This was inspired by Tom’s most recent post discussing some of the issues the US is dealing with today.

When I read Tom’s post, believe it or not, I mostly agreed with the issues highlighted; I think the migrant problem is real, social media censorship is a genuine concern, and that Philadelphia has serious crime issues. However, a light bulb went off for me when I got to this part:

I totally understand if you don’t want to read about this and watch Tik Tok instead. It’s far easier. It’s only odd to me that we act like all of this is ok. 

Tom, Tuesday of this week

Now, there is some intended exaggeration there about how apathetic the American people are (or maybe there isn’t). But it comes down to the title of this post, what do YOU care about? Perhaps I’m taking Tom’s words too much at face value, but I don’t think Tom or anyone should be surprised when people don’t care about the thing they care about.

I’ll use an example that Tom and I have disagreed on previously – global warming. I’m a firm believer that global warming is real and will have serious consequences on the planet in the next 50-100 years. There are countless studies documenting that this is happening. Not saying that Tom is a denier, but his recent post rejecting preferential treatment to those with EVs would indicate that he doesn’t think it’s very important.

Many people who study this topic would probably say this about Tom’s position:

“I totally understand if you don’t want to read about this and watch Tik Tok instead. It’s far easier. It’s only odd to me that we act like all of this is ok.“

Global warming researchers, probably

What’s my point? It’s not that Tom is wrong for drawing attention to the migrant problem and not global warming, but more that everyone picks and chooses what is worth their time and energy based on their current interests, situation, moral standards, etc. This is not an epiphany.

This causes me to look inward and ask myself, what do I care about? Especially today, it feels like you HAVE to care about something and if you don’t make your stance known then you’re a coward. That’s an exaggeration too, but you know what I mean.

While I do care about a lot of things, some of which I’ve written about on this blog, I find myself focusing more on my day-to-day life than outside chatter. I feel like the astronaut in the featured picture, an observer instead of a participant.

I’m aware it’s very fortunate that I can do this, but I think when you look back at history, thousands of years of human civilization, the ‘sit back’ position is probably the default of most people. There is always something happening in any given time period that seems like THE most important thing, everyone is up in arms about it, and history’s heroes and villains emerge from the dust. But on any given day at any given point in time, I think most people are just trying to get by, see friends, feel good, and enjoy life. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.