Are you tired of hearing about Donald Trump? Do the words “Melania,” “Ivanka,” “fake news,” and “Russia” no longer make you want to cringe, tremble convulsively, or cry yourself to sleep? Do you find yourself no longer phased by that daily barrage of doomful news?
If so, you might be suffering from Politics Fatigue Syndrome, a comically unofficial disorder coined by NPR that is plaguing millions in the United States. Major symptoms include feelings of sheer exhaustion, disdain, and utter hopelessness for anything political-related. In other words, it’s that feeling of being so f-ing over it (“it” being Trump).
Related: Time’s new cover is going to royally piss off Donald Trump
And the masses are starting to feel it. Whether plastered on social media, or magnified in comment sections online, there is no denying that people are growing weary of Trump’s constant orange presence on every screen imaginable.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Not that reporter Mark Joseph Stern, who write about LGBTQ issues for Slate, necessarily blames those complaining. After all, it seems one cannot go a single minute without news breaking about the president or his cabinet, he says.
“It feels as though, if you step away from Twitter for even a few minutes, you will have lost an entire news cycle, or missed some huge development,” Stern tells Queerty. “There is just a constant flow of leaks, drama and bombshells from the [Trump] administration, and it certainly feels exhausting, not just as a reporter, but as a private citizen. Keeping up with everything is really tiring.”
Related: Donald Trump claims to have the will of the people, but Facebook video tells a different story
At the same time, Stern realizes there is a certain luxury in being able to say something like that.
“I think it is a sign of privilege to be able to say, ‘I am tired of hearing about Trump and the government,’” he says. “Because if, for instance, you are an undocumented immigrant, or a person that relies on the Affordable Care Act to receive health insurance, you don’t have the luxury of not thinking about [Trump and his administration], since [they] have an incredible amount of power over you and your life.”
It is Trump’s potentially dangerous power that ultimately inspired GLAAD, the famed LGBTQ advocacy organization, to start the Trump Accountability Project (TAP), a resource for journalists and others to “go find the facts about the people Trump is surrounding himself with,“ according to Drew Anderson, GLAAD’S Director of News & Rapid Response.
“We want to send a message to the President that we are unified as one and will hold him accountable every step of the way,” says Anderson of the project.
Related: Melania Trump is “miserable” as First Lady, hides inside $100 mil apartment most days, sources say
This includes not giving into Trump’s distraction tactics.
“The President hopes that all the distractions he creates will cause Americans – and the media – to become confused and disengaged from what’s really happening in Washington, because that’s when Trump and the U.S. Congress will pass measures that harm the most vulnerable, including the LGBTQ community,” Anderson says.
So, as a reporter, how does Stern avoid giving into these distractions, or becoming burnt out himself? He has established a few rules, he says: Once finished with work for the day, Stern will try to shut down his computer for the night; he’ll take his dog on multiple walks throughout the day; he also makes a point to power off his cell phone one hour before bed. There is even a rule for his partner.
“My partner is forbidden from telling me any political news the hour before bed as well,” Stern notes, a clear smile in his voice. “He is barred from doing so, he is not happy about it, but that is the way it is.”
Both Stern and Anderson agree that it is important to keep fighting, even in the face of ‘Trump fatigue.’
Related: Trump wonders where leaks are coming from as he conducts official state business in full public view
As a member of it himself, Stern feels it is the media’s obligation to continue calling out Trump’s wrongdoings.
“I think the press does have a real duty to keep covering this administration very vigorously, and I would be gravely disappointed if the press fell down on that duty.” Stern says, before adding, “The kind of misconduct that Trump routinely engages in thrives in secrecy, but cannot thrive when exposed to sunlight.”
For GLAAD, it all comes down to maintaining the progress that has been made, not just for the LGBTQ community, but other marginalized groups as well.
“With all the progress we’ve made as a community, we have to fight any sort of political fatigue that may exist in order to keep our progress moving forward and [not] backward,” says Anderson. “It’s especially important that we lock arms with the most vulnerable and marginalized among us – particularly transgender people, people of color, Muslims, and immigrants. Our message at GLAAD is that if you attack one of us, you’re attacking all of us. And we will fight back.”
Related: These memes perfectly capture Justin Trudeau recoiling from Donald Trump’s hand
Heywood Jablowme
“Must stay woke”? “Phased”? Put your phasers on stun, it’s fazed. I’m shocked and appalled, I tell you, shocked and appalled!: https://www.queerty.com/shocked-appalled-9-worst-kinds-online-commenters-avoid-becoming-20170120
Anyway, it helps to get involved even a little bit. Join the ACLU for instance – where I live it’s only $20. Or find an issue that’s important to you, one that the Republicans are gunning for, and volunteer. And try to stay woke! – lol.
Geety
You take the time to write an entire article about this but then link exactly 5 other articles related to Trump or his wife. There’s a link every, like, 3 paragraphs.
Kangol
Sign up for Indivisible and similar groups, support the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, etc., show up for your Congresspeople’s town halls, CALL your Congresspeople regularly (they blow off letters and emails, it seems), and above all, register people to vote and remind them that not voting has led us to this precipice. “Trump fatigue” may be real, but it’s not going to get any better any time soon. He’s only been in office for ONE MONTH.
Yes, he has the worst approval ratings, at this period in his tenure, of any US President since polling began.
Yes, he cannot stop himself from whining, screwing up, blaming everyone but himself, and pathologically lying (the attacks in Sweden, largest electoral victory, etc.).
Yes, the pathetic GOP is enabling everything he does because they want to achieve their endgame of stripping the US government bare, getting their tax cuts, etc.
Speak up, speak out, and don’t let his paid and cultish internet trolls get to you.
KaiserVonScheiss
More nonsense. “Stay woke.” LOL.
And asking the loonies at Slate? They’re full regressive and everyone who isn’t a regressive knows it.
Sounds to me like the people in the media aren’t happy that the American people realise that the media are full of it.
The media should do their job and report objective facts. They should absolutely criticise the administration, but they should do that to all administrations.
Let’s face it. MSNBC and other leftist pieces of garbage weren’t critical of Obama, but they were critical of those who were critical of Obama.
The media should watch the watchmen, regardless of party. But now, they’ve lost all perspective. If Hillary were in office and doing much of what Trump is doing, the media would be silent. The GOP, being partisan hacks, would criticise her of course.
Fox, MSNBC, CNN, the politicians, the pundits. They’re full of it.
DCguy
Hey look, a Trump Troll trying to deflect the topic. Trump is in office and you can still only ramble on about Hillary or Obama.
Sorry Troll, Trump is in office, and unless you can detail out exactly what your point is. Don’t bother.
KaiserVonScheiss
@DCguy
Go back and re-read. I didn’t write a single word critical of Obama or Hillary. My criticism was directed at the media.
Anyone who isn’t a total sophist should be able to distinguish between the two.
And why do you call everyone who disagrees with you a troll? It sounds like all you want is an echochamber so you don’t have the face conflicting viewpoints.
Juanjo
Just a trumppen troll engaging in a little lügenpresse. Just ignore her and she will go back to lurking around grade school playgrounds.
davidkohl
If Hilary was in office she would NOT be doing the same things that the odious man is doing. So you are correct in that the press would not be reporting the same things.
‘Conflicting viewpoints’ are fine – out and out racism, sexism, homophobia and infantile temper tantrums are not. You try to defend a man who cannot be defended other than by his fellow morons. When you people hurt one of us you hurt all of us. The term ‘troll’ is appropriate.
dwes09
“They’re full regressive and everyone who isn’t a regressive knows it.”
Like his fellow, the king of shit refuses to acknowledge that words have specific meanings, and are not fodder for the doublespeak he practices.
You are regressive, the right is regressive…returning to failed policy of the past, being to scared by the notion of new ideas not to oppose them.
The left is by definition progressive, the right regressive and not even realistically so. Their view of the hallowed past is based on emotion and fantasy, not history.
As for Hillary, you may be sure that if she did the same crap as Donald, they’d be all over her. But the FACT is that she would not. Her policies would be based on real observations of what has been working and what has not.
Not only are you the king of shit, you are full of it as well.
KaiserVonScheiss
@Dwes09
People on both the right and left can be regressive. It’s unfortunate that you’re too self-deluded to see that.
The mainstream left has abandoned liberalism and gone full regressive.
Identity politics is collectivist. That is regressive. The mainstream left, particularly the Democrats, have stopped being the party of the working class are are the party of left-winged identity politics.
I’m an actual liberal. I don’t want identity politics. People are individuals and should be judged by their character, not their race or gender or some other thing they have no control over. To believe the opposite, that is regressive.
Yes, words do have meaning. I suggest you learn them. Like the fact that you keep mistranslating kaiser as king.
davidkohl
I can’t let that expression go past without comment – ‘stay woke? Even for American English that is bad! But that’s a side issue of course. The point being made is a good one – fatigue is something that develops very quickly. We become desensitised to all the bad news emanating from the odious man’s bunker in the White House. And as the article points out, that’s the dangerous time. The time when they will try to slide things through in the hope that no one will even bother to report it any more. I devote time to the news 3 times a day – my time on here is kept separate – to avoid having another heart attack from frustration and depression. It is the duty of us all to make the uneducated red-neck gangsters now running the USA accountable and to frustrate their disgusting agenda wherever and whenever we can.
DCguy
And here the trolls will come screaming. “Hillary!! Obama!!! Blah Blah Blah”.
So Trump Trolls, you support an anti-lgbt administration, so please don’t bother trying the same old tricks here. They’re boring and don’t work.
Herman75
Subscribe to the New York Times.
1EqualityUSA
Yes! Subscribe. It’s been a delight and education to read it, though just not before falling asleep. I also funded other readers subscriptions that go to underserved communities. Their foreign reporting is stellar.
Black Pegasus
I find Trump amusing. I’m just waiting for the impeachment trial to begin. Mike Pence will be President before the end of the year.
MikeColling83
Lord help us…
Bob LaBlah
Lets hope he doesn’t ask Ted Cruz to be his vice-president.
Josh447
Impeachment trial. They could walk him out of office on a dime if Congress votes him unfit to command. Then we get the Pence. It’s a damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation. Looks like we’re stuck with that Administration for 4 years irregardless. Thing as Trump won’t destroy the LGBT community for business reasons but Pence would nuke us in an Indiana minute.
Kangol
According to the US Constitution, 25th Amendment, Article 4, first paragraph, the Vice President may, with a majority of the members of the Cabinet, determine that the President is unfit to carry out his duties, and assume the office. If Donald Forrest Gump keeps up at this rate, Pence may not have to do that much to convince the rest of the Cabinet to send Gump back to Gump Tower in NYC. As repellant as Pence’s political history and politics are, I find it hard to believe that he would not be doing a better, more stable job than his “unhinged” (as a Republican critic called Gump the other day) “boss.”
Bob LaBlah
Be patient. Its coming. John McCain said today that this (destroying the press) is the beginning of a dictatorship as has Lindsay Graham. Mitch McConnell hasn’t gone to his rescue either. And get this: both his picks for National Security have stopped short of saying things are too chaotic for them to effectively do their job and withdrew their names. I had said by May he’ll be gone but now i feel it will be sometime around early March. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Joint Chiefs of Staff have already issued orders to the military commanders around the world not to obey any orders from the White House.
Kangol
Section 4, sorry.
ErikO
More SJW nonsense.