Is anyone else getting sick and tired of being told how to think, dress, vote, work, eat, play and generally live our lives? The whole world seems to be about nothing other than entertainment these days and that includes newscasts, political leaders and important issues on the health and well-being of our planet.

I, for one, am tired of pretty boy/ bad boy politicians telling us what is right and wrong and then doing the opposite themselves. Where is the policy, where is the vision – there isn’t any! They get elected on looks. They get elected on making outrageous and truth defying statements about their competition. And – they are not held accountable by the electorate and certainly not by the media.

I am really tired of the media giving us opinion instead of facts and letting us form our own opinions. I am old (and grumpy) enough to remember when news on radio, TV and in the papers was there to inform, not convince us. There was a code that insisted on presenting information in a fair, unbiased and objective fashion – now it is just so much entertainment fluff. What was she wearing, how was her hair, look at his skin tone, he is so photogenic – or not. Is anyone else tired and fed up with this crap?

Celebrities – OMG!!! How in God’s green earth do celebrities have the license to comment on anything that will gather them a few more eyeballs without any subject knowledge whatsoever? If I want to know how to dress-up and put on makeup while playing make believe, I will contact a Hollywood celebrity for advice. They are being given huge platforms for expressing opinion based on what – their connection with politicians and media. The herd instinct in Hollywood is rampant with misinformation, conjecture and political correctness and, “please do not confuse me with the facts.”

Integrity seems to be a word long lost in the realms of politics, media and Hollywood. Do we not realize that they insult our intelligence by listening to their diatribes on issues that contain very little fact and mostly social media savvy sound bites? We the people, we the electorate, we the consumer have a responsibility to look beyond this claptrap and find solid facts and information and then make voting and purchasing decisions based on our own opinions, not those of some polished, well coiffed talking-head on TV.

We need to look beyond the obvious and easy in order to find the truth – apparently no one else is doing it for us.  Let’s take back our power over own lives. Let’s accept the responsibility of doing what’s right rather than what we are told. Stop letting other people do our thinking for us. Yes, I am afraid that we are the ones that have allowed the unholy trinity of politicians, media and Hollywood to lead our decision making – STOP! THINK! ACT!

It is long past time to open our eyes to the manipulation foisted upon us by the terrible triumvirate and recreate a world with less pixie dust and more truth. It will require us to think for ourselves, be more cynical about what we see, hear and read, consider the sources and follow our own intuition and research about what is true or false.

Thank you – I feel much better now. Let’s hope that my mood brightens in the week to come.