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The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

newyorker.com

251–260 of 378 posts

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yuppies reading the news and then going back to buying $12 avocado toast won’t do a damn thing to help those people.

Don't the yuppies generally vote democrat and the democrats usually oppose these things while the very-not-yuppies tend to vote GOP and the GOP usually likes/is ambivalent about these things? Like, I get it, gotta grab a side in The Culture Wars, but we should at least be fair about it shouldn't we?

But you can just ignore the news and vote Democrat and get the same effect. It’s not like those yuppies were going to vote Republican until the NYT opened their eyes.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#252
post #157

I stopped reading the news about a year ago. I felt like my emotions were being manipulated by a sharply-honed system built precisely to invoke outrage and draw you in to read more and more of it. I've been able to direct my focus and energy to much more productive tasks since I disconnected. Of course I entirely missed that whole Supreme Court thing until after it was over, and I have no idea what people around me a…

It needs to be pointed out that this is an option that originates from privilege. Ignoring the news means ignoring politics. Ignoring politics is tacit support of the status quo. The status quo does not put everyone on equal footing. Disadvantaged people would therefore suffer more from disengaging with the news than people of privilege.

Depends which news sources and whether the news is ingested without any critical lense. Ignorantly consuming news can create far more tacit support for the status quo (or opposition agenda based on bias) regardless of actual political outcomes.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#253
post #157

I stopped reading the news about a year ago. I felt like my emotions were being manipulated by a sharply-honed system built precisely to invoke outrage and draw you in to read more and more of it. I've been able to direct my focus and energy to much more productive tasks since I disconnected. Of course I entirely missed that whole Supreme Court thing until after it was over, and I have no idea what people around me a…

It needs to be pointed out that this is an option that originates from privilege. Ignoring the news means ignoring politics. Ignoring politics is tacit support of the status quo. The status quo does not put everyone on equal footing. Disadvantaged people would therefore suffer more from disengaging with the news than people of privilege.

What are the things that the average person who doesn’t like the status quo does? They vote every 2 years - it’s the only power that most people have that really moves the needle. Otherwise for national issues there’s almost nothing one can do without dedicating a large portion of life time and energy.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#254
Slow news still exists, and always has. Weeklies and monthlies are low pass filters.

In my teens I was an avid news reader and then I heard the aphorism "as worthless as yesterday's news" and I realized: if it won't be useful tomorrow I most likely don't need to know it today (obviously there are a few exceptions, like road closures). And I started to read news sources that reported with higher latency (CSM used to send its small, 7-page newspaper though the mail) and discovered I really never missed anything important.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#255
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. News != politics. In fact, if I replace the "status quo" in your statement with "reality", the meaning will change significantly. I don't need a journalist to tell me that the healthcare situation (to pick an example) is absurd, or that taxation (fed+state) in some states is already at European levels, yet without any healthcare or education benefits. It's easy to be aware of these facts, you just have to…

I don't know what you are intending to mean with your first point. Yes, you can change a word in my comment to a word with a different meaning and it will change the meaning of what I said. That doesn't mean what I said isn't true. Healthcare is really too big and broad of an issue to really highlight what I am saying here. There is no way not to at least be aware of it if not interact with it and it has been one of…

   > I don't know what you are intending to mean with your first point. 
   > Yes, you can change a word in my comment to a word with a different 
   > meaning and it will change the meaning of what I said. 
   > That doesn't mean what I said isn't true.
By using the inflammatory vocabulary, you've re-framed the issue as a class conflict, pushing the proposed solution (ignoring the news) out of scope. This is a classic move straight from Animal Farm. I simply suggested to re-read your comment using less polarizing language. This re-focuses us back on the original proposal, and suddenly we may realize that not listening to sponsored "suggestions" proposed by the media may have us voting for (using my example) a working healthcare system, which would be great for all people, disadvantaged or not.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#256
What news? When was the last time any major outlet reported a news story that originated from the heart and not the overbloated ego? Not to mention, when was the last time someone reported a news story without using terms like "left" or "right" or "socialist".

As someone who does not give a single ounce of care for the political circus that people are enslaved by, do you realise how dumb it all looks from sidelines?

Yeah, pretty dumb.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#257
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It needs to be pointed out that this is an option that originates from privilege. Ignoring the news means ignoring politics. Ignoring politics is tacit support of the status quo. The status quo does not put everyone on equal footing. Disadvantaged people would therefore suffer more from disengaging with the news than people of privilege.

You're out of your ing mind. One of tbe greatest abuses that lower classes have to endure is the 24 hour propoganda and emotional hijacking machine known as "the news". God forbid people have the freedom to have cognitive peace, quiet, contemplation, and free play. If anything, the "disadvantaged" have more to gain from disengaging from constant cognitive hijacking!

You want to take the only thing they have to distract them, from them?

I mean, that would quickly lead to change alright, but it’s also why a lot of people are invested in making sure that never happens.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#258
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what you are intending to mean with your first point. Yes, you can change a word in my comment to a word with a different meaning and it will change the meaning of what I said. That doesn't mean what I said isn't true. Healthcare is really too big and broad of an issue to really highlight what I am saying here. There is no way not to at least be aware of it if not interact with it and it has been one of…

> I don't know what you are intending to mean with your first point. > Yes, you can change a word in my comment to a word with a different > meaning and it will change the meaning of what I said. > That doesn't mean what I said isn't true. By using the inflammatory vocabulary, you've re-framed the issue as a class conflict, pushing the proposed solution (ignoring the news) out of scope. This is a classic move straigh…

>suddenly we may realize that not listening to "suggestions" proposed by the media may have us voting for (using my example) a working healthcare system, which would be great for all people, disadvantaged or not.

Maybe, but what are the odds of that vs. being kept in a state of aloof hypocognition that reinforces the status quo though?

Without hearing of disasters or San Franciscan homeless slums from the news, I'd barely know about them because I don't go out of my way to research things like that -- the time and interest isn't there. Left entirely to my own perspective, the biggest problems in the world are the ones I'm facing -- usually programming or computing related.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#259
post #157

I stopped reading the news about a year ago. I felt like my emotions were being manipulated by a sharply-honed system built precisely to invoke outrage and draw you in to read more and more of it. I've been able to direct my focus and energy to much more productive tasks since I disconnected. Of course I entirely missed that whole Supreme Court thing until after it was over, and I have no idea what people around me a…

It needs to be pointed out that this is an option that originates from privilege. Ignoring the news means ignoring politics. Ignoring politics is tacit support of the status quo. The status quo does not put everyone on equal footing. Disadvantaged people would therefore suffer more from disengaging with the news than people of privilege.

Highly disagree. I can ignore the news and still be politically active. I put a lot of effort into insulating myself from whatever the latest freakout is and I also invest a lot of energy into voting any time we have an election.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#260
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being unpopular doesn't mean you're right. Looking up a few articles, it seems that they're just racists in lab coats.

Please provide a citation. As far as I can tell, you're just engaging in namecalling.

Pretty much par for course these days, anyone who says something that offends me must be wrong.

Before the truth will set you free, it'll piss you off.

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