're going. Or this and that, and that or that ... whatever.


But ultimately, the true bottom line depends on which ways are open before you.
To me - I can't leave this in a state that emboldens bad actors to be bad while not supporting good actors enough to defend against it. I mean, I'm not sure if we'll ever encounter a real proponent of it defending it in real life - but maybe I'm also just to naive to see its prevalence: Let's call it "Legislative Whataboutism". If you thought Whataboutism was bad, wait until you learn about this one!
It is whataboutism, in form of a legislative body with corresponding competences. This legislative body ... doesn't need to be part of a government. Any group can have their own legislative body - and this one, well, it looks at what other people get away with to formulate from it the right to do so too.
To this end, I have a sort of feeling of whom I'm "talking to". I'm sure it isn't anywhere near accurate - regarding the now - as it is more of an abstract something between common sense and fortune telling.

Right now, there's like "the bulk" - which is, "my audience" - and around it or attached to it is a thin membrane with however ... a lot more energy in it. And to me it's easy to "fall" for that energy. To thus somehow ... start catering to them. Or, regard them, however, in my considerations. But this layer is also like ... highly unstable as it'll take every occasion to twist whatever I do into the wrongest take away possible. And Legislative Whataboutism is like the foundation thereof.


Contemporary Politics is like in a deadlock, as it seems due to Legislative Whataboutism. Currently it's like: Whatever anyone got away with ever - all wrapped into one big fat shit sandwitch.


And there sure are people, I'm certain at least, that believe it's good or necessary. Legitimately - based on the best of their mental faculties. And this is ... it's tempting ... .

And so, there's only limited fun herein because getting too funny might be ... taken in wrong ways.
And fair! I mean, I tend to forget that you can't ... really see my mental pronounciation of the words I'm producing. So, that nuance isn't there.


But yea. That why it works to just call them idiots. I mean, they call us idiots back and if that's where we at, cool! This might just be in about as good as it gets! Well, I sure as hell won't call them 'respectable' or anything of that sort.

PEACE!