One television show that is consistently informative, hilarious, and heartbreaking is Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. It is left-leaning, in perspective, and aired on HBO, despite also being uploaded onto Youtube where anyone can watch it for free. And really, everyone should.
I am someone that cares deeply about political issues, but still finds them-self feeling incredibly ignorant and out of touch most of the time. As we go about our lives, writing papers, studying for exams, and making it through the day, it’s hard to set aside time for keeping up to date with the news. Especially when the content of the news is often so draining to listen to. I remember a period of time during high school, around the beginning of the 2016 presidential campaigns, that I was reading about news and politics, and political theory every single day. There was so much to know, so much to learn and be aware of, and so much to be ashamed of. I felt angry and upset for such large portions of the day after reading about the lack of empathy in so many of the top politicians. The thing that got me through it was the sense of inspiration and need for action that I felt surrounding the Bernie Sanders campaign.
After the midterm was over, and the chance of Bernie taking office was gone, I lost a significant amount of the drive to pay attention. I had canvassed for him and attended his rallies. I saw all this action from other inspired Americans, young and old, and yet we had failed.
From then on, it was a lot harder for me to motivate myself to stay politically engaged. A lot of my friends were politically active, so I continued canvassing and phone banking for other campaigns, mostly local. However, I no longer was reading and staying informed on the same level that I had before. Even though I was angry and upset a lot of the time reading news stories, I had a reason to keep going. At this point, it seemed that there wasn’t much of a reason to keep going. With each article, I felt more depressed and helpless trying to navigate the American political landscape.
As I begin my college experience, I know that I need to start becoming more engaged again, however slowly that may be. The first step that I’m taking is beginning to watch John Oliver again. As the title of the show states, it covers the biggest events of the last week into one night showing. It is one of easiest and painless ways to begin to get informed that there is.
The most recent episode discusses Trump’s family separations. One impactful point made throughout the episode was how unnecessary these separations were. Before Trump made changes, the immigration system was called by ICE “an overall success.” He made the changes that he did and supported them using claims that Oliver proves are largely false. Then near the end of the episode, Oliver shows footage a young boy who was separated from his mother for a month. He cries that his mother doesn’t love him, and that he no longer wants to be her son. The lasting psychological effects of these separations are abhorrent, and the system that Trump has created is widely unethical and inhumane.
Watching just eighteen minutes of John Oliver was enough to spur some of the anger, and thus motivation, that I had in my Bernie days. But being able to condense my news for the week into so little of time, meant that it didn’t become my focus of each and every day, and I didn’t arrive at the feelings of frustration and hopelessness that I would otherwise. I think finding the balance between having a focus outside of your own little day-to-day world, and still taking care of your own emotional wellbeing, is one that many have struggled to find in this intense political world. John Oliver, for now, is going to be my semblance of balance. It is simple and easy, but still highly informative and effective. So to anyone going through the same struggle, I would encourage you to just start there.