The Growing Desire For Radical Change
To ignite a moral revolution and reclaim agency in our lives, we must cut through the sanewashing and abandon false comforts
Are you tired of all the discussions about Trump, all the post-election analysis, all the debating about what affected his victory, all the shared grief, angriness, and shock?
I get it, but well…I am actually not! As the reframing guy, I like how we’re all stepping outside of our daily normality and engaging in discussions, sharing thoughts and emotions.
Why? Because this is what it looks like when people finally wake the f*ck up!!
Don’t get me wrong, the US election results are quite shocking, and I also needed a bit of escapism after being fully drawn into it for many weeks.
But f*ck it! What we need is not more escapism. We’re constantly escaping with our doomscrolling. Businesses want us to escape because it’s profitable for them.
No! We are rightly feeling depressed, confused and angry! And we should lean into that, not swallow it down and be like: “Well, let’s get back to reality”! This isn’t f*cking reality you are going back to! It’s surreality!!
Sanewashing Across The Board
I came across the term sanewashing when listening to a podcast with the always very insightful Rebecca Solnit, who used the term to describe how the media has constantly been normalizing Donald Trump:
“Instead of showing how rambling and off-topic he is, they piece together fragments of his speeches to come up with a few crisp sentences.” – Rebecca Solnit
This normalizing of abnormal things ultimately creates what I above called surreality:
“By laundering Trump’s words in this fashion, the media is actively participating in the erosion of our shared reality. When major news outlets consistently present a polished version of Trump’s statements, they create an alternate narrative that exists alongside the unfiltered truth available on social media and in unedited footage.” – Parker Molloy
But this is not just about sanewashing his gibberish or his deeply concerning personality, views, intentions, and past actions. The problem is far bigger:
We’re not only sanewashing Trump, we’re sanewashing everything!