More news.

I don’t think there could be a better representation of the overall mood of 2025 than these headlines next to each other in the New York Times.

“New Research Questions Severity of Withdrawal from Antidepressants”, published on July 9th, 2025.

“In a Good-Will Gesture, South Korea Returns Stranded Fishermen to the North”, published on July 9th, 2025.

And, less than an iPhone 13 scroll down, Wirecutter’s list of “Every Single Prime Day Deal We Recommend.”

It’s really no wonder I don’t remember anything anymore.

What was fascinating about the North Korea article was that it took me a minute to realize that the phrasing was completely unexpected. These men were stranded in the South?

It turns out that the South Korean government often finds North Korean fishermen drifting off course and into its waters, and, after an extensive debriefing, they offer them the opportunity to defect.

Of course, the debriefing takes time to ensure none of the fishermen are spies. The South Korean government also finds North Korean families that have escaped by boat to actually defect to the South, however, it does seem interesting that this is less common than fisherman who have just lost their way.

It makes me wonder about the families left in the North, wondering what happened to the husbands, brothers, and fathers, and perhaps getting cranky if they feel they have just disappeared.

The North Koreans don’t communicate with the South, however, eventually the South repatriates the fishermen and the North just quietly takes them back. The headline of this article seems a little optimistic though. Does the South really think the North is operating on good will?

My other question is why these articles were so closely grouped together under the unfortunate little title “More news”.

Tiny, almost imperceptible to our exhausted eyes, the title now feels so lazy. More news is almost unnecessary because if there were “more”, than the assumption would be that we ever have less.

We have more news now, at a constant guzzling rate, than we ever have had before. Enough news that feeds our dopamine-addled brains that we cannot perceive of any silence. Nothing is really news, in fact, anymore. Even what should be news, isn’t really news, its just there. I didn’t know antidepressant withdrawal was something to be concerned about, although, I guess we don’t have to be?

None of these headlines fazed me. They should have. Of course, now that I think about it, that’s not really the truth.

I was interested in those Prime Day deals.

Another section to peruse if you want to get a sense of our cultural and political moment is the “More in Magazine” section. Click a few articles, scroll down, and you’ll find yourself with headlines such as “My In-Laws Are Hoarders. Should I Secretly Call The Authorities” next to “What To Know About the Collapse of the FDA.”

Alarming to think that one would have the time and mental energy to call the authorities for their in-laws. I mean, don’t they have more to think about with all thats going on in the world?

I find myself vaulted between emotions very easily, and yet none of them go further than skin-deep. Horror is so brief it barely registers for longer than an hour. Real fear, I’ve been lucky enough to never have felt, although reading the news makes me know that my life is also precarious.

Its TikTok and memes and Prime Day that settles these nerves like a digital Xanax, just enough to help me take the actual danger of my rights being pulled away a little less seriously. Help the medicine of reality go down smooth, so that we’re pacified into just moving about our day like everything is fine.

Needing to avert our eyes to the brutality of our world, I wonder, like those North Korean fishermen?