beautiful doodle. maybe try to take a break tho
Hi, my name is Jeffrey Thrash. You may know me from my YouTube channel. I enjoy video games and cartoons and I like to create my own animations. Enjoy!
Jeffrey
@jthrash
Age 30, Male
3D Artist
Joined on 2/4/19
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Comments
I understand the concern, but as I'm sure you know, being able to "tune out the news" during times like these is a bit of a privilege, not a right. If you have ANY ad-supported streaming service or, God forbid, watch YouTube with ads, and live in the US, it is simply a fact of life right now to be bombarded with the most insane political ads from both national and local campaigns when you're otherwise trying to relax and watch TV. Even after doing my duty and voting, I'm not spared from the rancor until after the votes are fully counted, possibly as late as mid-November. Combine this with many of my irl friends and co-workers being obsessed with watching and discussing the news and looking at polls right now (the latter of which has become a complete waste of energy as they've failed spectacularly to predict the final results since at least 2016, and are STILL only effective at getting the opinions of people who somehow only use landline phones and don't have Caller ID/scam screening in 2024).
In light of this, the worst thing I can do is let myself be alone with my thoughts and anxieties of potential worst-case scenarios right now. Drawing funny little apolitical sketches or improving my 3D modeling skills are the perfect escapes from all the bickering before Elections while giving me something I have control over in a seemingly-uncontrollable world. Same goes for video games and heavy exercise (e.g. running and weightlifting), though those have to wait until the weekend as I'm too tired to do either after work.
@sackboy963 The election is just for the United States of America. ;)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_in_North_America
I wish it were that simple, but I did have to at least kind of care about how my vote may affect the rest of the continent and even the world regarding global issues like climate change when voting for President. One party, at the very least, acknowledges the effects that man-made pollution and over-reliance on fossil fuels can harm our health and potentially worsen natural disasters everywhere, the other doesn't, no matter how much hurricanes seem to hit "Red States" like Florida and North Carolina in particular. Countries like Ukraine, France, Japan and South Korea are counting on Kamala Harris being our next President while countries like Russia, China and North Korea are hoping we (or at least the small handful of "swing states"--again, the Electoral College makes it more needlessly complicated than just "the person with the most votes becomes President") are dumb enough to let Donald Trump near the nuclear launch codes AGAIN.
I'm cautiously optimistic, though, that at the very least we're all sick of politicians that whine and gripe all the time about meaningless "culture war" nonsense, as if we're mentally capable of dealing with the temper tantrums of powerful people and billionaires while dealing with our own personal issues for another 9 or so years, and will vote accordingly so that we can hopefully have a "boring" election again for the first time since 2012. Or at least finally be able to relax on odd-numbered years when we don't have major Elections.
@jthrash i understand. we are living in harsh times rn. but there is still stuff to remember. the 60s and 70s were similarily harsh and complicated, yet we survived. you’re on newgrounds, where almost all of us support how you r feeling about politics and ai art. you are allowed to vent how you feel about it here, as opposed to other places where you are only allowed to talk nicely about where you are from. you made wonderful pieces of art.
i’m not trying to make you super happy/optimistic but i just want you to realize that things can be a lot worse. i tend to be grateful for the things i have while also wanting change at the same time
@jthrash My genuine apologies, I did not mean to trigger you. My comment had the goal of broadening sackboy963's worldview because I suspected he might be somebody who sees the political world map as 20 different flags and that's it. With the power of hindsight, my comment seems pedantic, given the larger ramifications of your post's topic. Certainly not my proudest moment.
While I wouldn't consider myself an expert on international politics, I am aware that elections in the US 'do' affect way more than just the US in the multitude of ways. I live in Europe, so I'm regularly reminded how important the United States influence is for the Ukraine's defense/victory against Putin's war of aggression. I think it's realistic to say: "If the Ukraine were to lose, then we're next!" We already see acts of sabotage that are "probably" either Russian or "possibly" Chinese in origin.
I liked that you included the Korean situation. Sometimes I feel people are forgetting about the prison that is North Korea if they aren't in the news for a while.
The 'odd-numbered years' thing flew completely under my radar, though.
Outside of some really minor local elections, it's far, far easier to tune out the news entirely on odd-numbered years (e.g. 2023 and 2025), because either major Presidential Elections or Mid-term elections (which I've learned the hard way do affect my life as much, if not more than whoever's President at the time) happen on even-numbered years. There's a reason I was much more "sane" and blissfully unaware of whatever was happening outside my own little world around this time back in 2023, and hopefully I'll feel the same in 2025.
Some people argue that "fighting for democracy" isn't just a once-every-four-years or once-every-two-years thing, I should be perpetually vigilant in the "fight," and those people can go pound sand. I get the intent of keeping politicians honest, but the whole point of voting for professionals that can clearly handle the pressures of this world better than I ever could is so they take care of the tricky stuff very few people actually understand (like the economy or diplomacy), while I can just focus on my own problems and my own duties. It's exhausting, though I imagine this comes across as a bit entitled for people who have no choice but to fight their governments every single day just to exist without people trying to oppress or hurt them.
@jthrash I totally get 'and share' that exhaustion. I used to get mad over people financially supporting despicable video game companies. In the end, I can try to 'inform' people, but I cannot give them a 200 ml infusion 'extra neurons' or something, so they 'actually, actually realize' where their actions will lead them in the future.*
Today, I listen to the news on a daily basis and every time elections come around over here I do research into "who's the least shit this time around?" But the entire rest of the time my political activism is pretty much limited to watching a few videos** to expand my horizon in that matter, 'yelling at the radio' or talking to friends about a topic for 5 minutes before we both decide to stop talking about it, so we don't get the urge to do something one shouldn't do to a human being under any circumstances.
Oh, and I co-sign Greenpeace cards. Making an official's mailbox-desk (relatively) unusable for a few days gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. :)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...
** Once 'that election' is over, I might feature some of those "political" videos, on my NG profile to keep the 'stream of vomit' from unsuspecting people checking me out constant... Or I'll do a 'Top 10 anime series of the year' thingy.
Maybe I'm tired and it's getting late at night, but gotta be honest, I'm struggling to see your point in this one, I'm really sorry. I just want to draw funny escapist cartoons for Newgrounds and continue working at my day job while politicians at the very least stay out of the way of my life plans.
@jthrash I'm pretty sleepy myself and wanted to log off quite a while ago. Maye I made a crappy point/did words bad/rambled on for far too long.
I'll look into it tomorrow. Have a good night.
@jthrash I wanted to talk about too many things all at once.
All that I wanted to convey 'originally' was that I get your exhaustion.
I had subjected myself to 'the fresh horrors of the world' to a degree that was too much for me to handle in the past. So I consciously reduced said degree to something more manageable.
Also: I am blessed with some understanding friends who will accept an "Okay, that's enough for today..." when it comes to discussing particularly controversial issues - without expecting me to have all the answers. (For those of them who happen to be reading this: You're awesome!)
I think that about sums it up. Sorry for having written it so messy/confusing before, jthrash.
Is okay. Having friends that can "agree to disagree" with you is indeed a blessing.
lol at the animation (a made to myself a little evil joke,i said to myself "autism"). Also try to relax about the elections and politics, at the worst scenario possible you still be way better than if you were like in venezuela, brazil or someshit. But it's cool to see you americans take politics seriously, wish brazil did it like that too, but we latinos party everywhere, make fun of everything, even politics
I think I do have Asperger's Syndrome (a mild form of autism), so that could just be it, I'm just not the type of person who should be allowed to watch the news, read opinion polls, or anything that basically profits off of me being scared and anxious all the time. My therapist changed the diagnosis to "Generalized Anxiety Disorder," but in the past it was some form of autism.
Still, it is comforting in a way that perhaps my fear is overblown simply because I have some sort of condition that makes me stress more than most other people, shows that maybe I need to just change my attitude (which is far easier than trying to change the country or even the entire world). I have to keep reminding myself how ridiculous it is to even worry whether my vote will count when I've already cast my vote and city hall told me it was counted, meaning there's nothing more I can do. It's not the greatest movie ever, but I still think Pixar's Inside Out 2 is a great, simplified way of explaining how irrational and over-the-top our anxiety can get, and how gratitude for the good things in one's life can keep our anxiety from turning into full-blown panic.
And yeah, I suppose America's history and reputation may have made us more concerned about preserving democracy than countries that haven't had the privilege of experiencing "power to the people" at its best in its recent history. There have been actual good Presidents and politicians in my life that have made it easier for people like me to just focus on what we can control while they handle the BIG problems, so I suppose I'm more motivated to vote and hope for a better future when I have examples in the past where things were good. Hopefully Brazil and other South American countries can one day experience a similar joy of not feeling like one's own government is getting in your way.
@jthrash yo my friend, i'm really sorry about that, but you're a great person, i'm sure you can overcome that. As a matter of fact you look less anxious than i have met you a few years go. But anyway dude, just relax, just be cool, i know you have latino blood in your veins
im not going out and vote. tired of being american to just vote for no one.
I'm sorry you've been disillusioned by our system. I've gotten plenty of irl family and friends to vote, and despite what our corporation-owned media tries to push on us, I'm feeling more cautiously optimistic that we will FINALLY earn the right to, at the very least, just live our own lives without having to pay constant attention to whatever nonsense is happening in Congress or the Supreme Court, or worrying how any of that will affect our own lives. I'm not pushing anyone at this point.
@jthrash hope your optimistim is right, because most of family are pesmisstic and fearing for a civil war. Thanks to dad being a coward and killed himself just to make point.
sackboy963
Since you have made up your mind, all I can say is, I hope you've made the right choice not just for yourself, but for the whole North America country as well.