Argo Ideon: Our everyday doomscrolling

The vigilant citizen begins their day by examining drone warnings and war maps. Estonia is living in a recurring cycle of war anxiety that social media abundantly feeds, writes Argo Ideon.

A security‑aware citizen wakes briskly, ahead of the alarm clock, as a jittery feeling is already there. They search for the smartphone under the blanket to check whether the Defense Forces have sent a drone warning. Today, there is no air threat, but if there is, then one must examine which area is being talked about. More precise instructions can be found at kriis.ee .

Since no dread‑inducing events occurred overnight, they may briefly wipe the sleepy eyes, but the vigilance cannot be lost. The information‑hungry citizen opens channel X. Yesterday, a map appeared there, where the Baltic states were depicted together with red arrows arriving from the east. Especially thick arrows were painted toward Narva and the Lithuania‑Poland border.

Now they would like to see whether the arrows moved somewhere further during sleep or stayed behind the eastern border. There, where according to retired General Martin Herem preparations may be underway " to do something militarily against us ." But the new reports keep coming, the map has disappeared and whoever posted it at night is already forgotten about.

The citizen is confused, but realizes that instead of searching for the map they should visit the bathroom. On the way to get the toothbrush they glance out the kitchen window; against the background of drizzle everything seems even too calm, someone is walking their floppy‑eared dog on the sidewalk. An enemy agent, a saboteur recruited via social media? More likely the downstairs neighbor...

Turning on the shower, the citizen recalls that Estonia's defense expenditure budget next year is €2.2 billion . They set their fingers in pistol position and imitate a K9 Thunder self‑propelled howitzer shot: "Pow!" The wet environment does not hinder the Defense Forces' fire‑support capability.

And then there is HIMARS. The citizen does not know exactly what sound it makes, but they think that flying toward the target the much talked about weapon should sound something like a "Woosh!" As of today there have not been any new messages yet that the long‑ago ordered HIMARS ammunition from the U.S. is to definitely arrive in Estonia, already, soon.

A fresh interview with a national‑defense expert has appeared on the news portal. The situation is tense, the scenarios detailed and the threats hybrid. But it still is not a real war, and after reading the gut feeling remains that nothing new was learned. Therefore all the material must be worked through.

Let's begin with security expert Rainer Saks' every‑morning post. The citizen opens Facebook to see the original text, although several other websites also reprint Rainer's work. Rainer doesn't deal in nonsense — he says what he knows and how things are in Ukraine. Amazing how he has the stamina for this fifth year. Then the citizen opens the latest war diary in Eesti Ekspress. ERR's Ukraine blog constantly adds reports from early morning onward. Armed with up‑to‑date security information, the citizen dares to switch off war topics in their head for a while and focus on today's workday.

In the evening everything begins again from the start. On X there is a new set of maps with arrows. Putin is said to have said something about Estonia, but what exactly and in what context? And what does it actually mean? Are they fortifying the Narva River bank again? All of it seems extremely suspicious.

The worst anxiety takes hold again. Where's the box of pills?

Finally, the vigilant citizen remembers Robert Sheckley's classic sci‑fi horror story "Ghost V": "You can't beat blankets over the head for protection."

It should help against the Grumbler, the Purple-Striped Grabber, and the fear stories that pour daily like a torrent from social media.

In their restless sleep the security‑interested citizen sees how they build together with Pooh and Piglet the Hundred Acre Defense Line. Pooh carries three empty honey jars in front of the bedroom door, but Piglet takes a large wooden spoon and stands guard beside the door.

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