Examining the Post-Trump Malaise
Electoral burnout as an actual idea.
The election was finally over.
I happily collected some initial thoughts, including pieces on voter suppression, the odds against Joe Biden, and the interesting relationship between the Murdochs and a fading Donald Trump.
But something was…off. Stories that previously took me thirty minutes or an hour to write suddenly took the whole day. Breaks outnumbered work periods by wide margins. I found myself wandering the vast landscape of electoral information without much energy. The scrolling, reading, and thinking seemed to be more a relic of former habits than an affirmative call-to-action.
My creativity was waning. My motivation was depleting.
Despite this, I marched on like all writers do. The show must go on. I overcame the efficiency gaps with increased amounts of time commitment. Productivity, measured in articles written, remained stable.
Then I noticed this:
Apparently, mentally checking out of the election was not restricted to just me. My viewership plummeted, even as the post-election analysis was…
