The presidential elections seem to always be the most intense.
But the best advice I’ve read recently on this topic was on X (formerly Twitter) and posted by Alexandros Marinos.
“If you voted… and you are feeling that the election result is truly horrifying, do this one simple thing for your mental health:”
This advice works well for all elections, presidential or not.
Of course you only have so many characters to type a post with on Social Media platforms, so I expanded it a little bit more at the end of this. But before we get into THE BEST ADVICE I HAVE HEARD recently on this topic…
Yes, like most blogs, I’ll write a few things first. Hahaha.
I thought it was funny. Anyway.
Let me explain a few things, because both this blog and the advice deal with the same topic: fear.
Many people tend to live their lives in complete fear mode if their preferred candidate doesn’t win (if we are being honest, most times we aren’t with ourselves, it would really be if their chosen political party doesn’t win). People don’t tend to care as much as we might think about who is running, and I would bet most don’t even research the policies of each person (or party for that matter), they are just concerned with the letter in front of the name—is it an “R” or a “D”?
I’ve always believed, and if you really look at it I think it is true, that the devil himself could be running for the presidency, publicly state his administration’s plans to take full control as a dictator, burn the country to the ground, and enslave and torture everyone, and millions of people would still cheer his name, publicly support him, claim the opponent is the Antichrist or Hitler incarnate, and cast their vote for Satan (the devil), so long as he was running as their party’s candidate.
Sadly, I’ve seen people, even those close to me, live in so much fear before a presidential election because of a lack of research and true understanding, and even more so after a presidential election when their candidate lost. Fear of what they were conditioned and told to be in fear about.
What is fear?
False Evidence Appearing Real
Seriously. You can.
Anxiety, depression, violence, these are all symptoms of the very fear that takes control of peoples lives. And why? Because they have been conditioned to it; they were told to live in fear.
In a few cases those fears are revealed to be accurate as was the case during the Covid-era: the political control to force people into compliance through the elimination of livelihood, social activities, and even losing family and friends. But those are rare and could be considered the exception not the rule.
Most often though those fears are easily debunked with research, common sense, and an educated understanding. But that takes a willingness on the part of the individual to seek an answer not already preconceived and to want to try to understand the truth. However, that is not a viable option in the political realm where the goal is to increase your number votes while simultaneously decreasing your opponent’s number of votes. Unfortunately, and this is especially true for candidates who don’t understand their foundation or values upon which to state any specific policy and flip-flop constantly, fear is the best tool—make misleading and unfactual statements to manipulate and mislead people to either a heightened fear syndrome or to a level of hate that all cognitive thought processes are short-circuited and irrational emotional icontenence rules the day. In this case, a deep-seated phobia is implanted in the subconscious.
Seriously. Try it. Talk to someone who holds different political beliefs than you and listen as they say the name of the person they may be or have voted for. If, when you hear that name, your blood boils, temperature rises, face contorts, and anger steams, then you might just have that syndrome, that emotional dysregulation, that deep-seated phobia implanted in you. Often through political manipulation, but most likely through an irrational fear.
“messages with fear are nearly twice as effective as messages without fear” (Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 141, No. 6, 2015).
Think about what news media you might be getting your information from. What do they espouse more often? Is it fact or opinion? Reality based or fear based?
Fear can be so effective because when people are gripped by fear, their rational and higher cognitive capacities shut down. This makes them more easily manipulated by anyone who promises safety from the threat
If a threat, such as one we hear often in election cycles which is a threat to democracy, is boiled down to just one person, then fear is easy to instill; once this occurs, the mind can be molded to a state of derangement—a syndrome of fear. This then leaves the ideology free to filter into positions of power and control, since the ideology is not found in only one person but the governing values and foundation of a political group, a political ideology, a political party.
Propaganda: information, usually biased and misleading (misinformation), used to promote one particular political view or manipulate the masses.
"The whole art . . . consists in attracting the attention of the crowd, and not in educating those who are already educated or who are striving after education and knowledge, its effect for the most part must be aimed at the emotions . . .
The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans …
Its task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it favors the enemy, and then set it before the masses with academic fairness; its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly." (excerpts from Mein Kampf)
To serve the right, the view, the control for the party.
“If someone is highly anxious about an election or candidate, they may avoid consuming any information about the candidate or the election,” says Leonie Huddy, PhD, professor of political science at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
"Democracy in the contemporary world demands among other things, an educated and informed people." Elizabeth Bishop
THE BEST ADVICE I HAVE HEARD recently on this topic is this:
If you voted… and you are feeling that the election result is truly horrifying, do this one simple thing for your mental health:
Take a piece of paper and write down all your fears of what is making you so anxious, scared, depressed, or cry about, of what might occur in the next four years from this newly elected official.
Every few months, return to this paper and review what you wrote down and compare the fears you wrote down to reality.
As you do this, you will most often see that your fears are just that, false evidence appearing real, and you will begin to find relief.
Then pull out another piece of paper and answer these questions:
Why did you have those fears to begin with?
Where did you get those fears? (Who or what were you listening to or watching?)
How can I prevent this fear from entering my mind in the future? (How can you prevent fear from forming during the next election cycle?)
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