Yeah... I hear you. That's what social media has done to all of us: the guilty pleasure of getting infuriated. And there is (always) plenty to be furious about. Speaking of Harvard's President: new revelations indicate that she is also (among many other things) a plagiarist. Considering that this is a school where people pay close to $100,000 per year to be straightened morally by such individuals, yeah, there is material to get one infuriated.
empathy, I think it’s called. and it is supposed to be a good thing. and thanks for describing what I feel too. evenwithout tiktok or instagram, the daily newspaper actually suffices for me.
i joined substack because of your podcast interview with This American Life and now i have posted all my publications here. thanks for the inspiration.
I started following you on Substack for the same reason- was blown away listening to your story of your mother and grandmother on TAL. I just ordered your book. I love your writing. Hang in there and work to make sure we rebuke the dictatorial party in November.
Social media - the virtual global village - has made unsociable, uncouth infants of us all. And as for Etgar's wet socks, diminished US dollar bank account and bizarre Sth American political leanings? Well, they're surely down to the 'butterfly effect'. B ut everyone here knows that .
Instagram used to be my happy place as well - kittens and rainbows and pretty people. It was my escape when the news of awful people was too much to bear. To your point, it is no longer an escape ... and apparently I’m not alone. I suppose I will go back to the old way of escape - like reading books - as way to avoid reality and expose myself to the beauty of the world 😝😂 Thank you for sharing your feelings so we don’t feel so alone in ours. ❤️
I thought I was the only whose IG feed had suddenly turned from pleasant mindless distractions to nightmare, and I thought it was my fault for feeding the algorithm through my “engagement.” But here I see it’s not as simple. It’s scary, even, when I think so many of us are experiencing this remote attempt at mind control 🤔
I also feel compelled to argue with those whose callous self-righteousness infuriates me. But in my case I somehow feel that I am responsible for correcting a grave injustice and that I could save the world if only I could show people the truth one by one. Is this hubris or Utopianism? I don’t feel smugly superior, I feel desperation and a yearning to right a wrong. This is particularly hard now because the people who are usually on my side on most issues (e.g Argentinian elections or climate justice) now have completely turned, so I feel mostly on my own except for fellow progressive Jews. 😢
I’m pretty sure that you could save the world and will be thankful when you do,. This feeling that we have something to give to the world is essential it is just that so many of us won’t just want to offer you their wisdom , they want to shove that wisdom down your throat.
Such an honest and truthful piece! Like they say, when you point a finger at someone, three are pointed back to you. Everyone feels so justified in being so vocal and opinionated about everything... yet that doesn’t seem to help us feel any more heard or connected. I like how Ram Dass used to refer to this as “the golden ring of righteousness” because in many ways it feels so good and golden, but it’s yet another ego trap.
Once again, I read you with emotions, feelings, and reflections that I share and make - less clearly - to myself. In exchange, I would like to share with you two lines by the French, Jewish poet Edmond Jabès (1912-1991)
My question is not: Who are you? But: What do you offer me?
- What I offer you is no other than what I am," was his reply.
maybe I'm a little slow but I don't fully get this story the way so many other commenters seem to. I clicked the link that explained the raised finger was an internal joke in the newsroom so the idea that somehow it was a response to the writer's quest to be annoyed doesn't really make sense to me. Further, the hearing in Washington with the various university heads was a kangaroo court if there ever was one and my feeling about it is apparently quite different. The interrogator I mean congresswoman wanted to turn the gaza war into a good versus evil trope which is the latest republican tactic to turn people (read democrats) who are disgusted with Israel's conduct of this war into racist antisemites. Speaking for myself, this is incorrect, narrow minded, and simply adds to the horror of hearing news about 17000 people bombed to oblivion.
Yes, where did the hummingbirds go? I think social media shape-shifts with us, and the past five years, even before Oct. 7, have not brought flocks of hummingbirds to anyone. I’ve been wondering how to stop being mad at the superficial targets (college presidents who screw up) and to channel my anger and call for justice at the real culprits (those U.S. Republican hypocrites with their neo-Nazi winks at the “great replacement” theory). It’s hard, as you say, to keep confronting middle fingers and my own desire to flip off the world. Thanks for going down this twisty truthful road 🙏🏽
I wonder a lot about the significance of our instant exposure to world news rather than just local news. It is a marvel we can experience all of this so easily now, but there is a valid question as to whether it is relevant at all to our lives and if our minds are designed to handle that much empathy.
I've been wondering about this a great deal in the past two months (with specific reference to Israel-Palestine, although of course your point holds more generally). I live in Australia. Many politically-minded people here have been tearing themselves apart over Gaza, but to what end? Does the IDF care what some student in Sydney thinks? Is the pro-Israel speech of a conservative Australian politician going to offer much solace to grieving families in the south of Israel?
I wonder sometimes if the true value of such a wide world view as we have right now is the capacity to learn and improve on these events/issues without the need to experience the issues directly. The falicy is possibly to believe that you can always change what is happening on the other side of the world... But everyone has the capacity to take note, learn and apply those learnings to their everyday life back home. Easier said than done to be honest when history sadly tends to repeat itself mercilessly but i think if you bring that understanding you can avoid the overwhelming sense of crisis that a constant world news feed brings with it.
Distant conflicts always seem easier to solve and much less ambiguous. I’ve learned it during the Russian -Ukrainian war. People around me took a stand with Ukrania which made perfect sense. What surprised me was how angry they would become the moment someone would start presenting details that had made the conflict slightly more ambiguous.
To take a fierce stand makes you , sometimes, feel less powerless. It is a deceiving feeling though. It effects you psychologically (and not necessarily for the better) much more than it really effects the world. When I was a little kid my father would arm wrestle with me and proposly lost. I loved that feeling of winning. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it was a lie but I liked the feeling enough to deny that.
I just started to follow you. I don’t know why I’ve waited so long. I love your writing, and I appreciate it. I often find myself looking for any new books you’ve written as far as the world goes, I think I’d be laughing if it wasn’t so tragic, unthinkable, hateful, and every other adjective, that’s in the back of my brain. Things are so unbelievably make me shake my head and laugh and then like I said, I realize it’s just no laughing matter.
I love getting your weekly posts Etgar. Thank you so much for putting them out. It's the honesty that really appeals to me - makes me laugh on the one hand, and identify (with chagrin) my own propensity for enjoying being offended too. Thanks thanks thanks thanks
Yeah... I hear you. That's what social media has done to all of us: the guilty pleasure of getting infuriated. And there is (always) plenty to be furious about. Speaking of Harvard's President: new revelations indicate that she is also (among many other things) a plagiarist. Considering that this is a school where people pay close to $100,000 per year to be straightened morally by such individuals, yeah, there is material to get one infuriated.
empathy, I think it’s called. and it is supposed to be a good thing. and thanks for describing what I feel too. evenwithout tiktok or instagram, the daily newspaper actually suffices for me.
thanks for describing everything I’m feeling, putting it into words. here in new rochelle, I feel isolated and i don’t like anyone anymore.
i joined substack because of your podcast interview with This American Life and now i have posted all my publications here. thanks for the inspiration.
Thank you!🐰
I started following you on Substack for the same reason- was blown away listening to your story of your mother and grandmother on TAL. I just ordered your book. I love your writing. Hang in there and work to make sure we rebuke the dictatorial party in November.
Same!
Social media - the virtual global village - has made unsociable, uncouth infants of us all. And as for Etgar's wet socks, diminished US dollar bank account and bizarre Sth American political leanings? Well, they're surely down to the 'butterfly effect'. B ut everyone here knows that .
Instagram used to be my happy place as well - kittens and rainbows and pretty people. It was my escape when the news of awful people was too much to bear. To your point, it is no longer an escape ... and apparently I’m not alone. I suppose I will go back to the old way of escape - like reading books - as way to avoid reality and expose myself to the beauty of the world 😝😂 Thank you for sharing your feelings so we don’t feel so alone in ours. ❤️
I thought I was the only whose IG feed had suddenly turned from pleasant mindless distractions to nightmare, and I thought it was my fault for feeding the algorithm through my “engagement.” But here I see it’s not as simple. It’s scary, even, when I think so many of us are experiencing this remote attempt at mind control 🤔
I also feel compelled to argue with those whose callous self-righteousness infuriates me. But in my case I somehow feel that I am responsible for correcting a grave injustice and that I could save the world if only I could show people the truth one by one. Is this hubris or Utopianism? I don’t feel smugly superior, I feel desperation and a yearning to right a wrong. This is particularly hard now because the people who are usually on my side on most issues (e.g Argentinian elections or climate justice) now have completely turned, so I feel mostly on my own except for fellow progressive Jews. 😢
I’m pretty sure that you could save the world and will be thankful when you do,. This feeling that we have something to give to the world is essential it is just that so many of us won’t just want to offer you their wisdom , they want to shove that wisdom down your throat.
This. Thank you.
Such an honest and truthful piece! Like they say, when you point a finger at someone, three are pointed back to you. Everyone feels so justified in being so vocal and opinionated about everything... yet that doesn’t seem to help us feel any more heard or connected. I like how Ram Dass used to refer to this as “the golden ring of righteousness” because in many ways it feels so good and golden, but it’s yet another ego trap.
Once again, I read you with emotions, feelings, and reflections that I share and make - less clearly - to myself. In exchange, I would like to share with you two lines by the French, Jewish poet Edmond Jabès (1912-1991)
My question is not: Who are you? But: What do you offer me?
- What I offer you is no other than what I am," was his reply.
Beautiful!
https://freedom.to/
Thanks🐰
maybe I'm a little slow but I don't fully get this story the way so many other commenters seem to. I clicked the link that explained the raised finger was an internal joke in the newsroom so the idea that somehow it was a response to the writer's quest to be annoyed doesn't really make sense to me. Further, the hearing in Washington with the various university heads was a kangaroo court if there ever was one and my feeling about it is apparently quite different. The interrogator I mean congresswoman wanted to turn the gaza war into a good versus evil trope which is the latest republican tactic to turn people (read democrats) who are disgusted with Israel's conduct of this war into racist antisemites. Speaking for myself, this is incorrect, narrow minded, and simply adds to the horror of hearing news about 17000 people bombed to oblivion.
This piece is about how I realized I enjoy being offended not about the commentator’s intention .
Yes, where did the hummingbirds go? I think social media shape-shifts with us, and the past five years, even before Oct. 7, have not brought flocks of hummingbirds to anyone. I’ve been wondering how to stop being mad at the superficial targets (college presidents who screw up) and to channel my anger and call for justice at the real culprits (those U.S. Republican hypocrites with their neo-Nazi winks at the “great replacement” theory). It’s hard, as you say, to keep confronting middle fingers and my own desire to flip off the world. Thanks for going down this twisty truthful road 🙏🏽
I wonder a lot about the significance of our instant exposure to world news rather than just local news. It is a marvel we can experience all of this so easily now, but there is a valid question as to whether it is relevant at all to our lives and if our minds are designed to handle that much empathy.
I've been wondering about this a great deal in the past two months (with specific reference to Israel-Palestine, although of course your point holds more generally). I live in Australia. Many politically-minded people here have been tearing themselves apart over Gaza, but to what end? Does the IDF care what some student in Sydney thinks? Is the pro-Israel speech of a conservative Australian politician going to offer much solace to grieving families in the south of Israel?
I wonder sometimes if the true value of such a wide world view as we have right now is the capacity to learn and improve on these events/issues without the need to experience the issues directly. The falicy is possibly to believe that you can always change what is happening on the other side of the world... But everyone has the capacity to take note, learn and apply those learnings to their everyday life back home. Easier said than done to be honest when history sadly tends to repeat itself mercilessly but i think if you bring that understanding you can avoid the overwhelming sense of crisis that a constant world news feed brings with it.
Distant conflicts always seem easier to solve and much less ambiguous. I’ve learned it during the Russian -Ukrainian war. People around me took a stand with Ukrania which made perfect sense. What surprised me was how angry they would become the moment someone would start presenting details that had made the conflict slightly more ambiguous.
To take a fierce stand makes you , sometimes, feel less powerless. It is a deceiving feeling though. It effects you psychologically (and not necessarily for the better) much more than it really effects the world. When I was a little kid my father would arm wrestle with me and proposly lost. I loved that feeling of winning. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it was a lie but I liked the feeling enough to deny that.
I just started to follow you. I don’t know why I’ve waited so long. I love your writing, and I appreciate it. I often find myself looking for any new books you’ve written as far as the world goes, I think I’d be laughing if it wasn’t so tragic, unthinkable, hateful, and every other adjective, that’s in the back of my brain. Things are so unbelievably make me shake my head and laugh and then like I said, I realize it’s just no laughing matter.
Thanks again Etgar! My day is brightened.
Carolyn Staley
Seattle
I love getting your weekly posts Etgar. Thank you so much for putting them out. It's the honesty that really appeals to me - makes me laugh on the one hand, and identify (with chagrin) my own propensity for enjoying being offended too. Thanks thanks thanks thanks