There are a lot of movements in the world right now on various issues. From abortion rights, racism, feminism, genders, sexuality, environment, technological. The list is endless.
All these issues are grabbing your attention through social media, news, and comments. They are trying to capture as much of your time as possible, as we all know that time equals money, and money leads to power.
They use the same guilt-tripping tactics as some charities do – you have privileges, and therefore if you are not doing anything about this, you are a horrible person who should be shamed.
The truth is that no one has the capacity to take meaningful action for all of these issues. We cannot all be perfectly educated on everything and form unbiased opinions based on facts.
The idea isn’t that you shouldn’t care about these issues – people should prioritise and not be pulled into the endless drama that wastes time and leads to only anger and frustration.
It is easier to make a difference in something you genuinely care about, no matter what, than in something where others force you to care about it.
Focus on yourself first
People, rich, poor, of whatever background, are psychologically similar. We are all in some way addicted to entertainment, drama, pleasure, ego etc. This is why you see amazing or horrible people, no matter their financials or upbringing.
However, there is a critical difference between successful people and those who are not. They focus on themselves first.
What do I mean by focusing on yourself first?
The first and main thing you do every day should bring you closer to your current goal. Whether that is financial, health, spiritual, relationships or anything else – do it first. Time, motivation and decision-making are finite resources that we have each day. If you spend most of these resources watching videos about controversial topics designed to take up your resources for their benefit, then you have none left for your goals.
Fix yourself first, and it is much easier to make a difference.
Do not dwell on conspiracy theories
Some conspiracy theories may be true. It doesn’t matter. One of my favourite conspiracy theories is that elites in the world are controlling us all, via the water, via 5G signals, via money, the power they hold and so on and on. While people in power can be intelligent, this theory gives them too much credit.
“Elites” do not have superpowers. They have power, but the majority of it is reactionary.
By reactionary, I mean they see what is happening in the world – say the Covid pandemic strikes – and react to it. They have the experience, the contacts, and the money to take advantage of the situation. They did not start Covid to take advantage of it; they just used the opportunity that Covid created to profit from it.
You might say that profiting from a pandemic is wrong or dishonest. It may be. But the reality is that 99% of people would profit off a situation if they could. The difference is that most people do not have the focus or resources to do so even if they find an advantage.
Sure, some people cheat the system and should be punished for it. But unless you work in a relevant department, or your main priority is keeping those departments on their toes, don’t waste time dwelling on these points. Focus on making yourself better first. If you find conspiracy theories interesting or like debating them, do it after achieving your main tasks.
Good debating skills and frame setting do not equal the truth
I have seen this in videos from traditional, liberal and other “conflicted” groups. As someone who tries to see the viewpoints of both parties and remains as impartial as possible to topics I’m not too personally invested in, I can often get temporarily swayed by good framing and debating skills.
Framing is when you use words and actions to set a precedent that something is true without necessarily justifying it. A straightforward example is asking, “Why do you support killing babies?” instead of “Why do you support abortion?”. If you answer the first question with anything other than “Abortion is not killing babies, “you have silently agreed with that frame, making it easy to lose a debate.
Most people would be able to catch that frame setting as it is relatively apparent, but masters of debating and frame setting can do it much more subtly. Especially if you already have biases towards a topic which most of us do.
The power of frame setting and being confident in debates is astonishing. Want proof? Pick a controversial topic you do not strongly view in either direction, then google videos of one group embarrassing the others or similar. Then do the same but swap the groups.
You may watch the first video and agree more or less with the main points raised. Then you watch the other video, and you more or less agree with their points.
How can that be?
Humans cannot analyse a lot of information quickly. Even if you are super smart, unless you have researched a topic, have solid debating skills, and can work under pressure, it is difficult to tell who we should trust in a given situation. So the human mind does what it does best – it extrapolates. If a person seems intelligent and makes their points in a way that seems logical, we are more likely to agree with their viewpoint regardless of whether it is the truth or the right thing to do.
How to navigate through all these manipulations
Manipulation has negative connotations, but it can be both positive and negative. If someone uses framing and good debating skills to convince us that a genuine issue is looming and we should work together to solve it, then that is good leadership. But there are many issues where there is no clear or easy answer. We do not live in a perfect, fair world, and we often have to compromise or do the “lesser of two evils”.
However, we often use the excuse of being righteous to ignore our problems, goals, and dreams. Even if your objective is to find a solution or help the cause of one of these issues – spending hours on end watching videos, commenting, and talking to friends is not going to do much. Raising awareness is mostly silly. Everybody already knows most of the problems in the world. The issue is that nobody proposes workable solutions. Be the person who focuses first on their own goal – to find a solution. To form a business or charity that solves that problem. Then push it to the people.
Life is too short to spend all your time on other people’s issues. Focus on yourself first, and then you will find that you will have a more significant positive impact on those around you too.
