Why We're Living in the Age of Fear • Hacker News Board

Re: Why We're Living in the Age of Fear

#91

Post by Bartweiss » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 3:34 PM UTC

dbingham wrote: post #35

I think some of the fear is justified. Climate change is a very real threat and it's justifiably scary. Our government, in the last 8 years, used remotely operated drones to carry out extrajudicial killings of American citizens -- including a teenage boy. Our security state now engages in mass surveillance of us in a time when our government is engaging in extraordinary rendition of suspected "terrorists" in secret w…

Without diving into specifics, I'm usually annoyed by people pitching "we're safer now than ever!" That argument almost always hinges on day-to-day, statistical safety; the most common citations are crime rates and life expectancies. It's a good rejoinder to certain things (like the cable news fixation on kidnappings and murders), but it's a deeply incomplete story.

A lot of the most potent fears are black swan issues - something like bioweapons terrorism obviously isn't going to be reflected in everyday murder rates. Other issues are predictable and measurable, but not yet devastating. Environmental issues - not just warming, but things like drought and antibiotic resistance - are real and obvious problems. The fact that their harms will be suffered in the near future rather than now is no reason to neglect them.

Very simply, the statistical argument for current safety is true but unrelated to a lot of what concerns us.

Re: Why We're Living in the Age of Fear

#92

Post by xexers » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 3:35 PM UTC

protomyth wrote: post #56

Perhaps Rolling Stone would like a little introspection given their fear mongering and false reporting about the University of Virginia. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/17/business/media/rolling-sto...

Are you willing to give "Rolling Stone" a second chance? They've been quite apologetic about that incident. Op's piece seems pretty good to me.

Re: Why We're Living in the Age of Fear

#93

Post by matt_wulfeck » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 3:36 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #83

tossaway1 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason it matters is because our Constitution explicitly grants citizens (not foreigners) certain rights. Our government is not allowed to violate those rights and if they do, they can technically be held accountable. The government can do shady things to outsiders within the constraints of the Constitution. As long as our government is honoring the Constitution, we have some hope of fixing its problems/flaws. If…

I don't give a fuck about the constitution of a country I don't live in but I too have rights.

I agree. In fact I would say these words mean any living person regardless of nationality (though the courts would disagree with me):

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government

Re: Why We're Living in the Age of Fear

#94

Post by 5350-uiop-1130 » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 3:42 PM UTC

Using biology to justify simple laziness, prejudice and bigotry seems contrived and unnecessary to me.

My amygdala, as far as i know, cannot tell whether my fears are real or imagined. Whether the imminent danger will really kill me or whether i will just wake up in a cliched hot sweat.

We are supposed to be reasonable, open minded and balanced people. This is the criteria by which we should analyse the politics of fear. As opposed to looking for some primeval trigger within our supposedly fatalistic brains.

Re: Why We're Living in the Age of Fear

#95

Post by sickbeard » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 3:45 PM UTC

People living in times of peace have a distorted reality field where they believe things are about to get them and the end of times is imminent. When you look at actual data, none of these are true.

Re: Why We're Living in the Age of Fear

#96

Post by Bartweiss » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 3:47 PM UTC

cel1ne wrote: post #9

We live in the age of fear because the hose of information that floods us is constantly opened further: Letters → Telegram → Telephone → Radio → TV → Internet → Mobile Internet. Human beings need time to manage their emotions. Time spent waiting. Time being bored. Time when NO new information, not even positive, is arriving. We are constantly distracted and thus increasingly unable to sort out our feelings. That is t…

I was genuinely alarmed when it came out that Facebook use averages 50 minutes/day. I have trouble believing that it can possibly be good for the world to have that number rise.

More broadly, the best thing I've done for my focus and mental health is slowing and controlling my information intake. Disabling push notifications, choosing aggregators over direct feeds, and reading international sites for domestic news have all helped reduce and refine my intake. Beyond technical approaches, I've pushed news out of my social media feeds and self-imposed a ban on on-going "personal drama" news stories (Casey Anthony, Oscar Pistorius, etc).

This has been good in itself, and has also come with surprising side benefits. I read more long-form content, not by force of will but because I have less occupying my 'media consumption' time. I also consume more "pre-digested" stories - that can lead to spin issues, but it also cuts down on emotional immediacy. I'd rather go through an interesting historical account of a crime than hear about every stage of the unfolding investigation.

I've come to value "no new inputs" time more than almost all of my active input stretches. I can't overstate the value of that processing time.

Re: Why We're Living in the Age of Fear

#97

Post by grecy » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 3:47 PM UTC

nkoren wrote: post #48

Slightly OT, but when it says "Every day there are 96 deaths from car accidents," I think: Rubbish -- that's the number of deaths every 42 minutes. Then I realise: Oh, they're just giving statistics for America. The non-existence of the rest of the world is assumed. In fact I largely concur with with the central thesis of this article, but this is a global phenomena and needs to be seen in that perspective.

> this is a global phenomena and needs to be seen in that perspective

You are correct that it's global, though like many negative-cultural things, America is currently clearly "leading" the way, and the west of the developed world is trailing far behind, though, unfortunately, they are trying to catch up.

Re: Why We're Living in the Age of Fear

#98

Post by astrocat » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 3:50 PM UTC

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #42

astrocat wrote: post #2

Is incessant fear-mongering manipulation the inevitable dystopian end of a society that is always connected to channels of mass communication? This is the result of the race to the bottom for eyeballs and attention - the appeal to fear. Does this ever resolve? We spend so much time lamenting the demise of journalism, the sensationalization of media, the fear-mongering, etc... But it's not like distinct "bad choices"…

>Is incessant fear-mongering manipulation the inevitable dystopian end of a society that is always connected to channels of mass communication? No, it's the result of leaving nonfiction communication to the lowest-common-denominator of market forces. Just look at Great Britain: sure, they've got Rupert Murdoch, but they've also got the BBC.

> it's the result of leaving nonfiction communication to the lowest-common-denominator of market forces.

but seriously, what's the alternative? How do you avoid market forces? What process does a culture need to undergo to pull it's journalism away from market forces and enshrine it so that it is no longer a commodity afflicted by the market's weaknesses?

Is the BBC one such isolated place where the culture of the UK that supports it simply expects it to always have a higher standard, market demands be damned? How did it get there? Or more cynically, how much longer can it last?

Re: Why We're Living in the Age of Fear

#99

Post by losteverything » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 3:52 PM UTC

roymurdock wrote: post #65

As a 23 year old I can only imagine what it was like to live through the cold war with the colossal fear of nuclear annihilation soaking into every activity/decision. I feel like it must have been so overwhelming yet intangible - in some ways a nuclear holocaust is much less painful than losing a loved one in a car accident or seeing your country splinter into violent factions. A nuclear holocaust is a quick, binary…

It was NEVER top of mind. Remember, the only news was evening broadcasts for 30 minutes or ap/upi reports in local papers. New York times didn't make it to my state except Sundays. It was NEVER a conversation growing up. Back then to find out if your team won you would have to wait for the paper 2 days later if it was not the local team.

Wwii everyone enlisted. No question. Different times. Vietnam draft was real anxiety.

Re: Why We're Living in the Age of Fear

#100

Post by throwaway98237 » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 3:55 PM UTC

Strong AI on the horizon, about the same horizon as quantum computing and pervasive robotics; the new triad. Nuclear arsenals capable of destroying the world several times over. Biological weapons that can be created and deployed by organizations much, much smaller than traditional state actors. Social media educating us that systemic racism has been causing systemic killings of certain parts of our population. Whistle blowers educating us that privacy is all but dead. Trump is on the ballot. Yeah, there is reason to be afraid.