Stress, fake news & vaccinations

I have an exam tomorrow, course code TJTA-1113 to be specific. I need to study the course material as I’ve had an extremely frustrating experience assimilating the course syllabus. Of course, I could’ve put in more effort and not left it to the last moments to study, but the course material has been presented in an extremely inefficient way. At least from my perspective.

Hence, my stress making its’ comeback. The year hasn’t exactly been easy either and I think 2020 wasn’t maybe such a good time to end my work contract and move onto social benefits for the foreseeable near future.

Social media

Despite all this, I found it necessary to write yet another vent at 5 am about social media and how it annoys the living shit out of me at the moment. Currently, I have at least a handful of friends acquintances who are spreading anti-vaccine memes and news on Facebook and I need to do my very best not to start an argument with them.

The year 2020 has no doubt been the weirdest, scariest, and most tiring year I’ve yet to live myself. We’re all as a society spread out very thin and after almost a solid year of different types of lockdown, social distancing, and restrictions, normalcy would be very welcome. I get that. Despite that, we can’t succumb to despair.

I truly and honestly believe that the vaccinations are literally going to be a lifesaver and we can as a society find our bearings once again. By the looks of it, rather soon even.

Fake news

What doesn’t fill me with hope and excitement for our future is the number of idiots, dimwits, and fearmongers I’ve had to endure online. I have a bad habit of not accepting someone being wrong online, which often lands me in debates and arguments. Doubly so when I feel that somebody spreads dangerous or harmful information, it feels like my responsibility to do my part and stop it from happening where possible.

Sometimes I try to reason and be polite, sometimes I feel like ridiculing might be the most efficient approach. This means that I’m often on the defense when communicating online, most likely vilifying me in the eyes of many former acquaintances. That’s alright with me, but it gets tiring fast and I’ve found myself feeling quite jaded and cynical. It’s not a positive trend, especially considering my current mental and physical health.

It feels like a dangerous trend though. I still find it astonishing that 30% (or more!) of Finland’s population is willing to vote for racist populists who do their darnedest to deny science and proper due diligence in the name of “nationalism”.

sidenote — I just stopped writing for a while to call another poster on Facebook a little edgelord and a piece of shit.

We have a term here in Finland called “kuplautuminen” which translates to ending up in an “echo chamber” either by accident or purpose. Let’s say that my experiment with trying to reason with the opposition might’ve come to an end now and I’m ready to return to my kupla. Even if I’m the one fighting and the one who could just ignore the people, it’s still affecting my mental wellbeing and I’m getting increasingly exasperated.

Quick reminder to my readers, followers and people in my life — If you’re a racist, don’t believe in equal rights for every person or if you’re anti science, vaccines or pro-Trump / Persut, could you kindly fuck out off my life?

I’ll listen to some Junko Yagami and try to fix my scuffed life. I don’t need this right now.