“Now that Donald Trump has been reelected to a second (and perhaps final) term, some Americans are getting ready to Resist once again. They will lobby their representatives to push back on Trump’s excesses. They will attend protests and wave signs. They will volunteer for Democratic causes. They will passionately call out the president’s latest”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
This article is not for those people.
This is for those of you who feel like: I already did all that! For four years! And he’s still back!
We get it. We’re not judging. You feel pre-spent, and are not alone in simply wanting to tune out. Last time, Trump fatigue took a couple years. It’s only been a few weeks since the election and Trump 2.0 immediately feels exhausting. It’s like sitting down to watch the 10th Fast and Furious movie and realizing during the opening credits that you’re already tired of car chases.
Those of us in the media have little choice. We must unflinchingly watch Trump’s second term unfold, eyes wide open and fixed, like those young men raw-dogging transatlantic flights. But most of you don’t have to pay attention to Trump’s latest act of look-at-me-I’m-making-everything-crazy. A Fox News weekend morning show host as Secretary of Defense? A congressman accused of sex trafficking as Attorney General? An anti-vaxxer who thinks mass shootings are caused by Prozac to run the Department of Health?
Sure, why not? “Move fast and break things,” just like the tech bros. And it’s fine if those broken things are trusted institutions … essential services … or people … right? I mean, it might all be fine. I’m not saying it won’t be. “We survived last time so therefore we will again” — anybody who’s played Russian roulette knows this is flawless logic.
In the meantime, you get to decide how much of the circus to watch. Because there is an argument to be made for putting your head in the digital sand (and, yes, we really explain how to do it, below). Because when you read what Trump is doing — or, more specifically, read his quotes in headlines — it’s essentially Trump putting his voice in your brain, which is like…
Look, we don’t want to overstate this, but it starts to feel vaguely assault-y when you cannot escape one man’s monologue no matter where you go or what you do. Trump’s random 2 a.m. ALL-CAPS thoughts become official public statements, which become media headlines, which pop up on your phone, which go into your mind and can cause — for some — anxiety, annoyance, anger and despair.
There is a good debate to be had between “it’s socially irresponsible and insensitive to disengage from politics” and “I have responsibilities and can’t personally change anything and consuming this stuff makes me feel unwell.” Your body may not entirely be your choice in some U.S. states, but surely what’s in your mind can be, right? CNN quoted a Trump insider as saying — regarding those recent cabinet nominations — “people being in a state of shock was the goal, that’s exactly what the MAGA gang wants.” As we all experienced during the Trump prequel presidency, public freakout is simply feast for the beast and there is something rebellious in denying all that yelling and arm-waving your attention.
Of course, there are some — such as undocumented migrants — who won’t have the luxury of not paying attention to what Trump does. At some point, perhaps, a crisis might occur where none of us will have that luxury.
But as promised, here is how to block Trump from your screens:
Desktop Browsing: Install the Trump Blocker extension for Chrome. We tried this. It works for blocking Trump headlines and you don’t have to unsubscribe from any of your favorite publications to live a Trump-free browsing existence. The FoxNews.com homepage becomes a desolate and confusing place (well, moreso). In fact, here’s a screenshot with the Blocker installed — it’s now just fair-and-balanced weather, Kate Upton goss and baking tips!
iPhone browsing: The EmoGuard keyword blocker is $3.99 and takes a few minutes of setup, but it works to replace Trump with cheerful emojis when browsing in Safari. Here’s what the RealClearPolitics and the CNN homepages look like with EmoGuard:
Android phone browsing: Try adding Blocksite, which allows you to block specific keywords.
TikTok: Hit the three bars, then setting and privacy, content preferences, filter video keywords (more detail).
Twitter/X: You go to settings, privacy and safety, mute and block, muted words (more detail) and then you won’t see posts with the muted word in your home timeline (just be sure to capitalize “Trump” and also block “Trump’s” possessive; unfortunately, posts by people named Trump still squeak through).
Facebook. In 2018, Facebook introduced a “keyword snooze” feature where you can block content from your newsfeed that contained certain keywords. That this was introduced two years into Trump’s presidency is surely a coincidence. That this feature then vanished sometime between then and the end of Joe Biden’s administration is also surely a coincidence. Now we’re left with clicking the three dots on a Facebook post and selecting “Show Less (of posts like this).” If you do that to a few Trump headlines, however, Facebook should get the hint.
Instagram: A couple options. On Insta, you could hit the three dots on a Trump-related post, then hit either “Hide” or “Report” and, again, eventually the algorythm will get the hint. You could also try something more targeted: Go to your profile, hit the three lines at the top, then go to “Hidden Words,” then go to “Manage Custom Words and Phrases,” and go from there.
TV: Well, nothing to be done about this one except simply don’t watch political content.
Next week: How to shush Elon Musk.