Thank you for writing this. I needed it. It's amazing how quickly I can get sucked in, despite my best efforts not to. Time to reset my batteries to conserve my energy. Fwiw, I think I'll need to do more unplugging the closer we get to November.
Chris...this means a lot. Thank you for being here...and for keeping the lights on around this place.
And listen...the fact that you still get sucked in is exactly why I stopped paywalling it.
If the people genuinely trying can get pulled under...then it was never about willpower... it's the UNDERTOW. The machine is good at its job. You're NOT weak; you're up against something engineered.
You've already nailed the move, though: reset the batteries to conserve the energy. That's the WHOLE thing right there. You're not checking out...you're choosing where the charge goes.
You're dead right about November. The closer we get...the louder the machine gets..and the more deliberate you'll have to be about your window.
Don't wait until it's overwhelming to start unplugging...build the habit now...while it's still easy...so it holds when the pressure's on.
When my anxiety gets to be too much from reading the news feeds or watching the news and even reading Substack.. I go out checking on the chickens and gathering eggs. Cleaning the house cause I’ve got my Corgi who is blowing his coat and the Himalayan Main Coon cat with fur everywhere.. the unending laundry that is an every day chore.. then I sit crocheting a baby blanket for a friend who just became a dad. I have 3 other crochet projects in various stages of assembling. Then I get outside again just to breathe and sit in the sun. I play a Majong game on my phone. And I breathe deeply as much as I can. Yes I admit I do have horrible anxiety from a situation I almost didn’t survive.. but I’m still here. My Service Dog is always with me. He’s goofy and cute and is my constant shadow. I’m thankful.
You didn't just read it...you're LIVING the thing I was trying to describe...and you're doing it better than I wrote it.
Look at that list.
Chickens and eggs.
The Corgi blowing his coat all over a clean floor (I see you, fellow owner of a furry weather system).
The laundry that never ends.
A baby blanket for a brand-new dad, plus three more projects waiting their turn.
Sun on your face.
A deep breath.
A goofy shadow who never leaves your side.
That's not "distraction." That's a life...with both hands on it.
Every one of those things is something you can touch...AND...you've quietly built a whole world out of them...while the news was busy trying to drag you somewhere else.
About the part you almost didn't make it through...thank you for trusting me with that!
You're still here. You said it yourself, and I want you to hear it back: YOU'RE. STILL. HERE.
That's not small. That's EVERYTHING.
Give that constant shadow a scratch behind the ears from me. He's got good taste in people:)
Lori...music and humor. Now you're talking my language, friend.
There's a reason those two work...when NOTHING else will; you can't be clenched up with dread...and genuinely laughing at the same time. You just can't.
The body won't let you do both. A good song and a good laugh...do...in three minutes ...what an hour of arguing in the comments never could.
Glad you've found your way back to the things that make you...YOU.
Barbara...that right there is the best thing you could've told me...thank you.
This piece was always meant to travel friend-to-friend...because honestly...that's the only delivery system people actually trust anymore. Read that again.
A stranger on a screen...telling them to calm down...bounces right off.
You sending it...with your name on it...saying "hey, this might help"...THAT gets through the door.
So...thank you for being the one who passed it along.
I hope it gives your friends a little room to breathe.
And...keep an eye on your own batteries...too...while you're busy looking out for everyone else's.
The people who carry the ropes for OTHERS... are usually the last to notice their own hands are raw.
Jack, thank you for the tough love. I, like so many others, need this.
It’s funny…. T 1.0 triggered some old trauma and I was quite anxious, became a news fiend, checked often, stayed up until the wee hours - then came four years of calm. Shoulders came down, breathing relaxed, anxiety eased, it felt like life again….. it was easy to tell myself enough plus the news was kinda boring in a normal way. There wasn’t the ever present thought of ‘what fresh new hell awaits’ and now…. the checking is back. It’s a bit easier this time (most days) because I’ve worked on the underlying trauma but….. if I’m not 100%, it gets dicey.
I am very grateful you wrote this. Well-timed and very helpful. Thanks again.
Deb...thank you for trusting me with this...there's a lot of hard-won self-knowledge in what you just wrote...and I don't take it lightly.
What you've described is so clear it could be a case study. (Stay with me. This is going to be longer than usual.)
The body learned...during a frightening stretch...that constant vigilance equals safety... that if you just watch closely enough...you won't get caught off guard again.
So it kept watching. The wee hours...the checking...the bracing for "what fresh new hell awaits."
That's not weakness...or a bad habit.
That's a nervous system....doing EXACTLY what it decided it had to do...to keep you SAFE. And then...it got four years of evidence that it could finally stand down...and you felt it. Shoulders down. Breathing easy. Life again.
The fact that it's a bit easier this time...is not nothing. That's the work you did on the UNDERLYING stuff...showing up...and paying off.
You're not back at square one; you're meeting an OLD PATTERN with NEW TOOLS.
But...hear me on the part you already half-know: when you say "if I'm not 100%, it gets dicey" ...that's the most important line in your whole comment.
The vigilance comes back hardest...when you're DEPLETED.
So the move isn't to white-knuckle the checking. It's to guard the FUEL...sleep...food...the people who steady you...because a rested version of you...can set the phone down easily... and a running-on-empty version CAN'T.
Protect the 100%...and the rest gets a LOT more manageable.
And...given that there's REAL trauma underneath this...I'd gently say the news-management stuff I wrote is a tool...not a substitute; if the spiral ever gets its hooks in deeper than you can manage on your own...the person who helped you do that underlying work...is worth a call. No shame in it.
The strongest thing you've done ALREADY... is NAME THE PATTERN OUT LOUD... instead of pretending it isn't there.
You're more aware of your own machinery...than most who'll read this. That awareness is the WHOLE ballgame.
Jack…. deep gratitude and thanks for your insightful, nuanced and sensitive response. I completely recognize that it takes someone who has been there to respond as you have - I appreciate you and all you’ve been through.
I am still working with my therapist…. just going a little less often recently (still regularly). I’ve been in & out of therapy, depending on the challenges, my whole adult life. It’s only this last time when working with a trauma informed therapist who is also a sensitive, as I am, that I’ve made more rapid progress. I was 2-ish when I experienced the big trauma and Ina Garten was dead on when she said, “what goes in early, goes in deep”….. Watching J6 unfold live is what was the final and ultimate trigger. After that….. I. Was. Not. OK. Not even a little.
The fight to stay out of the activated vigilance loop is very, very real….. over time I’ve gotten much, much better at all of it….. proper eating, rest, grounding, talking self off the ledge, etc… all of it. Proper nutrition and sleep solve a lot of issues! If people only knew. Attending to self rather than putting all the others first has been a big challenge. It takes a lot of self-love to be truly comfortable with it. Deactivating the negative, critical and demeaning voices in the head is also extremely helpful…. not easy but definitely worth the work.
Again, thank you. I have learned and am learning so much from you. You da best as they say!! (no, not from Chicago but my dad was raised there)….
I'm honored to make the list, though I'd gently steer you away from the tattoo...1,200 words is a lot of arm...and you'd have to stand very still...for a very long time;)
The pillow, though? The pillow I fully endorse. Nothing says "I've made peace with the news cycle" like throwing a cushion that reads "You are not informed, you are hooked" onto the couch...where you USED to doomscroll.
Pin it...share it...stitch it...whatever makes it stick.
The whole point...is to have the reminder waiting for you...BEFORE the undertow grabs you...not after.
Thank you, as always...for being here. Now...go find a bulletin board:)
Gary...thank you. That's a generous thing to say, and I'll try to keep earning it.
But...I'll let you in on something: the reminders aren't just for you. I write these as much to keep myself honest as anything. I get sucked in too.
The difference...is I've decided to say it OUT LOUD...instead of pretending I'm above it... and it turns out that's the part people actually find useful.
Nobody trusts the guy who claims he never wobbles.
So...we'll keep reminding each other. That's how it works. None of us holds the line alone.
Jack - Reading your emails has been life changing for me during this chaotic time in American history. I have learned so much from you about patterns,orientation,and factual clarity. The emotional piece about anxiety was the missing link although I have been trying to think my way through it. Thanks for these helpful guidelines to maintain my sanity and health. Jay
Jay...this one I'm going to sit with for a while. Thank you.
And...you put your finger on something I want to underline...because it's the EXACT thing that trips up the sharpest readers: you cannot THINK your way out of anxiety.
You've got the PATTERNS down. You've got the ORIENTATION...the FACTUAL clarity...you've done the hard intellectual work...most people SKIP.
But...anxiety doesn't live in the part of you that reasons. It lives in the BODY. In the shoulders...the gut...the clenched jaw.
That's why all that good thinking...kept coming up a little short...you were bringing a brilliant map to a fistfight.
That's what the emotional piece was reaching for. Not to REPLACE the clear thinking...but to give it a body CALM enough...to actually use it.
The fact that the two clicked together for you...the clarity and the calm...tells me you're going to come through this stretch steadier than most.
That's the WHOLE goal. Not numb. Not checked out. Just steady enough...to keep seeing straight...when everything around you...is built to blur your vision.
This is great! To be honest, your other pieces have been so helpful in focusing our attention on signals and patterns rather than the emotional hooks that many news sources throw at us, that I am already benefiting from letting “stuff” go and looking to understand the bigger picture and how I can proceed. I am truly thankful for that!
Moving on.. thank you for this, Jack. It landed and I needed it.
Music and reading are my escapes. My annoying roommate has been out of town so there’s been music and dancing… in my kitchen… while I cooked all the things I love and he hates. Teehee! Cleaned my house because it’s easier when no one else is here. Last load of laundry is in. It all kept me busy. I play a word game that occupies my mind… mostly at night when I tend to overthink things.
I’m not watching news except independent media and the doomscrolling is at a minimum and I’m doing really well with not arguing with the lost sheep. It’s just pointless. I finally learned.
Still sending emails to the useless Republicans who are supposed to represent me. Thom Tillis isn’t as infuriating as he once was but Ted Budd is solid MAGA. The last two replies I got from him were.. “I stand behind Kash Patel 100%”’ and “I approve of the death penalty as a deterrent to violent crime” Kiss my… never mind. He ticks me off. Same with Rep. Chuck Edwards who is up for reelection and i hope we can show him the door. Haven’t called them lately. If i’m missing a reason i should please let me know.
Annoying roommate back tomorrow and my peace will be shattered. It’s incredibly complicated. Right now that’s probably affecting my mood more than politics and yeah… I can touch it… I just don’t want to lol
I need to get outside more… that needs to be a priority. I’ll work on it… Promise. The mountains are gorgeous this time of year and I need to go and enjoy that.
Note which emotional systems the news apparatus has learned to exploit. The evidence is everywhere — the bright colors, the urgent fonts, the carefully timed notifications designed to interrupt thought and trigger the limbic response. This is not accident. This is engineering.
Understand what has happened to the republic when millions of citizens have been trained to confuse information with stimulation. They scroll. They refresh. They believe the motion itself constitutes participation. The machinery hums on, having successfully transformed witnesses into consumers, and concern into a commodity.
Jack identifies the precise mechanism: anxiety is not wisdom. It merely feels like awareness. And the system depends — entirely depends — on that confusion persisting. The moment a person learns the difference between care and worry, between knowledge and dread, the machine loses its grip.
Here is what remains available: the school board meeting on Tuesday. The local election in November. The organizing work in your precinct. The conversation with your neighbor about the thing that actually affects both of you. The petition you can circulate. The candidate you can canvass for. The proposal you can attend in person and speak against. These are not small things. These are the architecture of actual power.
But first: you cannot help anyone if you are depleted. You cannot think clearly if you are exhausted. You cannot organize effectively if you are running on cortisol and dread. The person who takes care of themselves — who sleeps, who walks, who sets boundaries with the apparatus — is not being selfish. They are maintaining the vessel that does the work. You cannot pour from an empty cup. You cannot build with hands that are shaking.
The person who attends the meeting is more involved than the person who reads forty versions of outrage about a meeting they will never attend. The person who knows their state representative’s voting record — actually knows it, from primary sources — is more informed than the person who has absorbed seventeen different interpretations of it. The person who votes, who donates to a campaign they believe in, who shows up in the physical world where decisions are actually made — that person is not less involved. That person is the only one who was ever involved at all.
What follows is important: the person who rests, who channels their energy into the tangible work where their hands can actually build something, becomes far more dangerous to entropy than the one who burns out scrolling. History does not turn on panic. It turns on Tuesday. On the person who appears. On the person who is steady enough to show up again on Wednesday.
Jack is correct. The republic does not need your anxiety.
It needs your steady hands. And it needs them rested enough to work.
Thanks for the reminder. I do subscribe to several Substack authors that I like for their perspective. That being said, I don't have time to read/listen to them all. I do have this one on my "to do" list but as you can see from the timing of the comment, I am behind. Your writings help to cut through the noise and not create more. Here, we think and come up with plans rather than just run around screaming and for that I thank you. Calm, direct, and helping find direction.
Thank you for reminding me of the priority we hold power to. Pick your battles and move on. Do something physical to change your mindset. Be creative. Exercise. Clean. (YUCK!) And above all else be selective in sources, time, and action. I appreciate your candor and actionable pieces.
Thank you for writing this. I needed it. It's amazing how quickly I can get sucked in, despite my best efforts not to. Time to reset my batteries to conserve my energy. Fwiw, I think I'll need to do more unplugging the closer we get to November.
Thanks again. #HoldFast
Chris...this means a lot. Thank you for being here...and for keeping the lights on around this place.
And listen...the fact that you still get sucked in is exactly why I stopped paywalling it.
If the people genuinely trying can get pulled under...then it was never about willpower... it's the UNDERTOW. The machine is good at its job. You're NOT weak; you're up against something engineered.
You've already nailed the move, though: reset the batteries to conserve the energy. That's the WHOLE thing right there. You're not checking out...you're choosing where the charge goes.
You're dead right about November. The closer we get...the louder the machine gets..and the more deliberate you'll have to be about your window.
Don't wait until it's overwhelming to start unplugging...build the habit now...while it's still easy...so it holds when the pressure's on.
Go take the walk. I'll be here.
#HoldFast
-Jack
When my anxiety gets to be too much from reading the news feeds or watching the news and even reading Substack.. I go out checking on the chickens and gathering eggs. Cleaning the house cause I’ve got my Corgi who is blowing his coat and the Himalayan Main Coon cat with fur everywhere.. the unending laundry that is an every day chore.. then I sit crocheting a baby blanket for a friend who just became a dad. I have 3 other crochet projects in various stages of assembling. Then I get outside again just to breathe and sit in the sun. I play a Majong game on my phone. And I breathe deeply as much as I can. Yes I admit I do have horrible anxiety from a situation I almost didn’t survive.. but I’m still here. My Service Dog is always with me. He’s goofy and cute and is my constant shadow. I’m thankful.
Morgan...this whole comment is the article.
You didn't just read it...you're LIVING the thing I was trying to describe...and you're doing it better than I wrote it.
Look at that list.
Chickens and eggs.
The Corgi blowing his coat all over a clean floor (I see you, fellow owner of a furry weather system).
The laundry that never ends.
A baby blanket for a brand-new dad, plus three more projects waiting their turn.
Sun on your face.
A deep breath.
A goofy shadow who never leaves your side.
That's not "distraction." That's a life...with both hands on it.
Every one of those things is something you can touch...AND...you've quietly built a whole world out of them...while the news was busy trying to drag you somewhere else.
About the part you almost didn't make it through...thank you for trusting me with that!
You're still here. You said it yourself, and I want you to hear it back: YOU'RE. STILL. HERE.
That's not small. That's EVERYTHING.
Give that constant shadow a scratch behind the ears from me. He's got good taste in people:)
#HoldFast
-Jack
Thanks Jack. These little things stack up to big things that keep me sane in this insane world. #HOLDFAST
Always sound information Jack. I’ve gotten back to doing things that make me happy. Music & humor helps.
Lori...music and humor. Now you're talking my language, friend.
There's a reason those two work...when NOTHING else will; you can't be clenched up with dread...and genuinely laughing at the same time. You just can't.
The body won't let you do both. A good song and a good laugh...do...in three minutes ...what an hour of arguing in the comments never could.
Glad you've found your way back to the things that make you...YOU.
Keep the volume up.
#HoldFast
-Jack
Thanks for your insight. I’ve sent this to a few friends whose live have become consumed by what is happening.
Barbara...that right there is the best thing you could've told me...thank you.
This piece was always meant to travel friend-to-friend...because honestly...that's the only delivery system people actually trust anymore. Read that again.
A stranger on a screen...telling them to calm down...bounces right off.
You sending it...with your name on it...saying "hey, this might help"...THAT gets through the door.
So...thank you for being the one who passed it along.
I hope it gives your friends a little room to breathe.
And...keep an eye on your own batteries...too...while you're busy looking out for everyone else's.
The people who carry the ropes for OTHERS... are usually the last to notice their own hands are raw.
#HoldFast
-Jack
Jack, thank you for the tough love. I, like so many others, need this.
It’s funny…. T 1.0 triggered some old trauma and I was quite anxious, became a news fiend, checked often, stayed up until the wee hours - then came four years of calm. Shoulders came down, breathing relaxed, anxiety eased, it felt like life again….. it was easy to tell myself enough plus the news was kinda boring in a normal way. There wasn’t the ever present thought of ‘what fresh new hell awaits’ and now…. the checking is back. It’s a bit easier this time (most days) because I’ve worked on the underlying trauma but….. if I’m not 100%, it gets dicey.
I am very grateful you wrote this. Well-timed and very helpful. Thanks again.
Deb...thank you for trusting me with this...there's a lot of hard-won self-knowledge in what you just wrote...and I don't take it lightly.
What you've described is so clear it could be a case study. (Stay with me. This is going to be longer than usual.)
The body learned...during a frightening stretch...that constant vigilance equals safety... that if you just watch closely enough...you won't get caught off guard again.
So it kept watching. The wee hours...the checking...the bracing for "what fresh new hell awaits."
That's not weakness...or a bad habit.
That's a nervous system....doing EXACTLY what it decided it had to do...to keep you SAFE. And then...it got four years of evidence that it could finally stand down...and you felt it. Shoulders down. Breathing easy. Life again.
The fact that it's a bit easier this time...is not nothing. That's the work you did on the UNDERLYING stuff...showing up...and paying off.
You're not back at square one; you're meeting an OLD PATTERN with NEW TOOLS.
But...hear me on the part you already half-know: when you say "if I'm not 100%, it gets dicey" ...that's the most important line in your whole comment.
The vigilance comes back hardest...when you're DEPLETED.
So the move isn't to white-knuckle the checking. It's to guard the FUEL...sleep...food...the people who steady you...because a rested version of you...can set the phone down easily... and a running-on-empty version CAN'T.
Protect the 100%...and the rest gets a LOT more manageable.
And...given that there's REAL trauma underneath this...I'd gently say the news-management stuff I wrote is a tool...not a substitute; if the spiral ever gets its hooks in deeper than you can manage on your own...the person who helped you do that underlying work...is worth a call. No shame in it.
The strongest thing you've done ALREADY... is NAME THE PATTERN OUT LOUD... instead of pretending it isn't there.
You're more aware of your own machinery...than most who'll read this. That awareness is the WHOLE ballgame.
Be gentle with yourself on the not-100% days.
#HoldFast
-Jack
Jack…. deep gratitude and thanks for your insightful, nuanced and sensitive response. I completely recognize that it takes someone who has been there to respond as you have - I appreciate you and all you’ve been through.
I am still working with my therapist…. just going a little less often recently (still regularly). I’ve been in & out of therapy, depending on the challenges, my whole adult life. It’s only this last time when working with a trauma informed therapist who is also a sensitive, as I am, that I’ve made more rapid progress. I was 2-ish when I experienced the big trauma and Ina Garten was dead on when she said, “what goes in early, goes in deep”….. Watching J6 unfold live is what was the final and ultimate trigger. After that….. I. Was. Not. OK. Not even a little.
The fight to stay out of the activated vigilance loop is very, very real….. over time I’ve gotten much, much better at all of it….. proper eating, rest, grounding, talking self off the ledge, etc… all of it. Proper nutrition and sleep solve a lot of issues! If people only knew. Attending to self rather than putting all the others first has been a big challenge. It takes a lot of self-love to be truly comfortable with it. Deactivating the negative, critical and demeaning voices in the head is also extremely helpful…. not easy but definitely worth the work.
Again, thank you. I have learned and am learning so much from you. You da best as they say!! (no, not from Chicago but my dad was raised there)….
Another one to print out, pin to a bulletin board, share with friends, embroider on a pillow, tattoo on an arm ... thank you, Jack, as always.
Roberta...Ha!
I'm honored to make the list, though I'd gently steer you away from the tattoo...1,200 words is a lot of arm...and you'd have to stand very still...for a very long time;)
The pillow, though? The pillow I fully endorse. Nothing says "I've made peace with the news cycle" like throwing a cushion that reads "You are not informed, you are hooked" onto the couch...where you USED to doomscroll.
Pin it...share it...stitch it...whatever makes it stick.
The whole point...is to have the reminder waiting for you...BEFORE the undertow grabs you...not after.
Thank you, as always...for being here. Now...go find a bulletin board:)
#HoldFast
-Jack
Thank you Jack. We all need the occasional reminder. It's more powerful coming from someone who's rational, knowledgeable and aware.
Gary...thank you. That's a generous thing to say, and I'll try to keep earning it.
But...I'll let you in on something: the reminders aren't just for you. I write these as much to keep myself honest as anything. I get sucked in too.
The difference...is I've decided to say it OUT LOUD...instead of pretending I'm above it... and it turns out that's the part people actually find useful.
Nobody trusts the guy who claims he never wobbles.
So...we'll keep reminding each other. That's how it works. None of us holds the line alone.
#HoldFast
-Jack
Can I touch it is a great test! Otherwise it’s like playing solitaire till dawn with a deck of 51…
Kimberly..."a deck of 51" is going in my back pocket...I'm stealing that one clean:)
That's EXACTLY it, though.
You can play that game with total focus...and total effort...ALL night long...and the one card you actually need was NEVER in the deck to begin with.
All that energy...REAL energy...poured into something that could not have paid off...no matter how well you played it.
That's most political worry in a nutshell. It's not that people aren't trying HARD enough. They're trying brilliantly...at a hand that CAN'T be won.
"Can I touch it?" just checks whether the card's in the deck...BEFORE you sit down to play.
Glad it landed for you!
#HoldFast
-Jack
Jack - Reading your emails has been life changing for me during this chaotic time in American history. I have learned so much from you about patterns,orientation,and factual clarity. The emotional piece about anxiety was the missing link although I have been trying to think my way through it. Thanks for these helpful guidelines to maintain my sanity and health. Jay
Jay...this one I'm going to sit with for a while. Thank you.
And...you put your finger on something I want to underline...because it's the EXACT thing that trips up the sharpest readers: you cannot THINK your way out of anxiety.
You've got the PATTERNS down. You've got the ORIENTATION...the FACTUAL clarity...you've done the hard intellectual work...most people SKIP.
But...anxiety doesn't live in the part of you that reasons. It lives in the BODY. In the shoulders...the gut...the clenched jaw.
That's why all that good thinking...kept coming up a little short...you were bringing a brilliant map to a fistfight.
That's what the emotional piece was reaching for. Not to REPLACE the clear thinking...but to give it a body CALM enough...to actually use it.
The fact that the two clicked together for you...the clarity and the calm...tells me you're going to come through this stretch steadier than most.
That's the WHOLE goal. Not numb. Not checked out. Just steady enough...to keep seeing straight...when everything around you...is built to blur your vision.
Grateful you're here, Jay. Keep holding the line!
#HoldFast
-Jack
Worked in my little bitty yard today.
Not for very long, but it was tangible and glorious.
Lizards, baby toad, and OH, the birds.
And yes, bare feet in grass. Well, clover, which is just that much better.
I have some man(or)men-with-truck jobs next but they can wait, cuz yeah,
Clover.
#HoldFast
This is great! To be honest, your other pieces have been so helpful in focusing our attention on signals and patterns rather than the emotional hooks that many news sources throw at us, that I am already benefiting from letting “stuff” go and looking to understand the bigger picture and how I can proceed. I am truly thankful for that!
Okay, wait… Gary?
Moving on.. thank you for this, Jack. It landed and I needed it.
Music and reading are my escapes. My annoying roommate has been out of town so there’s been music and dancing… in my kitchen… while I cooked all the things I love and he hates. Teehee! Cleaned my house because it’s easier when no one else is here. Last load of laundry is in. It all kept me busy. I play a word game that occupies my mind… mostly at night when I tend to overthink things.
I’m not watching news except independent media and the doomscrolling is at a minimum and I’m doing really well with not arguing with the lost sheep. It’s just pointless. I finally learned.
Still sending emails to the useless Republicans who are supposed to represent me. Thom Tillis isn’t as infuriating as he once was but Ted Budd is solid MAGA. The last two replies I got from him were.. “I stand behind Kash Patel 100%”’ and “I approve of the death penalty as a deterrent to violent crime” Kiss my… never mind. He ticks me off. Same with Rep. Chuck Edwards who is up for reelection and i hope we can show him the door. Haven’t called them lately. If i’m missing a reason i should please let me know.
Annoying roommate back tomorrow and my peace will be shattered. It’s incredibly complicated. Right now that’s probably affecting my mood more than politics and yeah… I can touch it… I just don’t want to lol
I need to get outside more… that needs to be a priority. I’ll work on it… Promise. The mountains are gorgeous this time of year and I need to go and enjoy that.
Thanks again, Jack!
#Holdfast
~Susan
File the date: June 5, 2026. Jack is correct.
Note which emotional systems the news apparatus has learned to exploit. The evidence is everywhere — the bright colors, the urgent fonts, the carefully timed notifications designed to interrupt thought and trigger the limbic response. This is not accident. This is engineering.
Understand what has happened to the republic when millions of citizens have been trained to confuse information with stimulation. They scroll. They refresh. They believe the motion itself constitutes participation. The machinery hums on, having successfully transformed witnesses into consumers, and concern into a commodity.
Jack identifies the precise mechanism: anxiety is not wisdom. It merely feels like awareness. And the system depends — entirely depends — on that confusion persisting. The moment a person learns the difference between care and worry, between knowledge and dread, the machine loses its grip.
Here is what remains available: the school board meeting on Tuesday. The local election in November. The organizing work in your precinct. The conversation with your neighbor about the thing that actually affects both of you. The petition you can circulate. The candidate you can canvass for. The proposal you can attend in person and speak against. These are not small things. These are the architecture of actual power.
But first: you cannot help anyone if you are depleted. You cannot think clearly if you are exhausted. You cannot organize effectively if you are running on cortisol and dread. The person who takes care of themselves — who sleeps, who walks, who sets boundaries with the apparatus — is not being selfish. They are maintaining the vessel that does the work. You cannot pour from an empty cup. You cannot build with hands that are shaking.
The person who attends the meeting is more involved than the person who reads forty versions of outrage about a meeting they will never attend. The person who knows their state representative’s voting record — actually knows it, from primary sources — is more informed than the person who has absorbed seventeen different interpretations of it. The person who votes, who donates to a campaign they believe in, who shows up in the physical world where decisions are actually made — that person is not less involved. That person is the only one who was ever involved at all.
What follows is important: the person who rests, who channels their energy into the tangible work where their hands can actually build something, becomes far more dangerous to entropy than the one who burns out scrolling. History does not turn on panic. It turns on Tuesday. On the person who appears. On the person who is steady enough to show up again on Wednesday.
Jack is correct. The republic does not need your anxiety.
It needs your steady hands. And it needs them rested enough to work.
#HoldFast
Thanks for the reminder. I do subscribe to several Substack authors that I like for their perspective. That being said, I don't have time to read/listen to them all. I do have this one on my "to do" list but as you can see from the timing of the comment, I am behind. Your writings help to cut through the noise and not create more. Here, we think and come up with plans rather than just run around screaming and for that I thank you. Calm, direct, and helping find direction.
Thank you for reminding me of the priority we hold power to. Pick your battles and move on. Do something physical to change your mindset. Be creative. Exercise. Clean. (YUCK!) And above all else be selective in sources, time, and action. I appreciate your candor and actionable pieces.
#HoldFast
Always great advice & timely! Thank you.
#HoldFast