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Ask HN: Do you read news daily?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you read news daily?

#61

Post by Lendal »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #58
Lendal wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This works well for those who live in an authoritarian state where you're not called upon to make any decisions (vote). When you live in a democracy, it breaks down because now you have no information upon which to make your decisions. The direction your life takes will be decided by your neighbors.

If you're in the US, in any state which is either clearly red or blue you are already -- at least practically -- "not being called upon to make any decisions". At least on the federal level. So is it worth suffering declining mental health from consuming news for 2 years, just to give a meaningless vote in a sham election every other year? Probably not.

First, there are ballot measures, judicial elections, city council, school board, and many more offices that have nothing to do with party politics that are on the ballot in almost every election. You'll never know what they are if you don't participate. "Should dog racing be banned?" and "Who should hold the office of Soil & Water Conservation District 9?" have nothing to do with party politics or mental health.

Second, for party elections the vote total still matters. It's a message that says how strongly the electorate feels about particular candidate or issue. There's a big difference between a 49.9/50.1 result and a 70/30 result.

When you don't cast a vote, you are still sending a message.

There's a huge difference between expressing a minority opinion and saying, "I don't care just do whatever you want. It's all a sham anyway."

Re: Ask HN: Do you read news daily?

#62

Post by vinyl7 »

chitowneats wrote: post #53
cpsns wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s no need to be a dick about it. I only vote municipal, those elections actually have a real impact on my life and I have firsthand knowledge of the issues and the people.

Did Brexit have an impact on your life? The war in Ukraine? I can assure you it did.

There was a vote for the war in ukraine?

Re: Ask HN: Do you read news daily?

#64

Post by nxtbl »

Whatever online sources you read, follow or want to read, it's much more efficient and less time-consuming to concentrate them all in a proper feed reader.

Subscribe everything there, classify and sort them as you wish, use the reader service to remove duplicates. If you want to read just the headlines, you can, or the full text articles with pictures, that too, or just based on the images, also possible.

Of course you can also directly share the articles, your full or partial subscription feeds and comment on them.

After Google Reader's demise was announced, Inoreader (.com) replaced and exceeded it very quickly and I'm still a happy paying Pro user of it. They have too many features to mention here, just take a look at https://www.inoreader.com/blog/ .

Re: Ask HN: Do you read news daily?

#65

Post by cpsns »

chitowneats wrote: post #53
cpsns wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s no need to be a dick about it. I only vote municipal, those elections actually have a real impact on my life and I have firsthand knowledge of the issues and the people.

Did Brexit have an impact on your life? The war in Ukraine? I can assure you it did.

Brexit had zero impact on me that I know of and even if it did, there is literally nothing I could do about it given I’m not a UK citizen. Likewise, I don’t don’t recall being asked to vote on the war in Ukraine.

I have to focus on this I can control and things that impact me directly and most of that happens at the local level, where I actually have power as an individual.

National and international news is almost worthless, it makes me worry over things I have no means of controlling and frankly? My mental health is more important to me than keeping up with news in far off places.

Re: Ask HN: Do you read news daily?

#66

Post by cpsns »

Lendal wrote: post #61
_Algernon_ wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're in the US, in any state which is either clearly red or blue you are already -- at least practically -- "not being called upon to make any decisions". At least on the federal level. So is it worth suffering declining mental health from consuming news for 2 years, just to give a meaningless vote in a sham election every other year? Probably not.

First, there are ballot measures, judicial elections, city council, school board, and many more offices that have nothing to do with party politics that are on the ballot in almost every election. You'll never know what they are if you don't participate. "Should dog racing be banned?" and "Who should hold the office of Soil & Water Conservation District 9?" have nothing to do with party politics or mental health. Sec…

> First, there are ballot measures, judicial elections, city council, school board, and many more offices that have nothing to do with party politics that are on the ballot in almost every election.

This is a very American thing fwiw. A lot if not most of these positions are not elected in other countries.

Re: Ask HN: Do you read news daily?

#68

Post by chitowneats »

cpsns wrote: post #65
chitowneats wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did Brexit have an impact on your life? The war in Ukraine? I can assure you it did.

Brexit had zero impact on me that I know of and even if it did, there is literally nothing I could do about it given I’m not a UK citizen. Likewise, I don’t don’t recall being asked to vote on the war in Ukraine. I have to focus on this I can control and things that impact me directly and most of that happens at the local level, where I actually have power as an individual. National and international news is almost w…

> Brexit had zero impact on me

Sorry, I stopped right here. That statement is delusional. Read a newspaper or something.

Re: Ask HN: Do you read news daily?

#69

Post by chitowneats »

vinyl7 wrote: post #62
chitowneats wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did Brexit have an impact on your life? The war in Ukraine? I can assure you it did.

There was a vote for the war in ukraine?

Isolationists are attempting to gain power all across the Western world.

Believe me, assisting the Ukrainians is on the ballot. Read the subtext.

Re: Ask HN: Do you read news daily?

#70

Post by cpsns »

chitowneats wrote: post #68
cpsns wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brexit had zero impact on me that I know of and even if it did, there is literally nothing I could do about it given I’m not a UK citizen. Likewise, I don’t don’t recall being asked to vote on the war in Ukraine. I have to focus on this I can control and things that impact me directly and most of that happens at the local level, where I actually have power as an individual. National and international news is almost w…

> Brexit had zero impact on me Sorry, I stopped right here. That statement is delusional. Read a newspaper or something.

It simply didn’t dude, nothing in my life changed in any noticeable way due to Brexit. Claim otherwise as much as you want, but at the end of the day it just didn’t.

The street lighting bill going up though? That was noticeable come property tax time.

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