The Game Is Rigged. Flourish Anyway.

Are you as exhausted as I am?

Trying to mind your own business, live a decent life, and still getting dragged into politics like it’s a group project you never signed up for. You decide, “I’m going to focus on flourishing. Being a good person. Getting things done. Not letting today’s outrage buffet created by Happiness Hijackers ruin my appetite.” And yet. There it is again. Loud. Relentless. Everywhere.

And here’s the thing I noticed, whether I wanted to or not: there is no balance. It’s pretty obvious. Media, Hollywood, pop culture, TV shows, movies. One side gets the halo, the other gets the dunce cap. Republicans are punchlines while Democrats are portrayed as brave truth-tellers. Over and over. Like Groundhog day but with people screaming at each about how horrible the other person is, meanwhile the groundhog just wants to stay in his nice warm home and have a normal groundhog life. 

Take The Morning Show. I was watching over the snowy weekend and loved it at first and then...I couldn’t help noticing something. Steve Carell’s character gets absolutely crucified in the name of Me Too. No redemption allowed. No arc. Just erased. Meanwhile, real-life figures who did equal or worse things are either tiptoed around or flat-out ignored. They even mentioned Weinstein at one point, but Bill Clinton? Not a peep. Ever. Nobody canceled him. Nobody even raised an eyebrow. Donations still rolling in.

And later seasons of the show? Biden is spoken of as some brilliant hero. Trump portrayed as a cartoon villain, naturally. Again, no balance. Just a script. Why can't they point out the flaws in every political subject? By choosing to elevate one and mock the other, they are steering people towards the mocked person. It often has the opposite effect. 

I’ve never been interested in politics. Until Barack Obama ran.  And it was crazy, the way that political season seeped into everything. Even my child’s elementary school was giving them pretend ballots and because the teachers were always praising Obama, my daughter “voted” for him. I felt it odd that in all my life in school, we only talked about politics in a balanced manner. I had no idea which way any of my teachers voted! 

Honestly, I liked Obama at first. Everyone did. But then I started digging. And what I found didn’t come from the mainstream. It came from the right. He was friends with Bill Ayers (of the politically violent group the Weather Underground). He was friends with Rev. Wright who said “the chickens have come home to roost” during 9/11. There were other troubling things as well, so I thought, “Well, maybe I’m conservative?” But the truth is, I’ve voted all over the map. Democrat. Republican. Libertarian. One time I voted for a local guy because he made a homemade sign. That’s how radical I was.

What pulled me into the 2008 Presidential race wasn’t ideology. It was noticing that only one side of the story was being told. One side was the hero, and the other was mocked, vilified, and the left that pretend to support all women, it turned out, really only support certain women. 

Fox News used to feel like the “other side,” but by COVID, it was clear they were more performance than principle. Masks, narratives, Ukraine, no real questioning. Just different packaging. That’s when it hit me. Both sides are disgusting. Just in different ways.

But! Here’s where it splinters: When truly horrible things happen, especially involving children, but if the crime is committed by a darling of the left, they don’t mention it. Laken Riley, Kate Steinle, Iryna Zarutska (so many others!).  But if someone on the left is killed by someone the left dislike, they never wait for the dust to settle. Nothing is alleged. They politicize tragedy without blinking. The left build onto the chaos, making it bigger and bigger and feeding into the anger. Now, the right also take advantage of the chaos. Because people (on both sides) donate money, thinking only a politician can solve this. And it brings more views to the news and social media platforms.

 As long as that’s happening, and as long as certain people are forever untouchable while others are declared irredeemable, America is out of balance.

So here’s my conclusion, said kindly but firmly: the game is rigged. No matter what team jersey you wear.

Which is why I hope if even one person reads this and thinks, “You know what? I’m going to focus on myself. My family. My neighborhood. My community.” Because that’s still real. That still matters. That’s where you can actually do some good.

Sorry, Bob… you couldn’t have known how deceptive politics, media, and culture would become. You were busy working. Steel mill. Car dealerships. Then your own carparts auto store. You were busy building a life. You were flourishing. Until ALS showed up at 48 and handed you a death sentence. And then politics did come knocking. You needed permission to try experimental drugs. And the government slammed the door. The answer was no.

I’m glad you missed COVID. You would’ve just stood there shaking your head as the government gave away, for free, something rushed to market, while treatments that actually helped people were mocked and vilified. Along with the people who took them and got better. Funny how that works when there’s no money to be made. 

Who knows what damage has been done. One dose, two, three, four, five, six. And the denial at the top? Deep. Real deep. They protect each other: Left money. Right money Two peas. One Pod.  It’s not about protecting the people. It’s about protecting their power. 

So what can you do? Hold your head high. Keep your hands busy. Build the best life you can where you are. History doesn’t belong to the loudest people on TV anyway. It belongs to the ones who kept going, shoveled their sidewalks, showed up for their neighbors, and didn’t lose their minds while the rest of the world lost its balance. 

Let’s wear ourselves out living our life, helping each other out, and being so exhausted fromactually flourishing, that we’re too exhausted to get outraged by the news.