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The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

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Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#181

Post by mixmastamyk »

slg wrote: post #171
malvosenior wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politics aren’t the only way to change the status quo. In fact they’re not good at it at all. Uber and AirBnB changed the status quo far more than any politician in my lifetime. Also, most people’s personal issues trump any macro issue by far. You can change your status quo. It’s almost impossible for an individual to change the status quo and definitely not through typical political engagement.

>Uber and AirBnB changed the status quo far more than any politician in my lifetime. I am sorry, but that is just depressing if you believe something like that. The ACA is one thing that comes to mind. Improving healthcare for Americans would have a much bigger impact on people's lives than giving people who already own a home a way to make a little extra money.

The ideal of improving healthcare has little to do with how the ACA turned out.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#182

Post by mixmastamyk »

jdhawk wrote: post #160
netfl0 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is ignoring media tacit support of the status quo?

how else do you make an informed vote?

"News" in its most common form has little to do with being an informed citizen. The library would be a better bet.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#183

Post by fzeroracer »

bilbo0s wrote: post #136
GordonS wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did the same 1-2 years ago, and haven't regretted it. Interestingly, I've experienced the same thing where others seem offended by decision, and I also get accused of being insular and "living in my own little bubble". I just don't get this though - what exactly am I losing out on?

Well, the good news is that you guys aren't losing out on it! You're on HN. Which means you get your daily dose of "outrage porn" like anyone else. I think many people don't think of HN as, basically, a "News" site. With a large percentage of the front page dedicated to "outrage porn". "Big Tech Helping China." "US Workers Highly Taxed." Etc etc etc. And those are just the more, kind of, moderate examples. I think ye…

Exactly. I've seen many ridiculous stories, nonsense etc on HN which existed purely to fuel outrage among the more tech-oriented crowd.

Ultimately when people say they've dropped out of a specific news bubble: that means they've just started ignoring things that don't personally affect them or they don't care about. It's essentially as another commentator said meant that you're in favor of the status quo, which means you shouldn't be surprised if you encounter someone who is negatively affected by the status quo and calls you out on being OK with it.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#184

Post by malvosenior »

rexpop wrote: post #178
malvosenior wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politics aren’t the only way to change the status quo. In fact they’re not good at it at all. Uber and AirBnB changed the status quo far more than any politician in my lifetime. Also, most people’s personal issues trump any macro issue by far. You can change your status quo. It’s almost impossible for an individual to change the status quo and definitely not through typical political engagement.

> Politics aren’t the only way to change the status quo. The status quo is a political arrangement. It's just a way of referring to the state of power's distribution across institutions and people. That's political. There is literally, definitionally nothing apolitical that affects the status quo. Changing the status quo is--inescapably, apodictically--political. Uber and AirBnB are highly political institutions.

By this definition literally every interaction with the outside world is political. Is a definition that broad really useful?

When people talk about politics they’re almost always talking about interfacing with the government. Taking an Uber is definitely not a political statement in most people’s minds.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#186

Post by dorkwood »

slg wrote: post #161
netfl0 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is ignoring media tacit support of the status quo?

Because being politically active at any thing but the most basic level requires knowledge of the issues and knowledge of the issues requires following the news. If you are not politically active you are supporting the status quo because you are not putting in any effort to change the status quo.

I don't think following the news is the only way to gain knowledge of the issues. Online discussion forums and books are two other options.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#187

Post by AWildC182 »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #182
jdhawk wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how else do you make an informed vote?

"News" in its most common form has little to do with being an informed citizen. The library would be a better bet.

So we should just never read any news again because someone wrote a click-bait article?

I don't know if you've been to a library...but they usually have newspapers.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#188

Post by mixmastamyk »

bilbo0s wrote: post #136
GordonS wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did the same 1-2 years ago, and haven't regretted it. Interestingly, I've experienced the same thing where others seem offended by decision, and I also get accused of being insular and "living in my own little bubble". I just don't get this though - what exactly am I losing out on?

Well, the good news is that you guys aren't losing out on it! You're on HN. Which means you get your daily dose of "outrage porn" like anyone else. I think many people don't think of HN as, basically, a "News" site. With a large percentage of the front page dedicated to "outrage porn". "Big Tech Helping China." "US Workers Highly Taxed." Etc etc etc. And those are just the more, kind of, moderate examples. I think ye…

Still, HN is an order of magnitude more thoughtful than the clowns at Fox/CNN/etc news. Just the fact that it is mostly text is one factor.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#189

Post by _cs2017_ »

matt4077 wrote: post #84
jjulius wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of what you wrote addressed the point of the comment you were responding to, which is that it's hard get people to be informed about the news if they just don't care. I'm not arguing that what you said is inherently wrong, it just doesn't have anything to do with the question at hand. The OP wrote that, "You can send the best art / math / business professor to a school, but if the students are not interested in…

The best proxy for "interest in politics", specifically, would seem to be voter turnout: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_St... That data shows only modest changes since 1940, and no discernible decline in the last decade or so. If anything, turnout was lower in the 80s and 90s, slightly higher in the 60s.

I didn't say people had "no interest in politics". I said people had "no interest in being informed or educated".

A large voter turnout indicates interest in politics.

A large voter turnout does not indicate interest in being informed or educated. I think it's pretty obvious. But just in case, here's an example:

- Voter turnout in the US Presidential Elections 1996-2016 : 53-64%.

- Voter turnout in German Federal Elections 1933: 88.7% (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1933_German_federal_elec...).

I am sure you would not consider the electorate that chose the Nazis (giving them by far the largest share, 44%) to be more informed / educated than the modern US electorate.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#190

Post by yourbandsucks »

rexpop wrote: post #179
yourbandsucks wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Immediately take what action, specifically, in your ACA hypothetical? Honestly asking. Best I can come up with is "hope your kids don't get sick", followed by "ignore calls from debt collectors on that emergency room bill". Reading the news obsessively and buying into the culture war actually does nothing to make those strategies more effective. Just saps energy that could be spent elsewhere.

Knowledge about the Individual Mandate matters a lot to lower income folks. We have to follow the news to learn about such things, whereas the privileged techie does not.

Can you explain your tax planning situation around the individual mandate? Like, did you, as a low income hacker news reader, read something on the news that you used to save money when filing your own taxes?
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