congress now runs on bereal and i'm literally disassociating

it’s giving… profound systemic collapse. my therapist told me i need to set boundaries with the news, but how are you supposed to set boundaries when legislative action is now a push notification that could happen at literally any time? i am so tired.

tw: discussion of the federal government (deeply toxic).

so, in a move that feels designed to personally attack me and my cortisol levels, the house and senate just passed the ‘Honesty, Engagement, and Legislative Authenticity’ Act, or the HEAL act. lol. nothing about this is healing. it mandates that all official business—votes, amendments, even floor speeches—must now be conducted via a single, daily, time-sensitive BeReal post. one notification. two minutes to govern. if you miss it, you don't get a say on, like, the national debt or whatever. it’s fine. we’re fine.

i was doomscrolling through the feed yesterday and the vibes were… bleak. speaker kevin mccarthy’s post was just a blurry, top-down shot of his scuffed dress shoes on the congressional carpet, captioned ‘yay farm bill.’ it was so low-effort. like, that’s our food supply, king? meanwhile, aoc posted a really aesthetic dual-camera shot of her holding a rescue puppy while reading an appropriations bill, but the text overlay about subcommittee markups was cut off by the character limit. we literally don't know if the department of the interior is funded because of a font choice. i had to take one of my emergency ashwagandha gummies, which i’ve linked in my amazon storefront under ‘surviving the simulation.’

the entire defense budget was apparently decided when chuck schumer’s bereal was an accidental photo of the inside of his pocket. it was just black. so i guess the pentagon gets… the void? this is honestly so draining. having to witness the unfiltered, uncurated domestic lives of 435 people who hold our collective fate in their hands is a unique form of parasocial trauma. yesterday, mitch mcconnell’s bereal was just a picture of his landline telephone. that’s it. that was his contribution to the democratic process.

i just feel like i’m holding so much collective grief for the republic right now. being expected to function, to work, to simply exist when our entire legislative branch is in its flop era is an impossible ask. i’m trying to create a safe container for myself to process this, mostly by using my sunset lamp to simulate a non-apocalyptic reality and wrapping myself in my 20-pound weighted blanket. both are on my storefront under ‘essentials for processing late-stage capitalism.’ stay safe everyone. remember to hydrate. this is a lot.