Very many of us talk about the negativity in the media, in the public conversation such as it is, in our own agnostic community. Well then lets get our shit together and FOCUS on providing positives! Stories of success, of gains in humanity. Questions and conversations probing how we can improve our lives here, there, and everywhere.
Just saying, WE are the instruments of our own invention and creation. Who is to stop us if we actually put in the energy and time?
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19 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I NEED to know what is actually going on so I can call my "representatives" and VOTE!
AnneWimsey
Level 9
Oct 17, 2019
1
The unpleasantness in the public square can only be managed anymore via disassociation. At my age, I no longer have the ability to be stirred up 24/7.
I try to acknowledge something positive in every situation and keep my focus there. I stay just informed enough to vote, and I force myself to vote even though I know nothing is apt to change, and that forces have been turned loose that may be beyond our ability to stuff them back into Pandora's Box.
Ultimately we each have a sphere of influence and a responsibility to execute within that sphere with excellence and integrity and kindness as best we know how. Contentment consists in accepting that small role as sufficient and valuing it highly enough to feel the effort provides meaning.
mordant
Level 8
Oct 16, 2019
2
Gee, you didn't notice any changes after the mid-terms? Really?
The sad thing is, positive news doesn't sell advertising space. Everybody loves slowing down past a car wreck, but a human interest story or a story with a happy ending? That by damn better be put at the end of the news cast and it better not take up more than 30 seconds of anybody's valuable time.
webbew1
Level 7
Oct 16, 2019
1
I find gracefully confronting solutions rather than stuck on problems is first step. Start with the ABC of life, your health. Then don't regret your pass, it is what we can forget that will make you happier.
It may seem crazy, I am seeking happiness as for our gross national Product.
My most major pet pev is 80% don't like their work for most waking hours of their lives. Rather than most people over focus on all the sufferings in the world. It's like our society has turn Schizophrenic and feel there is nowhere to go but down.
Don't depend on the American dream or Politiscians to save us. Only you can prevent the sufferings and promote the happiness.
Castlepaloma
Level 8
Oct 16, 2019
1
Nice idea, and in my everyday interactions with people I try and do just that, but the other half of my life is left to wonder when this president can be removed from ‘the people’s house,’ ...the police shootings of ‘blow joe/jane,’ because the officers are scared...thousands of people seeking survival and safety in this country and instead are parked in makeshift hovals over the Mexican boarder! Then there is the environment that is going to ‘Hell in a hand basket’ due in a great part to thoughtless humans...then there is the everyday social ills, needing attention! So my everyday life is complicated...so the positive and the negative have merged, and I am working to keep myself from being a burden to society as I look at 80 coming around the bend! Frankly I am exhausted! I helped another older person that is scattered and disorganized move, because she cannot find anyone else! It was way passed my own physical limits, but I managed and I will have another day at it on Thursday! So what was the question again...
Freedompath
Level 9
Oct 16, 2019
6
I don't think those trigger happy cops are actually scared.... I think that is a defense that is over used by cops and their buddy judges/prosecuters and others that work in the criminal "justice" system just take it as a legitimate defense. I think racial biases/stereotypes or outright racism causes such shootings.
@demifeministgal agreed...and I would go a step further, cops are being conditioned and trained to react this way..,so it is planted squarely in their psyche...’one second hesitation and you will be dead’...they don’t even have the skill to evaluate the situation, because the ‘shoot and ask questions later’ has been planted and been replanted. We are going to start to see more and more young officers go to prison, because of their ill fated training!
@Freedompath I have recently heard the same assessment as you have mentioned... that training is very poorly done and cops are trained to shoot first and ask questions later and the whole system needs to be revamped.
@Freedompath it is actually worse than "shoot first and ask questions later". I actually heard a cop in an interview say they are trained to shoot first, think later. That's one of the most evil things I've ever heard.
@Eazyduzzit for sure...you know cops are being wrongly ‘conditioned,’ when a (cop) father shoots his own son, perceiving him to be an intruder! (I believe it was in Tx.)
@Eazyduzzit what is not being taught is that in older age, these people are going to suffer damaging conflicting emotions, for killing someone! We never forget...even when the thought is dormant!
Here's what it is:
The nice things that are happening, on a small scale (such as, my group insurance through work is going to cover massage therapy starting next year, so that's nice, and laser eye surgery will have a one-time payout, so I will think about it, maybe I can lose these glasses for a decade or two...), are outweighed by the shit things that are happening on the world scale.
So, it may feel nice to contemplate when something nice happens for someone, but it doesn't change the fact that we just abandoned the Kurds and gave Russia a huge advantage in the Middle East. All because our president doesn't have a damn clue about foreign policy, he just thinks it will appeal to the America First crowd.
Paul4747
Level 8
Oct 16, 2019
3
I am all for taking a positive view on life and try to live my life accordingly but lately I am way too busy trying to keep up with the destruction of the world as we have known it. I feel overwhelmed by it and my inability to stop it. The positives seem to be few and far between but I will take them wherever I can and hopefully they will re-energize me for a few moments.
patchoullijulie
Level 8
Oct 15, 2019
5
This is the most prosperous and most peaceful time in human history. There are more obese people than starving people, and everyone lives longer healthier lives. We have all but eliminated all major diseases, and as it currently stands the only things that pose a threat to us is ourselves and cosmic destruction. We are maybe only a few centuries away from becoming a space-faring interstellar civilization, quite possibly one of the first in the galaxy.
Happy_Killbot
Level 7
Oct 15, 2019
0
Yes, I guess you're right as long as you're not living under a bridge. Their number is growing and their lot doesn't seem to be improving.
Don't forget diseases that were once controlled are making comebacks in the USA because of anti-vaxxers :/
@demifeministgal We don't vaccinate for diseases that were eradicated, because by definition, they are extinct.
@Happy_Killbot okay then they were contained? What word would you use?
@demifeministgal I would use the word resurgence or controlled. As in: " Anti-vaxxers have caused a resurgence in diseases due to their refusal to have their children vaccinated, allowing them to become vectors of disease"
or: " Disease once controlled by vaccines are making a comeback because of anti-vaxxers refusal to have their own children vaccinated."
@Happy_Killbot okay then. Sounds good.
I agree and even though the schadenfreude we are trying to experiencing feels good it's becoming tiresome. But, we've been angry and fearful for the last 3 years we still need to vent. I, for one, am trying to cut back on the news. Only a Sunday paper and an hour or so on NPR. Nothing on TV. I am lucky in that my NPR station plays music after 9 AM.
JackPedigo
Level 9
Oct 15, 2019
1
I think they tried to produce a TV news show once that only had good news. Then they pulled it off the air for low viewership. Sad. No, seriously.
bleurowz
Level 8
Oct 15, 2019
2
@bleurowz someone posted this in the comments... perhaps the show just changed into an online format? [goodnewsnetwork.org]
@demifeministgal It was some years ago I remember hearing about the show so I don't think it's related, but I'm also definitely bookmarking this site! Mainstream news is too depressing.
95% of all media in the USA is owned by just Six corporations!
The press is not negative it is bias!!!
of-the-mountain
Level 9
Oct 15, 2019
1
I am not sure of that. The Seattle Times is privately owned by one family and they just recently put out an 8 page insert on the areas they are pledging to take seriously and the family has given the editors and staff Carte blanche to publish only the news. They have also stated they want letters with differing view and one see that in the paper. There must be other papers with the same view and dedication for honest and unbiased reporting.
@JackPedigo
Again if you understood the quote it stated 95% of the media was own by Six corporations!
Again one must actually comprehend that their are/is still private ownership of media outlets which are outnumbered by corporate ownership!
What happened to the Seattle Post Intelligencer???
It was privately owned also until 1921!
The Hearst Corporation shut it down in 2009, after letting it slip into oblivion!
@of-the-mountain The Seattle Post Intelligencer was, I felt, the better of the 2 papers. It ran into money problems and went, and still is, online [seattlepi.com]
*"From 1983 to 2009, the P-I and The Seattle Times had a joint operating agreement (JOA) whereby advertising, production, marketing, and circulation were run for both papers by the Seattle Times Company. They maintained separate news and editorial departments. The papers published a combined Sunday edition, although the Times handled the majority of the editorial content while the P-I only provided a small editorial/opinions section.
In 2003 the Times tried to cancel the JOA, citing a clause in it that three consecutive years of losses were cause for cancelling the agreement. Hearst disagreed, and immediately filed suit to prevent the Times from cancelling the agreement. Hearst argued that a force majeure clause prevented the Times from claiming losses in 2000 and 2001 as reason to end the JOA, because they resulted from extraordinary events (in this case, a seven-week newspaper strike).
Each side publicly accused the other of attempting to put its rival out of business. The trial judge granted a summary judgment in Hearst's favor on the force majeure issue. But after two appeals, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Times on June 30, 2005, on the force majeure clause, reversing the trial-court judge. The two papers settled the issue on April 16, 2007.
The JOA ended in 2009 with the cessation of the P-I print edition."*
Unfortunately, you're right. I misread the comment.
Just going by my 40 years dealing with the Media press in just about every sculpture show we did.
About 85% of the media is owned by corporation and about 15% is truely free media press.
Try checking out good news.
xenoview
Level 8
Oct 15, 2019
3
That looks like a great link to browse. Thanks for posting it!
Good idea. Throw us one.
Geoffrey51
Level 8
Oct 15, 2019
0
@Seeker3CO Not with this post.
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