Likes Nails on a Chalkboard

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I consider myself an empath who is sensitive to the emotional/mental broadcasts sent out from the minds and hearts of others. If I walk into a room where people are laughing, I feel comfortable and welcome. If I enter a place in which people are angry, I can’t stay long, sit it seems as if it is a raging fire that burns my skin (not literally). If I am around someone who is an ‘energy vampire,’ sucking attention and creating drama, I feel a need to flee. If I am in proximity to a person who is espousing hateful opinions, I feel slimed and I want to take a shower.

In the current socio-political climate, I am exposed to those last three on a daily basis, even if only via television or radio broadcasts, videos, and social media posts. That caused me to pose a question on my Facebook page.

I am wondering if there is a neuro-psychological component to the visceral response that I have to hearing the voice of #45 such that I need to turn off the sound when he speaks. I am not alone in that experience. Second question: are those who get all jazzed up at his rallies, neuro-psychologically wired such that they get an adrenalin rush from his voice?

There is a physiological response to certain sounds, according to an article entitled The 10 Most Annoying Sounds and Why They Bother Us. They range from screams to a baby crying, from squealing brakes to nails on a chalkboard. Nowhere on the list is the sound of a self-aggrandizing, truth-defying former reality television host.

From the moment I saw him on television, long before he threw his red MAGA baseball cap into the ring, I had a sense of distaste for the man whose reputation was that of a rolling-in-the-dough dude who didn’t come by the greenbacks honestly. I also know someone who worked in his employ at one of his casinos who overheard him use an anti-Semitic slur to refer to a Jewish player. The feelings intensified with each homophobic, Islamophobic, racist, sexist, xenophobic, hate-stirring thought he has verbalized. That alone would be reason enough to avoid listening to what he has to say. Each day brings with it head-shaking ‘what next?’ disbelief.

As a journalist, I take personally his denial of the right to free speech (in my case, not hate speech, not name calling, not demonizing of the man and his administration, simply responding to facts). As a Jewish (now interfaith) woman with friends and associates in all of the marginalized groups on the planet, I want that voice to be tamed.

As a mother who wants a future for her son and potential grandchildren, I want that voice to speak encouraging words.

As a politically left of center, tree hugging, crunchy granola hippie I value the next seven generations and want a sustainable planet on which they can live and want his voice to verbalize policies that will reinforce that intention. I am distressed by his destructive messages. Dreamer that I am, hold out hope that something will silence the vile verbiage.

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