The economy of apathy and the power of giving a shit
Turns out that late stage capitalism does have some weaknesses
One of the best team specific sports series running is the Oregon Ducks “Ducks vs Them” game recap series on YouTube. Put together like a combination hype video/documentary, the Oregon program gives access to behind the scenes and team specific highlights for each week’s matchups.
One of the reasons this week’s video against Penn State stuck with me was this moment from Dan Lanning in the week of practice leading up to the game.
Lanning is a great coach because he’s a direct communicator who players feel is being honest and open. This is definitely a newer approach to coaching, especially when you consider the “greatest coach of all-time” is Bill Belichick, who is known for making “surely” sound positively delightful. Lanning, unlike every coach before him who would say something to effect of “internalize everything and focus,” wants his players to embrace the big feelings and channel them into direct, controllable actions.
Part of what makes living in 2025 so exhausting is not the sheer level of difficulty the world brings, it is that everyone at all times knows how the difficulty level. Social media, email newsletters like this one, the rare cable news program you see on in a bar all scream out at all times that this shit fucking sucks.
Denny Carter’s Bad Faith Times has been covering this exceptionally well, but this week’s post really hits the nail on the head:
In the third decade of the 21st century we live our lives via screen. Nothing is real unless it’s on our TV or on our laptop or on our phone. Unfortunately fascists – who have always had a keen eye for aesthetics – understand this better than their pro-democracy counterparts. They’ve hijacked the algorithms and turned our screens into reality-generating machines. Sometimes the illusion is too unreal. Even the hypnotized can see through theses illusions – rich white folks in South Africa are not, in fact, a repressed minority in need of refugee status – but sometimes the illusion is quite strong. I’ve fallen for it. Probably you have too.
Opposing these people is as easy as not believing their bullshit. Laugh at the shadows cast upon that cave wall you keep in your pocket, the one that tells you what is real and what is not. Reject their messaging. Counter it.
