Elliot Gengler Nonfiction Blog

  There are many reasons you should be more politically active. First, it's generally a good thing to do. A functioning democracy relies on educated voters. You need to educate yourself, and you need to be able to teach other people about politics. When a society lets itself become ignorant, that ignorance will be inevitably used by demagogues for political gain. Indeed, my second reason is that, right now, our political system is being undermined. Politicians abide by “alternative facts,” rather than admitting their mistakes. Our president seems more and more unlikely to leave office, even if he loses an election. When democracy is under attack in this manner, you simply can’t afford to be unaware.

  As I alluded to in my previous blog post, reading the news in a time like this is stressful. Letting those fears consume you is not good for your mental health. Because of the raised stakes creating all this stress, you can have an impulse to simply avoid the news outright. To avoid this, you should try and limit your personal investment in any one debate. By detaching yourself from some of the negative emotions you experience, you are better prepared to think about politics. Thinking logically about a big picture can be a lot less stressful. With this, I would say that you should make a hard divide between when you are and aren’t thinking about politics. When you can’t stop thinking about how angry something makes you, or how awful something is, the negativity builds up. You should try and keep these thoughts within their own “bubble.”

Reading the news can be terrifying. "Slow news days" are a rarity, and it feels like every time you refresh, there's just more bad news. As such, there's a clear incentive to ignore it all, to detach yourself from the news. I understand that. Nonetheless, my one small recommendation is to go directly against that impulse. I think you should make an effort to be aware of the current political situation. The stakes are so much higher, and everyone’s votes are significantly more important. And to be clear, this isn’t just about the presidency. All the way down the ballot, we have a chance to see important progressive changes. So, what exactly am I proposing? First, read the news. Set aside 10 to 30 minutes a day, and read up. Second, (and this is especially important if you are old enough to vote) learn about local elections. Senators and Representatives, at the National and State levels, are up for reelection. Learn about their races, the policies they have supported, a...