We should remind ourselves that bad news has a larger echo than good news. This is why good news articles and social media posts are so needed. News agencies publish “conflict” as it sells better. The doctor who does things well 19 times out of 20 is not newsworthy, until he messes up that one time. The best offensive tackle is not newsworthy unless he is penalized or his opponent gets by him to the quarterback.
No question, division exists and civility is lacking to too many in discourse. But, what we don’t see and hear are the countless folks who are living their lives and getting along. Most people do not pay attention to the blathering untruths of people named Carlson, Hannity, Ingraham, et al. We are too busy paying attention to our own lives.
If we do watch news, it is more often entertainment or sports news or something someone shared on social media that was more provocative than accurate. In fact, much of what finds may way into my browser could qualify as gossip – some one reacting to the inanity said by an opinion host who is just trying to sell ratings. My reaction before I pass on reading it is “Oh, (insert name) must have said something stupid again.” Next.
Some have prophesized this will cause our extinction. It does threaten our democracy, but will likely not cause our extinction. On that front, what we need to worry about is too many people chasing too few water and food resources. So, before we are pronounced extinct, please note it is not as bad as portrayed, but it still needs to be a lot better. Our real problems are hard enough without some opinion host masquerading as a news person making up inane things. My advice is to ignore blather and check other sources.
musingsofanoldfart 
The german language has a knack of taking two (maybe three) words putting them together and making a word redolent with meaning:
You take – ‘Schaden’ meaning something like ‘harm’ or ‘damage’ (or ‘upset’?) and ‘Freude’ meaning ‘joy’ and that merges into ‘Schadenfreude’ which comes out as ‘Enjoying someone else’s misery’ (probably carries a lot more weight than that to a natural German speaker).
And Folk do like to see those who are perceived as having a better time than them, come down, so the Germans did not invent this concept. Everyone loves a pratfall, just so long as it is not them.
And what we love best of all is the person suffering represents something we oppose, which is why sports fans next to their team winning do relish best of all the rivals losing.
Thus we are stuck with this. The trouble is the pedlars of woe make a living out of it because in their inane spoutings they tap into the prejudices and superstitions of their target audience.
We seem to have lost the ability to stand back and respond to the naysayers ‘Oh. What a misery guts!’ or to use one of my favourite classic sardonic Americanisms ‘Yeah. That and a quarter will get me a cup of coffee,’
Roger, well put. It should give us pause when we see folks celebrate failure for others. I recall some folks celebrating that Chicago did not get an Olympics because Obama was behind the effort. This would have helped America’s economy and global standing, but what was interesting is the lack of focus on why we did not get it – our airports are behind, our infrastructure is lacking, our passenger railways are lacking, etc. Chicao did not get it because other places were better able to handle it. Keith
A sad tale Keith and a warning not to let our prejudices blind us.
In post-Brexit UK those of us of voted Remain have a tendency to feast on bad economic news with an ‘I told you so’ air of moral superiority, forgetting folk are suffering as a result of the said news.
Roger, true. That is a good example. To me, the poor financial news post-Brexit was predicted by financial experts well before the vote. It is actually worse than predicted since the people in leadership botched the exit planning with their own idealistic remembrance of the past. But, that is nothing to relish in. The US definitely has the same mentality. Keith
There are times when I wish the media would ignore a story in favour a more constructive, positive one.
VJ, so true. I could use a pass on the gossipy stuff, e.g. Keith
Sadly, tragedy and crime still sell! I don’t understand why people are so much more attracted by catastrophes than happy endings.
Erika, I guess people like train wrecks. Roger has a great reference to your German word ‘”Schadenfreude” which may explain things with one word. Keith
I saw it and it fits really well what you are saying in your post.
Thanks Erika. Is that one of those words which is used often or is it one of those textbook words that shows up little in conversation? Keith
So true and I do try to find one thing positive to counteract the negetive everyday Keith but ya gotta dig to find it!
💖 Great post!
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