How to stay sane with stupid geopolitics? tips?

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Hi, how do you manage to be you in your daily life when there’s so much stupefying human behaviour on (inter)national scale?

I get striked down by news about pandemic, fascism, wars, industries destroying nature on the other side of the planet. I crash. No more executive function. Because I feel a large gap to the people behaving like this? I don’t understand them. Help me understand, because what I understand I can endure. Maybe an evolutionary view point? How do you not-crash?

I also feel desperation because I strongly don’t want geopolitics to be like this (so much people get hurt!) and I can predict this will not stop. I’ll have to adapt to this feature of human existence because I can’t change it. Any tips how to adapt?

The third factor is that I’m not able to handle such (to me) unexpected events. This is a common aspie thing, right? What tools do you know that I can apply to start coping with future startling international news?

I hope you see I’m not helped with talk about politics or a specific war nor with an Existentialistic or religious approach. Also ignoring the news doesn’t solve it. Btw I’m from last century and was taught we all make society together and we take care of each other. A mistaken view? How change?
I’m asking any advice, tips and 2cents-musings, please don't hesitate. Thanks for replying.

So I use rules to navigate life.

One of my rules is "If you know of suffering you are obliged to do something about it."

I just realized that probably not everybody feels this rule. This is news to me. sigh

And then I thought that maybe a lot of people don't use rules at all to navigate life? Or at least not the very clear, black and white rules that I have. Do you know? Is 'rules!' a weird aspie thing? Also I'm conscious about my rules all the time and apply them all the time. Like every waking minute. I live a very conscious life. Am I making life much harder for myself with this than it needs to be?

Last edited by AnnaTheSquirrel on 11 Feb 2024, 9:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

Worry about yourself, not things you cannot control.

Have the same beliefs.

I was taught that imperialism and capitalism are evil and will be around for a long time, so I have some tolerance for how bad the world is.（What I was taught is not exactly the same as my opinion.）

I hope these words can be helpful to you: Different social structures lead to different interest groups. Different behaviors are manifestations of different interests. You act pacifistic and pursue freedom and equality because it benefits you (im no accusations against you), but the same behavior in another society would harm interests.
The way to end these bad situations seems to be development, give them resources, give them theory, and force them to develop. But it seems that none of these things can be done by one person.

When they feel suffering
some people think that they are atonement for the sins they committed in their previous lives, they are blinded by religion;
some people rob other people's things to compensate themselves, which is because imperfect societies do not yet believe they are committing crimes.
Some people think that the world is just like this and cannot be better. This is the result of not having correct theoretical guidance.

I can only play the coward and imagine that the world will be a better place even without my active participation.

I think. Studying social sciences and philosophy will make you feel better, and focusing on areas of interest can make Aspie temporarily comfortable. Because you seem to have a lot of free time and a huge interest in this area. Maybe after you study, you will have your own real answer.

Last edited by belijojo on 11 Feb 2024, 10:16 am, edited 7 times in total.

Though there is some truth to it, I think people normally say this when they want to ignore some news in another country.
Fact is though, history abounds with examples of individuals who radically changed things from
all kinds of walks of life, I think people can control more than they expect.

Heck, the east india company was just a small office of less than 100 employees, and they basically controlled
all of india for a period, by being shrewd as*holes.

I think a better motto is "choose your battles".

You have this right here. This is what the world needs.

Find a little slice of love, and serve it up.

Locate a beam of sunshine from within.

Smile at yourself, and others.

I say this having done exactly that this evening when crashing after a heavy day.

Once the golden light within is seen, nothing can keep me down for long.

Sanity is overrated anyways.

The people who behave in the terrible ways that you describe are two groups of people: one group is made up of the people in leadership positions (whether politicians or heads of large corporations) who are actually making these terrible things happen, and the second group are their followers.

The people in the first group (the leaders) are acting out of short-sighted self-interest. They are doing what gives them personally more power and more money. They are short-sighted in that they don't seem to realize that destroying the environment, for example, actually hurts them as well, but they care more about immediate things like money and power for themselves. I think their motivation is as simple as that.

The people in the second group (the followers) are acting out of fear of the unknown and the need to belong and the need to have simple explanations. They believe what they leaders are telling them because it's expedient and they don't have to think for themselves if they accept the untruthful explanations of the leaders who are knowingly lying to them. And they can stick together among people who have their same beliefs and that gives them a sense of belonging and soothes some of their fear.

This is oversimplified but I hope it helps to understand their motivations for doing terrible things.

As far as how to cope with it:

Accepting that some things are the way they are, even if they are terrible, is a useful coping tool. If you can get involved in activism to try to make change, that too is a useful coping tool. Both accepting that things are bad, rather than wailing against them helplessly, and also trying to make whatever small difference you can, are useful. But if you can't do the second part (activism), then just acceptance, though it may feel like resigning yourself to the awfulness, is actually just being realistic and can give you peace.

Ignore any claim, opinion, statement, or bit of 'news' that originates on a social media platform (i.e., Ask.Fm, BigoLive, Blendr, Chatspin, Discord, Disney+, Facebook, Gab, Gettr, Holla, Houseparty, Instagram, Kik, LinkedIn, MeWe, MySpace, Newsmax, OkCupid, Omegle, Parler, Periscope, Pinterest, Reddit, Rumble, Snapchat, Telegram, TikTok, Tinder, Truth Social, Tumblr, Viber, WhatsApp, Whisper, X (Formerly Twitter), and YouTube).

Do not let any of them do your thinking for you.

simple - don't engage with more of it than you can handle.

it does. It does!
Oversimplification is no problem, this puts me on a path to research and learning (about these people and their motivations) and then the usual non-simpleness of the world presents itself and I have no problem living with that.

Thank you so much.

Do what so many successful productive happy wealthy people do: Don't watch/read news. Ever.

It's all just fear porn propaganda and adds about zero value to any of our lives. We'd all be better off just focusing on ourselves, being present in the moment, working, getting exercise, doing things - anything. Playing instruments, cooking meals, gardening, studying etc.

*I consume far too much news. Part of why I'm not nearly as accomplished as many people.

hmm. Not getting informed about what people go through in other places in the world feels kind of betraying to the victims. (which is weird because my despair and empathy does nothing to lesser their suffering.)

But I could do it. I could cater to my need to care for a victim in some other way (more local, more efficient) and ignore just all world news. Is that not betrayel? am I "allowed" to do this?

Another point is I need this global news data to incorporate into my informed/scientific understanding of the human species. Or do I? Maybe world actors should not have input on what a human is?

(btw, I don't consume news with spin. Opinions don't stick to me, only info.)


I agree that our best individual lives are lived on this scale. Isn't this Epicurus' philosophy? Gardener-philosophers? Vonnegut.

Would you advocate I just stop thinking about human interaction on a global scale at all? No longer try to tie it in with the human interaction I experience on that daily scale you describe (and which I enjoy)?
Are we even 'allowed' to do so, to 'leave global victims behind' by not even gaining knowledge about their faiths?

(yes, I really am this dense. I'd love for you to spell out the obvious things for me. Because I don't see them.)

limit the input, don't feed on the frenzied posts and writings, the tv and radio comments, etc. find stuff you love and do that.

If there is a crisis along the way you will hear about it.

Mean time, change the things you can for yourself and those you care about, never mind about the things you can't change.

Let others involved take care of that stuff. No amount of fretting and distress will fix everything that is broken in this world.

Look for the positive stuff, count the positive stuff in your life (things like having food, clean water, a roof over our heads, whatever is good in your life) Find the joy in your interests and those you care about, the things you can do and forget about the stuff we can't control.

the world has got along for years and years without our interventions, once humans are gone from this earth, it will keep on keeping on.

No one is obligated to watch/read any news, local, national, world etc. At all. Ever. The victims of crimes/disasters etc have no idea whether you watch the news or not and don't benefit from you doing so. The news broadcasters pimp out their stories for views/ratings and the resulting ad revenues. $; that's it.

You could volunteer time locally for victims of ____ and make an actual impact in a victims life. Or you could just make it part of your routine to pray for all those who suffer in the world and let your intentions do their magic.

No one is obligated to absorb news data for an informed/scientific understanding of the human species. That's just something You have chosen to do. You could still pursue your interest by observing people around you in the present moment whether you're shopping or at a park or driving or whatever vs. watch the evening fear porn and drive yourself nuts.

Even just info, which may be interesting/entertaining, is generally a complete waste of time & energy. People who focus on their work and their own personal hobbies/interests/finances/health etc and that of their family & friends are a whole lot happier, healthier, wealthier etc for it. Too many of us get distracted by useless BS on tv and the internet (myself included) reading news, listening to news etc whereas if we invested that time into ourselves in the form of a run, or a workout, or reading a book for knowledge, or honing a skill, or cooking from scratch etc etc we'd all be FAR better of.


That said, I listen to way too much American political news because it's a non stop soap opera WWE style circus clown show train wreck that I just can't look away from.. however, I've been limiting it a bit more as well as trying to make sure I am Doing something else while it's on in the background and then every once in a while I catch some gem that makes me laugh or whatever - but at least I'm doing work, or having a workout/run, or driving from A-B while it's on entertaining me instead of music sometimes. Other times I decide it's just too much nonsense bs, especially if it's distracting me, and switch to Music so I can just get in the flow of getting things done. I wanted music yesterday but my radio player app wasn't connecting and FB watch connected fine so I did listen to political commentators while I worked - but I did work and get stuff done.