Information Poisoning: Knowing Is Killing Our Mental Health, But It Doesn't Have To

Josh Hokit, Joe Rogan, Donald Trump, And The MAGA Male Identity Crisis.

At the close of the Trump Administration’s garish, bloated, masturbatory performance art on the White House lawn, UFC fighter Josh Hokit proceeded to punctuate his match by offering a monstrous verbal assault on former First Lady Michelle Obama, targeting her gender. His head wrapped in an American flag and flanked by Joe Rogan, the bottom-feeding patron saint for mediocre white men who’ve failed up in Trump’s America, Hokit expelled a sickening slur that encompasses the racism, misogyny, and queer-phobia the entire MAGA ecosystem runs on. After pretending to vomit on himself (or purposefully doing it), during his weigh-in a day earlier, the 28-year-old proceeded to gleefully regurgitate the kind of reckless, moronic moral sewage that Trump has cultivated and curated over the last ten years, the kind he himself has regularly trafficked in. It was unprovoked, vicious, and embarrassing. And it would be easy to dismiss Hokit as a professional buffoon, a jacked-up, brain-battered, ignorant caricature with no connection to reality, if not for the fact that he’s pretty much a typical MAGA man, without the skin-tight leotard, greased-up pecs, and proximity to a president. Guys like Hokit are everywhere. Have a conversation with any random group of guys still supporting Trump, whether in your neighborhood, a local bar, or online, and you’ll find similar violent contempt for women, for immigrants, for trans people. Sit down with garden-variety America First dudebros, and you’ll likely have a front-row seat to the kind of fragility and aggression that explain precisely why a male loneliness epidemic should exist. That the same performative males who never shut up about protecting children and women are so silent on the Epstein files and still so emotionally tethered to a sexual predator like Donald Trump reminds us how morally adrift they are, how rudderless they have become. Or worse, maybe it reminds us that this is exactly who they are because they willfully choose to be. Either way, it’s a national manhood emergency. The urgent crisis of MAGA masculinity isn’t revealed by a performative clown like Josh Hokit; it’s revealed in the guys who are defending him in comment sections right now. It’s revealed in the dudes who laugh off his abject filth as a supposed “joke” that the oversensitive Left can’t take. It’s revealed in men who spend their days echoing his verbal diarrhea around their wives, girlfriends and children. The toxic manosphere may be headlined by guys like Trump, Rogan, and Hokit, but it’s the massive undercard of tens of millions of perpetually enraged, emotionally unsteady, podcast-addled disciples that should alarm the rest of us. It isn’t just the poisoned minds of the guys at the top that are cause for alarm, but the trickle-down ignorance that has reached our families, friends, co-workers, classmates, church friends, and neighbors Last week, I walked past a few conservative guys in our neighborhood having a typically louder-than-necessary front porch conversation. Normally, when I pass by, I crank up my earbuds to drown out the steady torrent of liquor-lubricated, nonsensical, right-wing talking points sure to be loudly propelled into the ether, but on that night, I heard the word “transgender.” I decided to listen in, knowing that it wasn’t going to be good. It wasn’t. There was little to differentiate their words from Hokit’s. They reflected the same uninformed phobia, the same irresponsible slurs, and the same dehumanizing hatred the fighter hurled at Michelle Obama from the White House lawn. Black women will tell you that they are no strangers to slurs like the ones Hokit hurled at the former First Lady. Queer people will confirm that the UFC fighter is not an aberration. This attack isn’t an isolated exception; it’s the consistent party line. And this same tired charade is playing out all over this country right now. MAGA America has created an entire generation of terrified white man-children who are so intimidated by diversity, so threatened by competition, and so convinced that they’re oppressed that they lash out with a violence that has no regard for its repercussions. Conservative men’s lives are riddled with pleas for attention, signaling, overcompensation, and an insatiable need to be reassured. For all their baseless attacks on women they claim are men, they’re the ones with the identity crisis. So, yes, we can see Hokit for what he is: a paid provocateur whose mindless, incendiary comments were intended to incite anger. Still, we can’t ignore the fact that his intended audience is larger and closer than any of us should be comfortable with. The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe [https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

The 60 Million Dollar UFC, White (Trash) House Takeover Should Piss Off Every Decent American

What in the white trash hell was that? How did we get here? I’m not talking about the perfect storm of corruption, toxic religion, and white nationalism that has resulted in the unthinkable ascension to power of one of the most reprehensible, festering sacks of organic matter to ever leave his putrid slime trails on the planet. Greater minds can unpack the complex historical and social explanations for the inexplicable sequel given to the greatest single collective electoral error in our history. What I want to know is how, at the precipice of our two hundred and fiftieth year as a Republic, have we devolved into the disgraceful public urination that took place at our nation’s Capitol. If you took every stereotype of the Ugly American, the most monstrously exaggerated caricatures of us as a people, the absolute worst clichés of this nation at our most base, most ignorant, and most vile, and you fed it into an AI program with the prompt: “Make something truly disgusting.”—this is what you’d have ended up with. We should be the United States of Embarrassment today. There should be nonpartisan vomiting and facepalming all across this nation after witnessing this wasteful, 60-million-dollar, star-spangled, asinine, white supremacist dudebro circle jerk on the lawn of the People’s House, our house. Watching this garish Temu Roman Colosseum cosplay filled with grifters, predators, and criminals should infuriate every single American who has a shred of self-respect or love of country left. In any other iteration of our country, this would not stand. Knowing that their taxes were funding an opulent, violent, phobic birthday party for a cognitively failing serial pedophile would propeled our proud and patriotic forebears into a complete overthrow of those in power. In a time when people have to choose between paying their rent, or affording routine healthcare, when families can’t afford groceries or to fill their gas tanks, when we’re funding foreign genocides and domestic concentration camps, when we’re told we can’t afford to house or feed or care for the most vulnerable—this should make our blood boil. More than that, it should wake us all the hell up: conservative, moderate, or liberal; Democrat, Independent, or Republican; straight or queer, well off or struggling, native born or immigrant, to the reality that we are all being played. The billionaires (and the trillionaire) are mocking us all right now; dismantling the systems and protections designed to care for each of us, ignoring the Constitution, discarding morality, hoarding the wealth that was meant to be shared, devouring our natural resources, turning us against one another—and giving us a sweaty, bloated 60-million-dollar middle finger to us in the process. November should be a reckoning for these narcissistic vampires once and for all, but we shouldn’t wait that long. Last night should be enough. This should be the final straw for every human being who calls this place home, rousing each of us out of whatever apathy, denial, political tribalism, wishful thinking, or American exceptionalism that has kept us on the sidelines. The white trash, classless stupidity on the White House lawn last night was a microcosm of the prolific mockery of America that this President and his accomplices have made for ten years now. These people believe that we’re ignorant, that we’re lazy, that we’re too distracted and soft to give a damn about the fact that they’re fleecing us, that all we need is a the easy high of fireworks and faux patriotism to lull us into inaction. If we allow them to prevail, we’ll have proven them right. Who are we going to be, America? The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe [https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Information Poisoning: Knowing Is Killing Our Mental Health, But It Doesn't Have To

Growing up, I was taught that knowledge was power.Lately, I’m beginning to believe differently.On many days, I think it’s hazardous.Right now, knowing is actually part of the problem. We’re all suffering from information poisoning. The more we know about what’s really happening in this country: the depths of our fractures, the audacity of our leaders, and the failing of our systems the greater our sense of despair can become. Our noble efforts to stay informed are locking us into an emotional state of fight, flight, or freeze that isn’t helpful or sustainable; our sober situational awareness is destroying our mental health. I confess to envying people who, by nature or by choice, don’t have a clue what’s going on: people who’ve opted out of knowing anymore. They don’t read the news; they’ve checked out of social media, and they avoid or refuse to believe any information that conflicts with the story they tell themselves of everything being fine. I know that attempting to live inside such a heavily redacted reality is an irresponsible act of privilege, but they seem so happy in their blissful bubble of not-knowing. They rarely feel the dread I experience on a regular basis. They don’t lose a minute of sleep worrying about the stuff that keeps me up at night. They’re never visited by the grief that feels like such a constant companion here in my heart. Some days, I want to be like them; care-free, weightless, and fully unburdened because of all they choose not to know, but that’s how we got here. This current national disaster is the byproduct of millions of people who’ve spent a decade refusing facts or data or truth when those things carried discomfort. The sedatives of denial and distraction do nothing to change the truth. They don’t make us any safer. They don’t decrease the peril our nation is in. They don’t help any of the people who are in danger right now—which is all of them… all of us. The only way through this historic, catastrophic s**t show is to face and confront reality, as ugly and disheartening as it is, and try to change that reality, alongside people who also care deeply because they too understand how sideways it’s all gone. Too much exposure to the scale and velocity of the suffering, and we’ll eventually sink beneath it, physically or emotionally breaking down; too little exposure, and we end up complicit in the damage. The challenge is to live somewhere safely between a constant, complete immersion in the terrors that will surely overwhelm us and completely checking out to avoid the reality of how jacked up everything is. With the relentless sensory media flood around us, we need the discipline and restraint to know the difference between awareness and self-harm. I don’t want to know how bad it is anymore, but I do.I don’t want to grieve the horrible reality anymore, but I do.I don’t want to care anymore, but I do.This may not feel at all good, but it is still a good thing. Some things that may help you stay in balance:- Limit daily media exposure, setting time constraints and certain times of day, and stick to them.- Spend some time each day in silence, nature, rest, exercise, and in community to offset the heavy information you're absorbing.- Try to mark off time first thing in the morning and just before bed so you can begin and end the day grounded and centered on the agency you always have.- When taking in the news, continually ask yourself: what of this is mine to carry and what can I and should I let go of? Knowledge of the urgency of our situation may indeed be a hazard, but it is still one of the most powerful weapons we have in the fight to stay human in inhumane times. Right now, knowing what’s happening will help us know who we want to be in the middle of it. Be encouraged today.What strategies are you using to be selective in the way you take in information and care for your mental health in the process? Let me know in the comments. The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe [https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Hey, New York Knicks Fans (And NYC), You Won Last Night

Hey, New York Knicks Fans, I know you’re waking up today disappointed that you won’t get the sweep you were hoping for, that you’ll need to postpone your long-delayed celebration at least a few more days. I realize this wasn’t the script you’d written in your head for Game 3, and this morning you’re probably not in the mood to hear about moral victories. Still, I need you to hear something: the game may not have gone your way, but you won last night. You won with the thunderous chorus of boos you rained down upon that cognitively-addled malignant narcissist from every inch of the Garden’s hallowed ground. You won with the glorious middle finger curbside receiving line you greeted his street-clearing, party-trampling motorcade with. You won as you showered him with expletive-laden, f-bomb defiance, denying him the cheap ego stroke he disrupted a multitude in desperate search of. You won as you loudly and unequivocally reminded him once again that he will never be as respected and beloved as Barack Obama. You won by not letting him suck the oxygen from the room or the spirit from your souls. As he has done for decades, he once again returned to your beautiful city to manufacture chaos, squelch joy, and center himself, and as you have done for decades, you told him where to stick it—and a weary nation thanks you. You were all of us, last night: pissed off, fed up, and sick to our stomachs of this needy, repugnant, self-obsessed megalomaniac. You stood as our repulsed proxy, saying to his face what every truly patriotic American dreams of saying. I’ve always marveled at your city’s courage in the face of tragedy, your unflappable resolve through unimaginable adversity, and your absolute refusal to take any s**t from a two-bit tyrant like him. You’ve never rolled over, never surrendered, and never backed down from a fight, and the rest of America watched you last night, and we were cheering you on like one of our own, because you are. As a former longtime Philadelphia resident (and confessed Sixers fan), I’m rooting for your Knickerbockers, but more than that, I’m rooting for you and your city. I think most of this nation is. You are the fierce, radiant, beautifully diverse place that has always persevered through the darkest seasons of this nation, and last night you reminded us that we’re going to make it through these incredibly black days, too. You pointed us to something bigger than sports last night, and we’re grateful. As he quickly dozed off, crestfallen and embarrassed after failing to command unearned respect and undeserved adoration, you all did what you’ve always done: you carried on. And yeah, in the books this will go down as an “L” for your team, and that’s gotta sting this morning. Still, I hope you find some comfort in knowing that in the eyes of tens of millions of patriotic Americans throughout this nation who have had it with this self-absorbed professional parasite, you won.So, NYC, from the vast, thankful multitude this morning who were lifted by your truly inspiring performance last night: f*ck Trump, f*ck ICE, God Bless America… and Knicks in 5. The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe [https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Take Heart, America, We're Going to Outlive Him.

Hey, America. I get it: this feels like it’s never going to end, like this oppressive darkness will never lift, like the disorienting chaos of these days is now our default setting. This is understandable. For the last decade, we’ve been living in dog years, friends; pummeled by a century’s worth of Constitutional crises, systemic failures, war crimes, and human moral collapses. The atrocities have accumulated, the legislative losses have piled up, and perhaps, most of all, the list of people we loved and once respected who’ve abandoned compassion and reason has grown beyond what we can fathom. To put it another way: we’ve been knocked on our asses for ten straight years, and that’s gonna leave a mark on our nation, on our relationships, and on our psyches. We are collectively experiencing the PTSD of a prolonged daily existence that our nervous systems were never designed to sustain. That kind of unceasing emotional trauma has rendered all of us deprived of hope, physically exhausted, and a hair’s breadth from a breakdown. In light of all of this, we can be forgiven for believing that we’re never getting out of this, that our Republic is cooked, that 250 years will end up being the lifespan of our flawed but once-promising experiment in liberty. But we’d be wrong. Our present condition is not permanent, America. One way or another, a shift is coming. He is not long for this earth, and he is not long for the presidency. One day, soon, either nature or the Constitution is going to take him, and when it does, there will be rejoicing throughout this planet that we have not seen in 80 years. Humanity will feel the cathartic jubilation it should feel when tyrants meet their demise, and whether he ends first in the ground or in a cell, we all need to make sure we’re here to celebrate together. We cannot be so overwhelmed by the recent sorrows and current threats that we slip into apathy and resignation; that we allow ourselves to be gaslighted into believing our presence counts for nothing, that our work is fruitless, that our efforts are wasted. We need to remember that the toll of proximity and the lies of the present can distort reality. We’re here right now, on the bloodied and broken ground with our faces pressed into the jagged, unrelenting horrors on our timelines and in our neighborhoods. Presently, it’s impossible to rise to 30,000 feet and see that our current struggles, though formidable, are not unprecedented. Humanity has always persevered beyond the evil visited upon it. If we lean on History, she will remind us that all violent regimes crumble, all malevolent movements dissolve, and all tyrants fall, and this will be true for this nation and the monstrosity in front of us. Our job as decent human beings is to allow our individual and collective presence to hasten the arrival of such times. It may feel illogical, but we are closer to ending this nightmare than we imagine. As quickly as it arrived, it can be driven out if, instead of throwing our hands up and accepting our shared fate in these moments, we transform all the despair and the anger we’ve amassed into a fierce and unrelenting resistance. But that is the caveat here: we cannot wish this hatred away, and we cannot do nothing and hope it extinguishes itself. Violent, power-mad, parasitic people never voluntarily abdicate power once they have it; courageous, compassionate humanity has always needed to work together to take it from them. We can be that beautiful plot-twisting presence right now. And no, the ugliness his ascension has unearthed in our neighbors, the unthinkable damage he has done to our systems, and the cruelty he has authored will not magically disappear with his death or imprisonment, but there will be a massive gap left. The terrible status quo will be interrupted. Through the polls or through protest, instability will come to this seemingly unstoppable behemoth. As they always do, time and effort will ensure that what is right now will not always be. Friends, our calling as empathetic humans, good citizens of this nation, and caretakers of the planet, through sustained effort, personal sacrifice, and steadfast, focused fury, is to make sure that the nation we become will be greater than the nation we are, and far sooner than if we had never been here. Take heart, America, we will outlive him. The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe [https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]