How I came to terms with a Trump presidency

TL;DR: disconnect yourself from social media, seek out and digest raw sources, introspect

I, like half of Americans, woke up on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016 sad, depressed, bewildered, disappointed, disgusted, and in disbelief. I was angry, but I didn’t know at what or at who. That unplaced anger festered and churned, but it had nowhere to go.

I spent the better part of Wednesday perusing the web — voraciously consuming articles and Facebook newsfeed posts, wallowing in self-pity and hurling blistering stereotypes along with my fellow social network peers. I read articles about how America just made the gravest mistake in its history, how voter apathy and third-party candidates sapped the Democratic votes, and about all the irreversible damage and subsequent consequences that were to come.

But you know what? In the end, when I decided to stop consuming and seeking out what seemed like an endless buffet of self-reinforcing rhetoric, I didn’t feel any better. My eyes and brain were tired, my heart was still heavy, and my head was more clouded than ever. And I was still angry.

Halfway through the first day of post-Election-pocalypse, it finally clicked. I knew who I should be angry at. Myself.

• I’m mad at myself because I let mainstream media define my ideas.
• I’m mad at myself because I let my “bubble” of social network friends and Google-filtered news articles tell me what I wanted to hear, rather than what I needed to hear.
• I’m mad at myself because I was too lazy to go out and seek the truth, to peel away at the daintily-wrapped sound bites and “oh-my-god-Trump-said-what” nuggets.

You see, the problem was that I took what was happening in the “real world” for granted. I salivated every time the post-debate analysis jubilantly decreed that Hillary had won; I shielded myself with comforting articles as the email roller coaster went up and down; and, worse of all, I dismissed entirely everything and everyone else on the assumption that Hillary was going to set an electoral college vote record.

And the shell-shock that came post-election is evident. I have no idea why people voted for Trump. I have no idea what his policies and ideals are. In fact, I have very little idea of his personal history that brought him to this point in time today. I have completely and utterly failed to see the whole picture, and that ignorance is entirely my own fault.

For the past day and a half (mind you, today is the end of day 2 of post-election), I’ve shut everything out, disconnected, and sought to find my own personal digital zen.

• I went to find Trumps victory speech from 3 am in the morning. I wanted to hear first-hand what he said, rather than having snippets spoon-fed to me.
• Today, I watched Obama’s and Trump’s joint news conference after their long meeting, rather than having someone tell me “Trump said Obama is ‘a good man’”.
• I even watched Paul Ryan’s and Trump’s post-meeting speech.

I’ve decided I don’t want anyone interpreting events and telling me what they thought of it — I want to judge it for myself. I’ve decided I don’t want sound-bites — I want to hear and see the whole thing. I don’t want someone to tell me who won the debates — I want to make my own call.

I’m tired of “pundits” telling me “what Trump’s first 100 days will bring”, “how the stock market will react”, or “what will happen to immigrants”. The fact of the matter is they were plain wrong this time, and the only version I can accept right now is “who knows” or “only time will tell”. (And if that’s the case, then I really don’t need to be reading those articles at all.)

And you know what? So far, the change in mindset is working. I’ve channeled my anger into something productive and I’ve come to accept the way things are. The past 2 days have been very revealing (both personally and politically), but I don’t want to taint anyone with my personal opinions. I’ve given you the links to digest the raw content yourself. And in the coming days, I hope I have much more to absorb, and maybe, maybe through deeper understanding and self-reflection, I can learn not just to live-with, but thrive-in the next presidential term to come.

Edit 1: For a comparison of how “filter bubbles” look: Red feed vs Blue feed

Edit 2: I’m going to try to continue to add “raw” speeches as long as I can, so that this post can serve as a single source for making your own conclusions.

November 11, 2016 — Mike Pence Veteran Day’s speech

November 11, 2016 — Snippet of Donald Trump’s interview on 60 Minutes

November 13, 2016 — Donald Trump’s 60-minutes interview