Do Not Watch Politainment

This is your reminder to never, ever, ever watch politics on television. The Jackson nomination hearings require such an intervention. It’s not some sort of healthy civic activity. It’s sheer politainment, devoid of anything useful. We already know what’s going to happen. Hawley and Tailgunner Ted and Sasse and the other assholes on the Senate Judiciary Committee will pontificate and fascism all they can. Then there will be hours of commentary on said words. Nothing interesting will happen. The entire setup of these hearings as places for senators to show off are devoid of value unless you think watching desperate men make their case to the Republican base has value.

Moreover, it is a shocking waste of your time. In the extremely unlikely event anything interesting actually happens, you can read about it later. You can even watch some hot takes on Youtube. You can do this in about 1% of the time you would spend watching these rituals of ridiculousness.

Since the kind of person who comments on this site is a political junkie, which is the equivalent of a bad drug habit, intervention is necessary. Keep politics as part of your life, but not the pointless television-based kind. Instead of watching these hearings, go volunteer somewhere or engage in other forms of political activity, such as organizing with local social and economic justice groups. This is not to suggest that liberals’ political activity of choice–registering people to vote–has value. It does not, unless you are registering kids or new citizens. As the Trump years and after have taught us, you can get people registered to vote but they are probably going to vote against your values in about the same percentage that previously registered voters will. But if you have an upcoming election in your town, doing some GOTV operations has enormous value.

In conclusion, choose your political activities widely. Avoid those that lead to depression and doomscrolling/doomwatching. Engage in those that actually make a difference. And trust me, watching a Supreme Court nomination hearing does not make a difference unless you want to imagine what Jeffrey Toobin is doing on his computer when others are speaking around him. And I do not want to imagine that.