The other day I read an article about Drake Maye. It was largely about an incompletion the QB threw and how that amazing throw proves he is going to be great. Heck, people were getting pumped about him handing the ball off. Basically, the article was me being gaslit. I am so tired of being gaslit. I’m tired of people pushing a particular narrative and being unwilling to accept that narrative as wrong. People don’t ever want to be wrong. Instead we continue to make excuses for the people we’ve supported in order to maximize our cognitive ease. In other words, we make excuses for other people so we can keep feeling like we are right. This isn’t about football, this is about life. The Trump situation is no different. He was terrible as a President. His response to the Covid pandemic was criminal. His handling of the Zelensky situation (basically trying to get the guy to lie about Hunter Biden in exchange for weapons and support from the US). Jan 6th? I could go on, but it doesn’t matter, because believers believe. I fear we are moving deeper into a period in which belief is the real currency and truth is sidelined and siloed for as long as possible.
Some Thoughts:
- Coach Prime is a polarizing figure. Being such allows us to see particular reporters for how hateful they can be. There are a few reporters who constantly write hit pieces and op-eds begging the college to dump him. I don’t get that. I don’t understand negative investment at that level. All I can guess is that at some point early in this cycle they tied themselves to the idea of his failure in a reverse of the Maye situation above and are determined to be right and or prove they’ve won. What’s worse is that they do so in such a self-righteous manner that ignores every other coach who has been problematic in any way in the past. Sadly, the biggest ones seem to have a beef that is more personal or race based than anything resembling journalism. Still journalists are quick to defend guys like Sean Keeler, who write nothing but negative pieces that often are posted as op-eds because they avoid any hint of facts and stray largely into opinion and insult. Why the defense of bad writing?
- Speaking of writing, I hit the freewrite yesterday for the first time in a while and it felt good. It felt like I was just writing a story. It felt like the words were leading me down a road. I had a generalized feeling of what could come next but I wasn’t in control. The story just emerged slowly, forming itself as I typed. I used to write like that. This is exactly what I’ve been trying to get back to and it felt good to have a moment of that at long last.