My experience with ChatGBT for stress

It's caused by Trump's occupation of Los Angeles, and his goal of privatizing our government, and selling it off to billionaires.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and have lived here for most of my life. I never could have anticipated that it would become the first occupied city in the Trump presidency. Over the weekend, my adult son, whom I’ll call Max, and I had discussed our concerns, and he suggested I try ChatGPT to relieve my stress.

Ordinarily, I would have said “No,” without even discussing it, primarily because I’m concerned about safety and privacy issues, and it isn’t part of my frame of reference. But a few months ago on my 75th birthday, I vowed to be more open. And, given that we are living in a perilous time, with a maniacal president, who has no safety guardrails at all, and continues to make bad decisions that place us at risk, a certain amount of stress, anxiety, and vigilance seems like a rational response. But, I wondered if there might be a better way of handing it.

So, Max logged me in, and gave me brief instructions, including, “It’s more helpful if you’re very specific about what you want. Explain that you don’t need a lot of compliments and support—if that’s the case. If you’re not liking the advice you’re receiving, explain why. The harder you work, the better it will turn out.”

I looked at the screen and read: “What are you working on? Ask anything.”

I typed: “I live in Los Angeles, and we are surrounded by 4,000 members of the National Guard and 700 Marines. There are constant ICE raids. They are treating people terribly, chasing them in the streets, and separating them from their children, I’m immunocompromised, and can’t attend the protests, and I feel stressed and anxious most of the time. Any suggestions?

“I hear you — living with that level of visible military presence, ICE activity, and tension can take a real toll on your mind and body. It’s understandable that you feel anxious and stressed. Let’s break this down into some supportive ideas you can try right now.”

There were a number of suggestions from Mary (I named her), which were very basic, like breathing exercises, walking around, and listening to music, and a list of organizations, of people who might help me. Mary even offered to give me addresses of places near me, and help me write an email to explain what I want.

I am a skilled writer, and that was where I drew the line. I also understood that I couldn’t continue my relationship with Mary, because I didn’t feel safe writing about the real cause of my anxiety in ChatGPT. Getting information is one thing. Sharing the truth, when free speech is at risk, is another.

“The real cause of my anxiety is Donald Trump, who is inventing crises on a daily basis, destroying our economy, screwing around with tariffs that affect global economic markets, cutting private deals with heads of state, weakening our country, becoming a laughing stock on the world stage, demonstrating his cruelty and narcissism, showing his Nazi impulses, and hurting people, as he financially enriches himself, while he is destroying our democracy.

The unstated goal, under the ruse of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, within our government is to to destabilize it, so that there is total chaos. First, they fire the most highly skilled people, and now departments don’t have enough staff and qualified staff, to do their jobs.

One only has to witness what happened with the floods in Kerr County, Texas. By now, many of us know there that there were problems with the weather service because of people being fired, and with FEMA, which is being “restructured.”

A smaller number of us know that cabinet members have been hired in certain departments, because their real job, like Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce, is to create chaos so that, in this case, Lutnick ultimately can recommend privatizing the weather service, which Republicans have wanted to do since Trump’s first presidency. And, Lutnick has financial interests in doing so.

And, the privatization of the federal government is Trump’s endgame, and that of the billionaires, with whom he privately does business. Every MAGA, who believes Trumps goal was all about “eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse,” has been duped. It has always been about the privatization of our government. And, I don’t understand why Democrats haven’t made this clear.

Another of Trump’s goals is about implementing all aspects Project 2025, which calls for expanding presidential powers to form an imperial presidency, while weakening Congressional power, which Congressional MAGA Republicans have been doing since day one. It’s about creating the biggest wealth transfer in the history of our country so that the poor, working class and middle class become bankrupt, and the billionaires become even richer, which allows them to buy the weather service, as Howard Lutnick wishes to do, as an example.

It’s about Donald Trump conducting the largest deportation in the history of our country to get rid of Hispanics and Latinos, because they represent one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in this country. And, many of the 20,000 right wing Republicans that are in Kevin Robert’s computerized system that Peter Thiel worked on, and already have been vetted to replace the people who are being fired, are Christian Nationalists, who want a white America. And, since Robert’s goal, and the goals of Project 2025, is to ensure that the United States does not become a white minority country by 2045, they need to rid of as many brown people as they can. They they don’t care where they send them or what happens to them.

There is so much more, but it’s also about Trump’s budget in which he requested and received $175 billion to create the largest secret police force in our country, the ICE Gestapo. And, if we don’t stop them soon, it won’t just be “brown undocumented immigrants,” who are sent away to heaven knows where…but all of us, and the people we love.

And, that’s why I’m stressed and anxious all of the time, and ChatGPT can’t solve the problem. In fact, it may be part of it.