REJECT MIND POISON

Do you regularly find yourself exhausted by the 24-hour news cycle? Do you struggle to tap out in fear of being an ignorant fuckwit that doesn't care about others' suffering? Do you find yourself so deeply overwhelmed by the unfiltered carnage broadcasted to your mobile phone every waking hour to the point it debilitates you and prevents you from living as normal? If any of these resonate with you, there is nothing wrong with your mental state. You are reacting as any sane, empathetic human being should under constant exposure to relentless violence. However, this state of distress is not just symptomatic of our current systemic brutality; it is a feature and a weapon.

What we are witnessing now is a constant beaming of extreme imagery that is designed to cause distress and subsequently mass paralysis. This is psychological warfare that isn't just inescapable, it is actively consumed for the sake of "staying informed" and "keeping your heart in the right place". While in this state of political turmoil it is more crucial than ever to keep your mind and spirit in check, we must recognise that consciousness in the digital age is punished through relentless trauma-bombing.

This unthinkable, widespread depravity is a design choice which encourages its targets to either desensitise themselves to the barbarism of imperial violence and terrorist zeitgeists, or retreat to a state of protective ignorance. Whilst this violence is now easier to witness than ever, through digital mediums what is out of sight can easily be taken out of mind (by choice of the algorithm or by the consumer). In our pursuit of awareness, social media companies keep us hungry, passive and constantly connected, ultimately lining the pockets of the corporations that sponsor and fund the abhorrent violence transmitted through their networks.

But what else can you do? The violence isn't ending any time soon, we have to keep up to date with current events, the exposure to constant horrific news is debilitating us to a stage that hinders our ability to meaningfully protest said violence with such low emotional stamina. It may seem like a constant, vicious cycle but there are ways and means of breaking free from the control of trauma nukes without losing track of what's going on.

In this study on a phenomenon dubbed "vicarious traumatisation" , data revealed that the news cycle surrounding an accident involving social media searches, peer-to-peer discussions and algorithmic pushing had a lingering and adverse effect on the incident's indirect experients, on a sample base of 1317 Chinese college students who were asked to answer a questionnaire on their thoughts and feelings surrounding a plane crash killing 132 people Wuzhou, Guangxi. Whilst this "vicarious traumatisation" may not be inherently as severe as what was experienced by the direct witnesses (in this case there were no survivors to testify/use as a control variable), this mass psychosis goes largely untreated, as it is dismissed as unimportant if even acknowledged at all.

Dismissed due to the element of "personal choice" in pursuing this information, the distant non-witness is gaslit into undermining the emotions brought out by their exposure to tragedy, leaving them forced to reconcile with a reaction being denied by wider society. You are not insane for breaking down after seeing a video of a disembowelled Palestinian orphan, you are human. You shouldn't be expected to simply move on and dismiss these worldly horrors at the drop of a hat (or especially not a swipe of a finger). It is important that as victims of psychological warfare, empathetic people must maintain themselves by taking proper measures to avoid a buildup of distress in the same way the victim of a tragedy would take measures to avoid suffering PTSD.


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As a result, we must strike a balance between our exposure to the blood-drenched reality of imperialist violence and ensuring that we protect ourselves from their mental offensives. For this reason, I've developed a little hub to encourage a healthy relationship with news, avoiding deliberate spectacle-hijacking which hogs public discussions to cover up further atrocities (Charlie Kirk's assassination was undoubtedly on the Hasbara payroll but we will pay him no mind). In this hub are a series of links to reputable news sources, in which you can set a 10-30 minute timer and give yourself a dedicated pocket of time to read and feel as much as you need.
Also noted in another study is an accessible yet effective means of reducing your chances of developing PTSD from exposure to traumatic material. By engaging the mind through an activity like playing tetris within hours of exposure to traumatic material, the memory becomes weaker and less vivid, making flashbacks and intrusive memories more manageable as a consequence, allowing for mass tragedy to be safely digested and protested against without being at the expense of one's mental health. Linked here is a HTML port of the game compatible with mobile and desktop browsers, as well as a little 140 Eskibeat mix embedded to give further aural stimuli.

On a last note I'd like to thank anyone of whom this has resonated with for keeping your humanity intact in the face of such overwhelming evil. We are going through possibly the darkest time in human history but the tectonic plates are shifting. A better future is in our reach. Upon us is the time entire generations have passed waiting for, a global shift from the rigidity of post-Berlin Wall capitalist realism to a tug of war between revolt and further barbarism. Unfortunately this fight will be bloody and traumatic but the children of tomorrow will have our strength and willpower to thank for the utopia they will so comfortably take for granted. May God bless you all