Sealioning, Chukars, Pandemic Fatigue
As I write, it’s Sunday morning. The temperature is 40 degrees (feels like 34) — raining with the possibility of snow today — the first of the season — as we prepare for the l-o-n-g, dark, and cold Midwestern fall and winter ahead. COVID-19 cases in my home state of Wisconsin are surging; we are hot spot, logging an infection rate just under 25%. Trump campaigned here Saturday in Janesville, risking the lives of the citizens he was elected to protect. It’s an increasingly dystopian time, 15 days away from the election. Will our lives be mentally, physically, and spiritually restored, or how many more of us die?
Since I’ve been sheltering-in-place, for the exception of my Pod Squad, my workplace of five colleagues at a community center which is closed to the public the remainder of the year, and trips for essential services, I’m pretty much in a lockdown since I live alone. This leaves me ample time to entertain myself, characterized by excessive reading and posting on social media, consuming content on TV or streaming online, overdosing on cable news, and reading what has been referred to by Trump and his enablers as ‘fake news’ online.
Sometimes I need a break from the chatter of talking heads and choose more lighthearted and entertaining subjects online to read and comment on. This inspired my blog series, Random Topics.
From the introduction of the first in the series of Random Topics:
“As a blogger, I mine my daily life for topics to write about. I set out to find something timely and meaningful, something that my readers can relate to, a universal message or lesson to discover in my lived experience. Another option is to choose a subject from the news of the day to comment on, however sometimes current events are tragically overwhelming.”
“I’m often left to choose from the mundane or subjects that pique my curiosity. When this happens, the only common theme is the randomness of my choices. Today, I offer three random topics with absolutely no connection or relation to each other at least that I’m aware of at the outset of this essay. Perhaps as I write, I may discover the subtle relationships that bind them together. Life is like that.”
This offering is the fifth in the series and was inspired by a series of comments on Facebook in response to my Facebook post about mansplaining (a repost of Random Topics II). My friend Alan suggested that I write about ‘sealioning.’ I wasn’t familiar with the term so I looked up the definition — one of my favorite pastimes — learning new words to add to my lexicon.
This is a shout out to Alan. Thank you for the distraction and the first topic in this Random Topics installment which also includes chukars and pandemic fatigue.
Sealioning
The definition of sealioning, courtesy of Urban Dictionary, “A subtle form of trolling involving “bad-faith” questions. You disingenuously frame your conversation as a sincere request to be enlightened, placing the burden of educating you entirely on the other party. If your bait is successful, the other party may engage, painstakingly laying out their logic and evidence in the false hope of helping someone learn. In fact, you are attempting to harass or waste the time of the other party, and have no intention of truly entertaining their point of view. Instead, you react to each piece of information by misinterpreting it or requesting further clarification, ad nauseum. The name “sea-lioning” comes from a Wondermark comic strip.”
Many of my friends on Facebook have grown weary of arguments about politics with friends and family and have in fact unfriended or blocked people whose debates about presidential candidates, COVID-19, mask-wearing, business closures, fake news, etc. have become increasingly unproductive and cause rifts in families and friendships. Sophisticated debaters now often employ sealioning, the trolling tactic common on social media, the behavior increasing as we get closer to the election.
By posing as someone who is interested in being open to a different point of view, the sealioner baits their victim. It’s the kind of trap that if you fall for it, you become vulnerable and forced to listen to their arguments unless you can extricate yourself from the unproductive debate, often designed to be a setup to ‘one-up’ the sealioner’s opponent.
Like my Random Topics II essay, which included a look at ‘mansplaining,’ sealioning is often a tactic that people with privilege or power and aggressive egos employ to create a win-lose scenario. It is a behavior not uncommon between men and women, or people from different education, economic, or ethnic backgrounds.
Additional Reading on Sealioning
Sealioning Is a Common Trolling Tactic on Social Media – What Is It?
Sealioning: How to Deal with the Time-Wasting Tactic We’re All Tired of
Chukars
“Chukars are chickenlike game birds with a plump body, short legs, and a small round head. In flight, the tail is square and the wings are broad and rounded. Chukars are ground-dwelling birds that would rather walk or run than fly.”
I’m a member of a neighborhood social media group, SASY (Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara) in Madison, Wisconsin. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been a lifeline to news and resources in the neighborhood. It’s a bulletin board for services, including home sales and apartment rentals, garage sales and free stuff on curbs. The SASY page is a lost and found reporting system for cats, dogs, and keys, plus a safety and early warning system for crime in the neighborhood. Lastly, it’s a discussion forum and an online newsletter of people, places, and things.
From the SASY Facebook group page:
“This Group page is an open forum for residents (current and former), business owners, and friends of the SASY (Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara) neighborhood on the east side of Madison, Wisconsin. The intent is to share information about issues and events happening in the SASY neighborhood, and to foster communication and a sense of community among members and neighbors.”
SASY Graphic Credit: Gabe Joyner
Recent posts include: The lost or found cat or dog, where you can purchase face masks, curbside free stuff, are those fireworks or gunshots, neighborhood restaurant and bar closings, and the latest report of car ransacking, or garage thefts or porch pirates. What piqued my curiosity was the recent sightings of chukars.
I was unfamiliar with this bird breed and surprised by the attention it was receiving. However, when I thought about it a little longer, I realized it wasn’t the first time SASY followed the activity of foul in the neighborhood. A rafter of turkeys became the subject, not only of a loyal following, but of an independent film, The Turkeys of Atwood Avenue.
During the pandemic, when many of us are sheltering-in-place, SASY and its news is our lifeline to what’s happening in the neighborhood and an alternative to the political noise of which we’re growing weary. It’s both a distraction and a helpful resource during a lockdown.
From the SASY FB Group Page
Chukar sightings, rescues, and rehoming became more common on the SASY social media thread. They’ve been seen in garages, on rooftops, and wandering like drunks on the public sidewalks, or loitering in neighborhood backyards.
From the SASY FB Group Page
Apparently, chukars can be hunted like their pheasant cousins, and their large breasts make them a tasty partridge-like entrée. However, since many of our SASY residents are politically progressive, animal-friendly, and some are vegan or vegetarian, the chukar is most likely to be rescued or rehomed than end up on someone’s dinner table.
Additional Reading About Chukars & Other Fowl
Pandemic Fatigue
It’s been over seven months that we’ve been coping with COVID-19 and its upending of our lives, livelihoods, health, economic security, and a threat to the survival of local businesses and economy. We are also suffering from campaign fatigue, the combination of the two is a one-two-punch to our security and serenity and to our mental, physical, and spiritual health.
An article from UCLA Health, answers the question, What is pandemic fatigue?
What Is Pandemic Fatigue?
Wrestling with intense emotions day after day drains your energy, causing pandemic fatigue. The fatigue can stem from a number of emotions you’ve experienced during the pandemic, including:
- Fear
- Anxiety
- Loneliness
- Hopelessness
Signs of Pandemic Fatigue
The hallmark sign of pandemic fatigue is a sense of inner weariness. You may also feel:
- Helpless
- Sad
- Worried
- Frustrated
- Irritable
You may notice that you:
- Eat or sleep more or less than usual
- Have trouble focusing (brain fog)
- Feel edgy or nervous
- Snap at or argue with others
- Lack motivation
- Are unable to stop racing thoughts
- Withdraw from others
To access tools on how to combat pandemic fatigue, click on the articles below in the Additional Reading section, 7 Steps to Reduce Pandemic Fatigue, 10 Signs You Have Pandemic Fatigue and How to Cope, and How to Deal with Coronavirus Burnout and Pandemic Fatigue.
When friends and family ask me how I’m coping with the pandemic since I live alone, my answer is that I feel like I’m on a ‘coronacoaster,’ “the ups and downs of a person’s mood, or life generally, during the coronavirus.”
Because of the government’s inconsistent response to the pandemic, I vacillate between isolating at home alone practicing Safer-at-Home behaviors to making deliberate choices of which people, friends and family, I can spend time with safely to combat loneliness.
My Pod Squad, my quarantine bubble of friends and family have kept me mentally and spiritually healthy. This past weekend was most likely the final outdoor, socially distancing, mask-wearing in-person visits of the season since the cold Wisconsin fall and winter arrives.
A shout out to my Pod Squad from this weekend.
First my sister and father on Friday, and on Saturday my three friends who are chosen family and Pod Squad members, as we shared a chilly, but safe, social distancing, mask-wearing brunch in a garage. The temperature may have been cold, but my heart was warmed.
I’m mentally, physically, and spiritually preparing for the long, cold, dark season ahead as I shelter-in-place as cases surge in Wisconsin and across the country.
Additional Reading on Pandemic Fatigue
7 Steps to Reduce Pandemic Fatigue
10 Signs You Have Pandemic Fatigue and How to Cope
What Does It All Mean?
As I state in the introduction of my Random Topics series:
“I’m often left to choose from the mundane or subjects that pique my curiosity. When this happens, the only common theme is the randomness of my choices. Today, I offer three random topics with absolutely no connection or relation to each other at least that I’m aware of at the outset of this essay. Perhaps as I write, I may discover the subtle relationships that bind them together. Life is like that.”
Sealioning, Chukars, and Pandemic Fatigue
At first glance there seems to be no connection to these three topics. When I take a second look and examine how they intersect and interact, I realize they do connect in some way. During a pandemic we tire of the daily onslaught of the dissolution of what was ‘normal’ in our lives. As we attempt to make sense of it all, we engage with each other and as COVID-19 and presidential politics have relegated us to our own ‘bubbles,’ we look outside of ourselves for distractions and project our desire for safety and security on all creatures great and small.
Stay safe and healthy. Be tolerant and patient with friends and family. Socially distance, wear masks, practice good hygiene, share your abundance, and vote as if your life depends on it. It does.
Related Reading from Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!