Life

Bad News Spawns Reality-Denial

Many of us react to the avalanche of bad news by denying it

John Dean
4 min readJul 10, 2021

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Reality-denying Ostrich from Ripleys

It’s getting progressively harder to listen to the morning news. It raises blood pressure and closes minds. Much of what is on the news today can convince you that the country, in fact, the entire world, is in decline. Maybe the end is near.

With each piece of bad news, we ask ourselves, “why is this stuff happening?” For many of us, our response to bad news is to ignore it or rationalize it away. I call both responses reality-denial.

Questions baked into current bad news

A sampling of the news of July 2021 provides dozens of examples of the type of bad news that surrounds us.

What is the “Delta variant,” and is the pandemic about to hit the restart button?

What is a “heat dome,” and how is it possible for temperatures to rise to 110 degrees in Canada?

How long will it take until all victims of the Surfside, Florida condo collapse are found? Is it possible some will never be found?

Why are deaths rising rapidly from drug overdoses across the country?

Why has crime exploded in major cities?

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John Dean

Writing on politics, photography, nature, the environment, dogs, and, occasionally, humor. Editor of Dean’s List.