Resisting moves toward comfort

It's February 2025.  Real-time genocide has been ongoing in Gaza (though there was news of a ceasefire recently - perhaps).  The photo above was taken in Chicago--the Trump Tower looming large just after Donald was elected President of the United States yet again.  Alt-right politics and polarity are dominating public discourse.  Fires have just ravaged much of California and the glaciers are all melting at unprecedented speed.  It seems like another pandemic-y virus might be ramping up to spread world-wide.  Hate speech is now unregulated on most social media platforms, and an all-out assault is being waged on anything related to equity, diversity, or inclusion. This sounds like a old-time country music song writ large. 

I admit to engaging in the following cycle that has been precipitated by world events: (a) doom-scrolling or reading the news, (b) fretting and agonizing, and then (c) turning away to do something mindless.  Here's how it looks specifically: I'll experience dissonance because of things like the emerging Canadian nationalism we're seeing in the face of tariffs and Trump's proclamations about the "51st state," while knowing that Canada is a colonial construct that was formed at the expense of Indigenous people and is actually nothing to be terribly proud of.  I experience the dissonance, and then promptly shut myself off.  I distract myself with trash T.V., word games, and chocolate.     

This move toward comfort is the classic move we white folks engage in when the going gets tough.  It is afforded to us because of our inherent privilege.  DEI pushback doesn't effect me directly, so I can afford to take a break from it.  Racism and genocide doesn't effect me directly, so I can shut of my feelings for a while and bake cookies.  All that climate change requires of me in this moment is a slight adjustment in my thermostat, and perhaps a good quality sun hat.  

While the comfort feels good and, well, comforting, it's imperative that I cut it out.  This is a fine balance I've noted as I do the cognitive gymnastics around privilege that are required for me to tune out.  I have, on occasion, rationalized my disassociation with the need for self-care.  This might be valid if it were actually true.  In reality, my mental health is robust enough right now to handle the maelstrom of emotions that I experience in response to world events and circumstances beyond my control.  So, if I'm able to handle it, I ought to.  I should be engaging more fulsomely in the tension and discomfort that's required for me to understand how others, who are not situated in privilege analogous to mine, are impacted by what is happening out there.  

I am capable of shouldering the emotional load, so this is what I should be doing consistently rather than dialing back my cognitive investments.  It requires stamina--something I have also been thinking about a lot lately.  If I want to shift my default, I'll need to develop stamina in myself and also help others to do the same.  How might this look?