The political exhaustion from the last presidential election is giving me a huge headache

Nothing is subtle anymore. No matter how much some people talk about the governments' honeymoon, something smells that instransigence is here to stay 😫.

Do you think that the "substantial increase" that the far-right has experienced is what is making us feel this way? Tired, unwilling to continue reading the political sections and, even more, wondering if it is necessary to continue participating so actively in politics?

Spiritually exhausted.

There is a little bit of everything in why we feel this way after this ruthless presidential campaign. I don't tend to think in absolutes and, by the same token, I find it hard to believe that the temporary rise of an ultra-right wing would affect us so much.

In the United States, the Trump phenomenon also brought out a heterogeneous group of people who were being overshadowed by a whirlwind of policies that, they felt, were taking away their soul. Spirits that are distinct, sometimes incompatible with each other, but that united them under one umbrella.

I refuse to believe that there are more than 3 million ultra-right-nazist-fascist in Chile, but somehow one of them managed to convince them in his plan. Others, of course, were not able to because of the public policies he had promised when he did not have the entire right wing behind him.

It is the language and the remains of a bloodthirsty fight that took place in the last months. A candidate willing to do anything to win and who left us as an answer the first drug test in a Chilean presidential candidacy.

Tiredness cannot be confused with boredom of the "political circus" or that non-constructive participation from the comfort of your armchair, in social networks and watching Matías del Río on television. In political science it is known as Political Fatigue Syndrome and it strikes in many ways, and it starts with that persistent feeling of hopelessness and ends with that frustration for the real effectiveness of political action.

However, its first symptom is the low electoral participation. Something that is not clearly seen in Chile. In fact, the presidential runoff had a historic turnout, which far surpassed the one with the highest vote that removed the Pinochet dictatorship from power.

The need to make news

Breathe and think about the amount of information we consume every day -you are reading the second post of a new newsletter, my God- and you will understand that we need a change. And the media have a great responsibility in this exhaustion.

Until 30 years ago, there were a few newspapers in each region and three or four at the interregional (national) level, and there were no 24-hour news channels. There was no need to have to dial up breaking news, to be where the news happens or so much other sloganeering that we eat up to "be informed."

Social networks and their anonymous warriors do not help either in this phenomenon, which has many times contents in trending topic and that in rating do not show much. A real smoke bubbles that are driving a fruitless discussion, generating frustration and fatigue.

Because it also doesn't matter how many times a lie is refuted, debunked and exposed on different platforms. It spreads, grows and becomes a political tool. Why bother presenting coherent arguments - with facts, logic and reason - when you are stuck in a bucket of shit with trolls.

It's frustrating to argue with jerks. I know. It's exhausting to argue with dishonest jerks. Yes, i know. But somehow we're all being both and almost certainly, because of the press. We're trapped in this news cycle of terror, in a veritable garden for stupidity.

We went from having a maximum of two hours of news on television in a day to having newscasts that last that long. In fact, a survey conducted by PewPewResearch found that two-thirds of respondents felt worn out by the amount of news they were receiving.

I don't look at it in a pessimistic way. These moments really show what we have built as a society. Institutions have tools to combat these kinds of eventualities. In the United States they served time and time again against Trump and I'm sure here it would have served against Kast.

- Take a break from the political discussion.

- Don't hide in an information bubble.

- If you win or lose, you have to trust what we build.