Doomscrolling, climate change, the endless war machine – why aren’t you angry yet?
Do you ever find yourself exhausted by the news?
Every time I see the word “BREAKING,” I either have to roll my eyes or brace myself for what comes next. It’s actually gotten to the point where I think the things I hear or see across my social media feeds is the limit, the horror of events happening in the world, only just to see the words appear on screen, and marvel at the fact that the news has somehow outdone itself since the last “Breaking News” story was announced.
Heck, I don’t even have to wait more than a few hours before another catastrophe is announced - surely, all this doomscrolling can’t be good for us. In fact, studies show the impact of doomscrolling has adverse effects on both our physical and mental health.
As a person who lives within the confines of so-called Canada, I can’t look away from what is being broadcast. I must bear witness because so much of the world just looks away from the events that are going on in the name of convenience, when we really should be paying attention.
We have been de-sensitized to the horrors in this era of social media and generative AI.
Like most people, being on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok really was originally the space where we could shut our brains off for a few hours. Now, doomscrolling brings one video of a mother holding her dead child, followed by a funny video of cats, back to the terrors of the Tr*mp administration, on to liberal vs conservative debates that ultimately boil down to “my team doesn’t have to be right, they just have to be profiting” at the expense of human rights everywhere, all back to a hyper-personalized ad based on something I haven’t said out loud to another living human being.
The only time we can ever really show we’re angry about this, is through the means of satire, in the age-old circuses that provide bread and jesters for us to contextualize the horrors we are seeing. In those moments we are angry, we go “Yeah, you tell them Daily Show!” and then we move on. Those moments exist as a way for us to acknowledge these horrors, be upset, but also to move on, as though being aware is just enough these days. As we are all too familiar with in climate justice work, awareness without action can be dangerous.
Where data centres are being built, Akwesasne, Mohawk Territory
Along with the desensitization of doomscrolling, all that scrolling is being used as an excuse to rapidly expand and proliferate the servers of the platforms we are on. To keep up with the demand, of course, corporations like Meta and Tiktok will justify creating data centers to keep up with the demand. In a recent article, Cyber News points out that “one person contributes around 968 grams of CO2 every single day just by scrolling – about the same as driving a car 2.4 miles.” If you then multiply that by the billions of users who use social media on a daily basis – well, you get the picture.
Data centres are popping up all over Turtle Island, once again relegating Indigenous communities to the sacrifice zones of industry through an all-too-familiar colonial playbook. This is happening in regions where Indigenous communities already struggle with access to clean drinking water, adequate housing, and the destruction of their lands and waters through other extractive projects. Thankfully, some communities are starting to push back and say NO to data centres - like Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation in Alberta, and the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma.
The irony in all this, though, is that social media has become a place where verified and unbiased reporting is allowed to co-exist. Our traditional news places like CNN or CBC, unfortunately, do run the risk of being biased in their reporting. We saw a lot of this when coverage of the genocide in Occupied Palestine showed favoritism and sympathy towards Israel, whereas Palestinian reporters ike Bisan Owda were giving live on-the-ground reports of the genocide that was and still is taking place. That was until American investors bought TikTok and quickly banned her account. This is censorship at play - because telling the truth is quite dangerous to those who would rather keep making money off of these wars, instead of increasing the quality of life of the average citizen by even 1%.
Palestine, unfortunately, is our litmus test on how much carnage and loss of life we are willing to accept, how much governments can surveil us, and how big of a role capitalists have in controlling a “democracy.”
Fast forward a few years to 2026, where a total media black out is taking place in Iran. The war in Iran, however surprisingly enough, is something many are willing to pay attention to – simply because it affects so many on a day-to-day basis. In the last few weeks and months, complaints, memes, and statuses are all concerned with how much gas is nowadays. Of course, when these things impact people directly, specifically their bank accounts, is usually when the world starts to pay attention. Even though this war is yet again, benefiting a select few while harming billions across the globe, we must all eventually decide if these colonial comforts are worth the cost of not having healthy lands and waters to pass down to our future generations.
On March 23rd, 2026, a $1.5 billion trade, (yes, BILLION), was done on the markets five minutes before Donald Trump announced a halt to the attacks in Iran. $1.5 billion in S&P 500 (ES) shares was bought while $192 million in oil (CL) futures was sold.
As a lot of people pointed out, you don’t put a $1.5 billion dollar bet on a hunch, which is where most “betting” often takes place. This is insider trading on a scale we have never seen before in history, and yet, not a lot of people know about it. This is by design.
Will anything come of this?
Probably not.
It’s just another facade in a long line of actions that keep the war machine running, the elite class profiting from it, all the while people across Turtle Island and the world continue to pay out of their pockets for a war they never asked for.
You should be angry.
In fact, we should all be furious.
We are being promised a future that promotes a fantasy world in which futurisms are abundant in every tomorrow, not today, and where AI is the only way forward. We must demand real change and real solutions that centre Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination, while reconnecting to our lands, waters and ways of living. We don’t need artificial intelligence when our communities are chalked full of living, breathing knowledge holders and language keepers.
For every billion spent on these “wars,” this is money that could be spent on education, universal health care, adequate housing, and food sovereignty. Instead, those in charge would rather see the middle class disappear, while pouring millions into extractive industries that are actively killing the planet, just so a select few can keep social media running while actively censoring our reality in favour of their lip service and false solutions.
They will justify creating more data centers to keep up with the technological demand, and they will definitely use the excuse of a foreign-born war to keep these gas prices high as though they can’t stop it, while making excuses as to why clean energy resources simply won’t work. In our colonial capitalistic world, profit over people will always win while we sit down and scroll away on our phones - funny how that all connects, huh?
Sobre o autor
dannielle Morrisseau is a Métis-Cree woman from Treaty 2 Territory, also known as Brandon, Manitoba and works as the Divestment Organizer with Indigenous Climate Action.
