That’s why we have seasoned geezers on porch saying “Get off my lawn!”
Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being
301–310 of 333 posts
Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of the cuff comment but it occurs to me that they may have been right. I am pretty well informed politically and follow the news regularly, however, I still vote for the same party I voted for thirty years ago and always have done. Knowing what is happening in the news has rarely changed my vote - pretty much whatever happens the parties are not going to substantially change relative to each other to the point where…
Oh, my conclusion is not about politics > This deeply offended him. He then accused ... > I think his response was "Fuck off" Unfortunately I've seen been in such situations. I've politely asked to act in good faith of each other or close the topic. Some people feel better after arguing, I don't.
Fair enough if you don't want to talk about it, but the OP had basically just told the person they were ignorant so probably shouldn't be too surprised at a 'fuck off' response
Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
> MSNBC at least seems to be informing their viewers on domestic issues better than that baseline. The difference is only about 5% to the "no news" crowd. Also, people that are better-educated tend to lean liberal and therefore might prefer to consume liberal outlets, but that doesn't mean liberal outlets are better at informing people. Looking at the frontpage of MSNBC, it's almost exclusively political opinion piec…
> Also, people that are better-educated tend to lean liberal better educated, or indoctrinated?
Yea and isn't HN always going on about how education != intelligence? It's great branding too, hook your cart up to the liberal party and suddenly you're smart, refined, enlightened, morally superior. No questions asked. SW/SV lives in a bubble. Most of eng is more conservative. Aero,EE,ME.. these are no dummies.
Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being
#304I reconnected with an old friend from childhood a few years ago. I knew he was politically opposite from me so I kept politics out of our conversations... do you know how hard that is? It's hard enough that it requires effort, effort that he noted. He accused me of being closed off and never saying what I really wanted to. I made it clear we should not go there. He told me that several years ago watching the news mad…
> He eventually said he found all women of my wife's race "unattractive" and then could not understand why I was upset at him.
Obviously, I am not aware of the full context of the conversation you had or even his tone and this could make a huge difference.
But I have to note that he did not call a whole race "stupid" or "lazy" or anything else objectively racist. He just expressed a sexual preference. What is wrong with that? If your wife was red-haired and he had said that he found red-hair unattractive, would it be offensive?
Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, my conclusion is not about politics > This deeply offended him. He then accused ... > I think his response was "Fuck off" Unfortunately I've seen been in such situations. I've politely asked to act in good faith of each other or close the topic. Some people feel better after arguing, I don't.
Fair enough if you don't want to talk about it, but the OP had basically just told the person they were ignorant so probably shouldn't be too surprised at a 'fuck off' response
Maybe my experience reflects how I read
> so I kept politics out of our conversations...
I do not watch news for 20 years. I am fine if someone thinks I'm ignorant but ready to discuss that. Some people look brainwashed, aggressive, they don't answer uneasy question, they attack instead. Yes, OP provoked, I do not recommend this way. But response depends on the person and that was my message.
I mean sometimes I argue with friends for fun. And we know how to stop while it is fun. Persuasion is not fun.
Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being
#306As I've noted here a few times: Just over 10 years ago, I conducted an experiment. I watched an hour of CNN every night but it was never that night's coverage. It was from exactly two weeks ago. It was amazing how much "breaking news!" was irrelevant or just outright wrong, how many large trend predictions were wrong, and how many "[person] will do X" were wrong. While the predictions could have been portrayed as opi…
I would posit that using CNN was a problem for that experiment. I would say that you at most confirmed CNN was illegitimate which is not much of a surprise.
Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being
#307I reconnected with an old friend from childhood a few years ago. I knew he was politically opposite from me so I kept politics out of our conversations... do you know how hard that is? It's hard enough that it requires effort, effort that he noted. He accused me of being closed off and never saying what I really wanted to. I made it clear we should not go there. He told me that several years ago watching the news mad…
Interesting anecdote. Sounds like he didn't want to talk politics but you kept pushing, trying to take some moral high ground. Voting isn't an exam, it's actually pretty simple even for swing voters. Believe it or not, there is no right or wrong answer or else we would not have a vote. You essentially vote on a personal philosophy that is developed over your live, or primarily in your earlier years, and by studying history, consuming art like books, movies and music, and meeting people and discussing these ideas. It's something that happens in the background. Keeping up with what the candidates, parties and news outlets are saying isn't nearly as relevant.
Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being
#308Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being
#309The author, Arthur Brooks, is the past president of a Republican thinktank, AEI. Republicans have a strong incentive to encourage citizens to ignore the political news, because their policies are deeply unpopular. Republicans rely on a non-engaged citizenry for votes. Brooks is one of the Republican elites who shapes Republican political strategy. He has a deep conflict of interest when he tells you to stop reading a…
> [Republican] policies are deeply unpopular Well, this is demonstrably untrue with people at large. You know, about 50% of the country or so. Are you sure you are thinking outside of your bubble. Those polices may be unpopular with you or I but clearly people support right-wing polices.
Republican voters believe lies about the Republican agenda.
Take for example pre-existing condition protections. Republicans want to cut pre-existing condition protections. Between 2010 and 2016 Republicans passed over 50 repeal bills. They have no replacement. Now they are fighting in court to cut these protections. And they have lied about it. They say they don't want to cut them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/01/trumps-he...
And this pattern repeats for many policies - tax cuts for the wealthy, trade policies, minimum wage suppression. Republican politicians have to lie about what they're doing because their policies are unpopular.
So Republican voters believe lies.
Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
Commercial television news is very manipulative and the intent of the manipulation is to keep eyeballs glued to the screen to sell ads. They use lots of elaborately animated transitions with bright colors, swooshing sound effects and musical cues to mesmerize viewers, just as slot machines in Vegas use such things to mesmerize gamblers. It's the same sort of graphical bullshit they pad out televized American football…
Print media and public stations don't have the same high-strung presentation that cable news does, but the actual substance isn't much better in my experience. The last few times I listened to NPR they seemed to be pretty deep into the horse race style reporting, distracted "Breaking News!"-style reporting, and lots of speculation. Print media as well. What the other poster suggested is something I also highly recomm…
>The last few times I listened to NPR they seemed to be pretty deep into the horse race style reporting, distracted "Breaking News!"-style reporting, and lots of speculation. Print media as well.
As a dedicated listener to NPR, here's my advice:
- The 6 minutes of headline news at the top of every hour covers all you might need to know.
- The more reporting-style programs (All Things Considered, Morning Edition) often have good interviews with figures directly involved in the news. Of course, these are only worthwhile if the person hasn't already been on a national platform. Politicians and lawyers will just pretend to answer questions as they read prepared statements.
- Everything else is entertainment.
I like it, but I'm not deluded enough to look down on anyone (e.g. my wife) who finds it boring.