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Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

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Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#101

Post by b0bby_tabl3s »

throwawaymath wrote: post #45
the_clarence wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a good source of information? By that I mean: - not about daily information (which are usually as fast as possible and don’t take the time to really understand the situation) - not biased - not about juicy news, but world topics that are ~objectively important I feel like there should be a subreddit for that.

I can tell you what I do: 1. I don't consume any news from televised sources, 2. I read Foreign Policy , Wall Street Journal , New York Times , The Economist and Foreign Affairs , 3. I'm generally skeptical of everything I read and I try to assume every article's author has many unknown unknowns in their reporting (to counter Gelman Amnesia), 4. Every so often (once a week or so), I read something from a news source…

ALL of #2 are very liberal leaning if not fully. You might consider rounding that out a bit?

Check out Al Jazeera feeds, they have some good tidbits on there.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#102

Post by ataturk »

l9k wrote: post #44
soneca wrote: post #20

His post "I hate the news" (0) was(is) very influential for me personally. It was seminal in what become a rather significant change in my habits and view of the world. I am now very conscious that news are entertainment, purely and simply. With the goods and bads of any other entertainment form. From time to time, while explaining my position to others (often seen as kind of radical), I refer this post. I hope it co…

I used to think the same a few years ago. But nowadays, with the state of politics, the spread of fake news and false narrative on social media... this is what we have. "they could have read an entire book about most subjects covered and thereby learned about it with far more detail and far more impact than the daily doses they get dribbled out by the paper" This is not what people do. This is applicable to 1% of the…

Just because WaPo and NYT are more verbose doesn't mean what they are feeding you isn't lies you know.

Which of Trump's tweets do you take issue with? That the Mueller investigation is a witch hunt (it is)? That FBI agents were used to infiltrate Trump's campaign in an attempt to submarine it (they were)? That all of this behavior was highly illegal (it is). That foreign spy apparatus (5 Eyes) was engaged to spy in the Trump campaign (it was)? That anyone who colluded with 5 Eyes committed treason in doing so? This is what is really at stake, this is really what took place.

And oh, by the way, I would really like to know who murdered Seth Rich and how his attempted leaks about the shenanigans by the DNC got him killed, because you know, that guy was a hero to bringing to light that corruption. Which, by the way, NOTHING has been done about.

What is most disturbing about everything going on right now is how muddied the waters are and it is the MSM doing the muddying. Journalism has failed us. If you can't see that, you are part of the problem. The media needs to follow the story wherever it goes, even if it implicates their friends and colleagues. If they don't, our next step is an uprising to right this ship.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#103

Post by nouseforaname »

soneca wrote: post #20

His post "I hate the news" (0) was(is) very influential for me personally. It was seminal in what become a rather significant change in my habits and view of the world. I am now very conscious that news are entertainment, purely and simply. With the goods and bads of any other entertainment form. From time to time, while explaining my position to others (often seen as kind of radical), I refer this post. I hope it co…

I agree. Many organizations want to have their cake and eat it too. They are basically ad-driven and looking for eyeballs. "If it bleeds it leads"

I don't know that I ever really have much faith in the whole "church and state" divide between advertising and editorial but to the extent that was ever true, it doesn't reflect the current direction of many papers. They are leaning in to "native advertising".

I apologize for getting political, but my pet theory is that "the news" is largely to blame for our current political situation because reporting on boring candidates with boring opinions generates less page views than reporting on our current president.

At the same time I'm supposed to put these people on a pedestal and donate to them so that they can save democracy on my behalf.

So is there a function they could be doing that would be important for our democracy? I think so. Are they doing it? I think the jury is still out.

Sorry, I know this seems cynical or "edgy". I just don't believe that a non-cynical view the journalism industry reflects reality.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#104

Post by alasdair_ »

sudoscript wrote: post #93
capulate89 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what's wrong with that argument? Democracy and voting aren't unquestionable goods. Just look at what became of most of the non-democratic countries that the US decided to "liberate" via forcing them to adopt democracy over the years.

> What’s wrong with that argument? At an individual, probably nothing. But at a macro level, apathy is equivalent to a lack of legitimacy, which is a big problem. If the cancer of apathy spreads too far, the entire system comes crashing down. It’s like a party where your job is to bring one of the mixers. You don’t bring yours, nothing that terrible happens. No one brings any, and the party becomes a disaster.

>a lack of legitimacy

Well... yes. And I view this as a good thing. The current US voting system is broken and I am not sure it is fixable simply by voting more - that simply entrenches the current system.

I prefer to use illegitimacy and disenfranchisement to spur useful change to the systems themselves. I want to see somethink like ranked choice with an instant runoff, the abolition of the electoral college and a simple one person, one vote choice for president, without dividing people into small groups first.

Reforming the senate is likely also a good idea.

Apathy and illegitimacy are the kindling needed to foster real change.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#105

Post by porpoisely »

josefresco wrote: post #77
soneca wrote: post #20

His post "I hate the news" (0) was(is) very influential for me personally. It was seminal in what become a rather significant change in my habits and view of the world. I am now very conscious that news are entertainment, purely and simply. With the goods and bads of any other entertainment form. From time to time, while explaining my position to others (often seen as kind of radical), I refer this post. I hope it co…

While I like and respect who Aaron was and what he did for us all, I cringed when reading "I Hate the News" because it came across as very naive. It's the same logic young people use to justify not voting, also the same logic my fellow parents use as reason for not attending town meeting. Find new sources, find your news. While today's news doesn't effect you directly, it might tomorrow, or it might effect your frien…

For someone who claims to like and respect Aaron, you are rather dismissive of him and his "rant".

Your recommendation to find your news, local or otherwise, might have been valid 50 years ago, but it isn't today as most news ( local, national and international ) is owned by a handful of conglomerates who more or less share the same value. Your recommendation is like telling people who don't like facebook to use instagram instead. Ignoring the fact that facebook owns instagram.

I do agree that actual journalism protects democracy. I'd be interested in what you consider actual journalism.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#106

Post by TaylorAlexander »

jordanpg wrote: post #92
chickenfries wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this post is literally the same argument as “my vote has never changed the outcome of an election so why vote?”

No, not what he says at all. He implies that everything you need to know to vote can fit on one side of an index card. The point is you don't need to follow the news to make informed voting decisions.

He also suggests reading books instead of daily news! He says weekly or monthly reviews would be fine too. This whole thread is full of people thinking he’s suggesting you stay ignorant, when really he’s saying the culture of everyone must read the news is wrong, and we can get our information from better sources than the news.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#107

Post by burtonator »

I new Aaron well but didn't interact with him as much as I would like. I think it's one of those things where you expect that there's always going to be time ...

I think I'm going to go back and read some of his blog posts since I haven't read most of them.

Should bring back some good memories.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#108

Post by jonbarker »

sudoscript wrote: post #93
capulate89 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what's wrong with that argument? Democracy and voting aren't unquestionable goods. Just look at what became of most of the non-democratic countries that the US decided to "liberate" via forcing them to adopt democracy over the years.

> What’s wrong with that argument? At an individual, probably nothing. But at a macro level, apathy is equivalent to a lack of legitimacy, which is a big problem. If the cancer of apathy spreads too far, the entire system comes crashing down. It’s like a party where your job is to bring one of the mixers. You don’t bring yours, nothing that terrible happens. No one brings any, and the party becomes a disaster.

I don't think he's arguing for apathy, can't think of a less apathetic individual if I tried. I think he's rightly pointing out that batch processing can be more efficient, and optimizing the schedule for such a process is something many people don't consider.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#109

Post by atwebb »

soneca wrote: post #20

His post "I hate the news" (0) was(is) very influential for me personally. It was seminal in what become a rather significant change in my habits and view of the world. I am now very conscious that news are entertainment, purely and simply. With the goods and bads of any other entertainment form. From time to time, while explaining my position to others (often seen as kind of radical), I refer this post. I hope it co…

Thanks for the link, I find it interesting that he links his twitter at the bottom which is mostly news/headline links near the end:

https://twitter.com/aaronsw

Wonder if it was a head change over those 7 years or something unintended, a way that it drags us all in.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#110

Post by vehementi »

chickenfries wrote: post #99
jordanpg wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not what he says at all. He implies that everything you need to know to vote can fit on one side of an index card. The point is you don't need to follow the news to make informed voting decisions.

If all you do is read voter guides then you have delegated your critical thinking to the organization that produces the guide. I would not call you a informed voter if all you do is read a voter guide every election.

I would not call you an informed voter if all you do is spend 23 hours a day consuming the 0.0001% of the news that time affords you
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