Background Noise Is a Lie

I turned on the news tonight out of boredom. Not because I wanted to be “informed.” Just bored.

My Roku took a shit while I was in the hospital. Of course, I didn’t know that until I was strong enough to come home, until I could sit alone in the quiet and try to absorb where I am, where I’ve been, and how the fuck I got here. Somewhere in the middle of that, the words ran dry. Fifteen hundred words poured into a new project, and then nothing. Silence.

Silence is tricky. Sometimes it’s restorative. Sometimes it’s irritating as hell because it tries to pull you into sleep before you’re ready. So I reached for background noise.

And yeah, I still have cable. I’m that many years old. Also, thanks to my work-from-home days, I could get better internet cheaper if I bundled it with some goddamned cable package. So I did. Then I stripped it down to the bare minimum—local channels and a handful of garbage I never watch.

It’s 5:30 p.m. on a Sunday. You already know what’s on. The news.

Something I stopped watching after the cardiac arrests because I got tired of watching people act like the earth was splitting in two over political bullshit that, when you zoom out far enough, doesn’t actually matter. But I figured I just wanted noise.

I was wrong.

Same idiots. Same script. Same urgency theater. The glamorization of self-serving assholes in Washington, packaged like it’s the most important thing happening in your living room right now.

And people eat it up.

I’ve seen it. I’ve heard it. Everywhere. People genuinely acting like their daily lives have been transformed by who sits in the Oval Office.

Here’s some actual news: Your life hasn’t changed. At all.

So stop it. Stop mainlining drama like it’s oxygen. All it does is divide you, distract you, and keep you too spun up to notice what actually matters in your own damn life.

Anyway, back to the story.

I’m watching this circus when a segment comes on about a bill being proposed in Congress that would require auto manufacturers to provide detailed technical information on new vehicles to mechanics nationwide. Wiring diagrams. Logic diagrams. Proprietary systems.

And they’re selling this as a good idea.

Apparently, forcing companies to hand over privileged information is now “good for America.” It’s not. Not even close. It sets a spectacularly bad precedent.

Because once you compel the release of trade secrets, where does it stop? If competitive advantage no longer exists, if intellectual property is fair game whenever Congress feels like it, then what exactly separates us from the systems we pretend to look down on? Russia. China. Pick your villain.

I muted the TV.

Ten minutes later, even with no sound, it was still unbearable. Flashing graphics. Police tape. Security camera footage. The Capitol building. Manufactured urgency blasting straight into my nervous system.

Good fucking lord. Make it stop.

I shut it off.

Silence suddenly felt like a gift again.