Autism

I don't.

At some point I realized there's infinite awesome and infinite cruel things on the Internet, and people usually wanna show you the cruel stuff because it makes money / keeps anxious.

But you don't need to fix the whole world at once and no one can fight the alligators when standing in the swamp.

So I don't, I only get news from friends +& family and otherwise I focus on productive things on he Internet, like nature documentaries, science, entertainment and learning things like coding or philosophy. I know this sounds ignorant but I know this is the state where I am most valuable to myself and therefore all the people around me, so that's how I wanna live.

Now everyone has to find their own threshold of cruelty they can take on a day-to-day basis, but usually if you care about your mental health you should set a limit, only watch some of it. Rarely can people watch cruel things daily and not get PTSD, which is pertinent for jobs like EMT or the military.

Not great. I don't deal well with injustice I can't fix.

I'm mostly able to disconnect which is scary, even tho I make a point to share info about the situation. People have to know what is happening.

Please don't harm yourself over something happening on the other side of the globe

Don't look at pictures that upset you. You are only feeding your own emotions.

It’s definitely made my depression worse, but it’s sort of just another example of the thing that makes me depressed in general (aside from the brain juices): We live in a society that’s built around not caring about people. The people in power have so little regard for humanity that they will subject people to unimaginable horrors and cruelty if it means they can keep making a buck. There are tons of regular people who do care, but they’re kept so occupied by their own problems that they don’t have the will to band together to push past the barriers we need to break to help each other. Between stuff like this and the ticking time bomb of climate change, it feels like we’re running out of time while also getting further and further from having the capacity to fight back. And it’s not like I’m above any of this. I have had trouble trying to get involved in stuff because of all my issues and it feels really bad. Having learned more about organizing lately, I’m now pretty convinced that just voting isn’t going to do anything. We NEED to get out into our communities and make connections with people to get things done. Good thing I don’t have crippling social anxiety and autism on top of the depression… hehe.

I’m watching history repeat itself as little more than a spectator… and this might be the last show.

Badly. And I don't look at news at all. I'm constantly back and forth ignoring it and wanting to do something. On one hand it's a war on the other side if the world, it doesn't directly impact me. On the other my government are actively involved and it's 2025, everyone is connected. I think maybe I can just donate, but that's a massive rabbit hole because apparently aid isn't getting through, and all the usual questions about charities and where my money is going. Then I think I'll give directly to families through GoFundMe or something, then I think how do I know they're real and not rich con artists sat in America or somewhere. Then I get overwhelmed and ignore it all. Then my goverment does something stupid again and the cycle begins again.

I try to stay informed about the situation but not daily and also not lokking at pictures or videos. Because having these things descibed in text or speech is still very impactful to me but it doesn't give me nightmares. That being said, try to take care of yourself. You're not being unfeeling or egotistical for not consuming information that makes you actively suicidal. Think of it more like this: you don't actually help anyone by reading the news. However, there are things you can do to help, like going to protests, donating to aid programs, educating others etc. But all of these take energy (especially for someone with autism), so conserving your energy is important. Maybe try avoiding news about gaza except for once a week for a few minutes. And instead every time you think about it research ways you could help those people. That way these feelings get channeled into something useful and don't become self-destructive.

It's awful. It feels like we're just sitting here letting it happen.

But two things have happened that at least show we, at long long last, might be moving in the right direction.

First of all Emmanuel Macron has announced that France will officially recognise Palestine as a state, making it the first G7 country to do so.

Secondly, in the UK things are reaching a point where not recognising Palestine as a state is becoming a real problem. Just since the start of July, dozens of British diplomats have signed a statement calling for the recognition of Palestine, Labour's own MPs have signed a letter calling for it, Senior Bishops* have signed a letter calling for it. The PM, has even said in the past that he intends to officially recognise Palestine as a state "when the time is right".

Why is this hopeful? Mainly because it changes the dynamic of the war, at least on paper. It changes the narrative.

• Adding this note about the Bishop's letter, because it may not be obvious to non-Brits, but this is a biggish deal. Almost all of our national-level stuff is the way it is because it works, not because it's official; for example our national anthem isn't "official", it's just our national anthem because it's what people sing. One of these unwritten rules is that the Church and the monarch don't weigh in on politics. For Senior Bishops to officially, publicly, call on the government to recognise Palestine as a state, it's pretty unprecedented.

It's a really really really bad time to live in America if you have injustice sensitivity and I'm basically numb to cope with it. Nothing horrible surprises me anymore. Legit I was more surprised that DC comics made a good Superman movie than anything political in the past few years.

I have seen worse and more gut wrenching things. My country is known for their industrial genocide so you learn about it quite early in your life

I've been trying really hard not to think about it too vividly but I can't unsee them. They're on my mind every day. I cope by hugging my cat and partner closely. I read books as well to help myself disconnect from the world for a time. It helps

Fuck it, you can't do anything about it. The only thing you can do is participate in the local politics and make fun of people, who enjoy and defend thease terrible acts (spoiler alert, most do). And remember: you are above them and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

I cry, and then resolve to do what I can to prevent that sort of thing happening again.

It's not much, but it's never nothing.

I just block them

I keep up to date but avoid images because at this point it’s just outrage porn driven by social media algorithms. I’m increasingly convinced homo sapiens are going to cause another mega extinction event within our lifetime. There’s so much suffering and atrocities all over the world currently that it’s hard not to detach from just one more horrific event because it’s not going to matter in the end.