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Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

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Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#411

Post by ethbr0 »

DSMan195276 wrote: post #396
ethbr0 wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find reading more history (preferably: dead person-ago history) to be a healthy tonic. When my more liberal friends were ringing in the end of days at Trump's election, my take was "Do you know how many terrible Presidents the United States has had? And how openly corrupt politics was for the first century of our country? And yet, we're still here." This too shall pass, indeed.

I'll be honest, that's kind of an odd take to me considering that the "first century of our country" was followed by a pretty bloody civil war. Yes the United States is still here, but I'm not sure I would be so casual about all the terrible stuff that has happened in our history as though it's no big deal if it happens again.

I'm not saying it was great or not important, only that it wasn't existentially concluding.

And the difference between "a bad person" becoming President and "half of the country withdrawing from Congress and formally seceding" is several orders of magnitude.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#412

Post by qiskit »

robertlagrant wrote: post #389
qiskit wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm a firm believer in quality over quantity when it comes to news When it comes to news, I'm of the opinion that one should strive for diversity of opinion rather than quality. As you noted, all media has a bias so you should see what everyone's biases are. You will never get truth from any single media outfit so cast a wide net. > What worked well for me was getting a print subscription to the Economist. Why woul…

> Why would you pay for something that has ads? It would be like paying facebook for a facebook account. Or paying to go to live sports when everything has ads on it.

It's why I stopped watching football, baseball, basketball, etc. Used to be a huge sports addict. Such an incredible waste of time looking back. Now, I only watch ad free highlights, if that.

But peak level of lunacy are the ad-ridden movie trailers on youtube. I can't believe people are actually watching ads in order to watch an ad...

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#413

Post by balabaster »

macksd wrote: post #4

I fully agree with this. Scanning Google News or a couple of the more professional international news services like BBC / Al Jazeera / Reuters I still feel pretty well informed (and confident that there's usually nothing of immediate consequence to me) but it doesn't grow into "expert analysis" or impact my feelings much. Here's another thing I noticed: how manipulated / manipulative it is. And not just news and I do…

I love the Reuters app for my phone. I can listen to the roundup once in the morning while I'm getting ready or in 10 minutes on my way to the gym. It's all the basic headlines with a little blurb. Read to you with very little in the way of emotion, passion or hype. It plays in the background while I do other things and it's done. It doesn't drone on and on like the radio does until you realize you've heard this story 3 times already like on CP24 or whatever other news channel keeps blathering on while quietly promoting their hidden (or not so hidden) political agenda and gradually sapping at your will to live.

I've cut off my cable/satellite TV. I don't listen to any other news sources. I read BBC's headlines once a day.

Cutting off the "mainstream" media and advertising from my life has done more for my mental health than my gym membership, diet, meditation and fresh air combined. Not to say those things aren't important, but they didn't have nearly the impact that cutting off the constant drama, heightened emotion and propaganda have.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#414

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau »

gridspy wrote: post #340
ROTMetro wrote: post #168

As someone who just stepped back into pop culture after being in prison for years (so might as well been on the moon) my first shock was just how horrible it all is now. There is no news worth watching. Cable news is just a pile of filth excremented by a Labrador Retriever that solely eats baby diapers. I thought I will watch Bloomberg since if real money is involved it can't be too manipulative. Nope, wrong. The int…

A fair perspective. It's also possible that your isolation from media has let you return to see what was wrong with that media all along. Possibly you were simply blind to how bad it was before, or just used to it. I concur that it is worse than it was, but I would say 10-30% worse not "completely different." It would be nice if there was a little less hate generally.

As someone who hasn't been in prison but has done a good job of not letting media outlets getting to me (since I just block a lot of them through my pihole), he's spot on. I've had people on a discord server whom I was friends with basically oust me simply because I had some marginally more conservative views than them. My experiences were invalid because they did not align with their worldviews. That is the media today with social media platforms amplified in that regard as well.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#415

Post by ROTMetro »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #337
ROTMetro wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Entered in 2017 and got back to "the World" six months ago.

Pretty sure things were just as shitty in 2017

Maybe sites like Twitter were, but it wasn't EVERYTHING like it is now. There just wasn't so much hateful speaking. There wasn't so much tribalization, otherization. Sure Reddit sucked but it wasn't hateful. Now it seems everything is full of unnecessary snide comments about whomever is perceived as the out group or other tribe with no self awareness of the ugliness of the comments. Educated conservative university professors I once admired, supposedly compassionate liberal entertainers I once enjoyed have all been infected by ugliness. Even music making websites with zero politics in the discussion just full of hate for no reason. Everything is just gross. It seems no one sees each other as human anymore. You know you are missing something when Liberals are hating a pot smoking, Bernie Sanders voter because he has pot smoking Art Bell type discussions with people and Conservatives are adopting him as one of their own. It's just pure tribal at that point. Seriously, WTF world is this?

I think it's strange and sad that I should find the society I've returned to more full of anger and hate and with less compassion than prison.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#416

Post by AitchEmArsey »

ROTMetro wrote: post #143
yojo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a firm believer in quality over quantity when it comes to news. Google News has gotten increasingly annoying though, forcing me harder toward the "personalized" results, the kind of filter bubble I'm intentionally trying to avoid. What worked well for me was getting a print subscription to the Economist. They definitely have a bias (particularly in their editorials), but it's mostly of the "free trade" variety, w…

I used to find the Economist great, but with the corrosiveness of everything this last bit, they seem to sneak agenda into articles now days in a way I feel like this whole post is trying to move away from. Maybe as a lost Libertarian who can't stand the control everyone's lives progressives I feel that has crept quite a bit into the Economist. It's funny it bothers me as I have reached a point where I feel Libertari…

I subscribe to the Economist too and perceive their reporting as still being reasonably libertarian without venturing into tinfoil-hat territory, but being in the UK I guess I get both a different balance of articles and also have a different perception of libertarianism.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#417

Post by Lammy »

jarjoura wrote: post #410

Jan 10, 2021 was the day I unsubscribed and/or deleted every news source I had. I just couldn't take it anymore. That week capped off a decade of alarmist content that seemed to start at the end of the housing crash, but continued to get angrier and nastier every year. I lost family members to the brainwash that is the "news" and it has been heartbreaking. It's honestly worse than losing someone due to death, because…

> just a different, angrier, person that uses words and expressions that make no sense

I've experienced this too and it's so depressing. HLN (CNN2) made my father racist again to the point of dropping casual N-bombs :/

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#418

Post by balaji1 »

macksd wrote: post #4

I fully agree with this. Scanning Google News or a couple of the more professional international news services like BBC / Al Jazeera / Reuters I still feel pretty well informed (and confident that there's usually nothing of immediate consequence to me) but it doesn't grow into "expert analysis" or impact my feelings much. Here's another thing I noticed: how manipulated / manipulative it is. And not just news and I do…

Why not let it filter through to you via a group of friends who are well informed? And will highlight whatever is interesting, funny, urgent or important. Kinda like HN front page.

Each person in my group has slightly different sources they subscribe to: YT channels, Twitter, Insta, Reddit, HN. And slightly different topics. And they share stuff in the chat group.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#419

Post by pydry »

duped wrote: post #256
dionian wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Economist, like NPR, are good at sounding informed and unbiased, but wind up to be egregiously ideologically compromised

Can you give some examples? Particularly with NPR, you have to focus on particular shows and stations. There's no central editorial staff for the content that comes from their member stations. For example the Takeaway has quite different editorial standards than All Things Considered or Morning Edition.

With the Economist - their support of the Iraq war.

If something has elite consensus they will usually support it. This is probably the last place where youd want an ideological blind spot to be, also.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#420

Post by usefulcat »

Swenrekcah wrote: post #261
yojo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a firm believer in quality over quantity when it comes to news. Google News has gotten increasingly annoying though, forcing me harder toward the "personalized" results, the kind of filter bubble I'm intentionally trying to avoid. What worked well for me was getting a print subscription to the Economist. They definitely have a bias (particularly in their editorials), but it's mostly of the "free trade" variety, w…

I can fully attest to the quality of the Economist but I caution anyone to subscribe because they don’t provide any way to easily unsubscribe. It’s either to call some phone number or attempt it via live chat. I tried the second option and the representative just went on with the script trying to fatigue me out of it, no matter what I said.

If I were going to subscribe to a print magazine, I'd pay via check, assuming they will allow that.
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