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I Hate the News (2006)

aaronsw.com

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Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#51

Post by mixmastamyk »

phforms wrote: post #48

The post is from 2006. I wonder how he would have written it differently or not at all during the pandemic or if he was a refugee, for example. Of course, these are extreme cases, but they demonstrate that you have to be in a special position to be able to perceive the news as a “waste of time”. I also have the habit of avoiding most news, but I believe it did not serve me well, since I have been ignorant about many…

Read a book by an expert if you'd like to know an order of magnitude more about a subject than the average TV-watching person. Once catch is that it needs to be an actual unbiased quality source. Not all of them are of course.

For example, a couple of years after 9/11 I read Richard Clarke's book Against All Enemies (later Tenet's and others) and was gobsmacked about all the misguided sound-bites being repeated by regular folks.

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#52

Post by thenerdhead »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #40
thenerdhead wrote: post #32

I also hate the news (and advertisements). The news will never teach you how to think. It will tell you what to think. I love books though. Books don't tell lies to you because you have to think for yourself.

> Books don't tell lies to you That is entirely inaccurate though. There are a LOT of books designed for a goal.

The whole point of my comment is that reading books helps you develop skills where it is a hell of a lot easier to decipher bullshit.

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#56

Post by totallywrong »

I stopped reading or watching news about a year ago. Other than HN and conversations with people I don't have any exposure. I always find out about important stuff some way or another, and have overall a more positive outlook in life. Highly recommended.

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#57

Post by ineedasername »

assimpleaspossi wrote: post #35
belval wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had seen his name thrown around but I didn't know the story. Thank you for sharing, from the layman's perspective it really seems like an overreach of federal prosecution.

Well, he did create reddit.

There is some truly awful irony that a cofounder of reddit, with reddit's current actions, was the victim of a reactionary bully justice system for using his legal access to the JSTOR database [1] even though JSTOR came to a non-criminal settlement with him over it. A prosecution that undoubtedly contributed (or caused) mental health difficulties leading to his suicide.

And now, a decade later, the reddit platform that he cofounded is betraying the principles of that cofounder.

[1] Yes it's slightly more complex than that, I know, but not to anything that should have come anywhere near the attention of criminal prosecutors. He used his legitimate access to download far more than JSTOR ever thought someone would do. He did it in a basement that anyone walking around the building could go into, and entering an unlocked closet where he connected his laptop to a network switch wherein he left the laptop running while downloading.

~

Heck even after MIT noticed this they didn't lock the closet! Instead the just surveilled it with a camera to observe who might be going in & out. If there was any harm at all from these actions is was merely that downloading the way he did made the JSTOR system slow down at times until they blocked the offending IPs, and then the whole block.

A decade later and this injustice still fills me with sadness and rage every time it comes up. And as cynical as I get with every passing year, I hope to hell that I still at least hang on to that sadness and rage and never let time and cynicism dull its edge.

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#58

Post by Kye »

Barrin92 wrote: post #29
EA-3167 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people should definitely think that way though, specifically people prone to depression, suicide, and so on. If you're grappling with dark thoughts, the news is a pretty nasty hole to fall down. Aaron was sadly one of those people who probably was right that the news wasn't for him.

avoidance behavior is a bad response to mental issues. Even if it works temporarily, in the long run it shrinks your world and reduces your confidence. It's why people with panic disorders are taught to confront stressors and learn to adapt, not lock themselves in their house. Regarding the news, a practical issue is of course that it doesn't always work. If you're privileged, self-employed or what have you, you can…

Reading the NYT would make me less informed on the issues that affect me and people I care about.[0][1] That's the point, I think. "The News" most people consume is a pale imitation of information. A version of this article with 10 years of growth might modify the suggestion toward finding better sources of information. Less New York Times, Fox News, and MSNBC. More ProPublica, NewsHour, and advocacy orgs staffed with people who are actually qualified to speak on the subject.

[0] https://glaad.org/new-york-times-sign-on-letter-from-lgtbq-a...

[1] https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/human-rights-campaign-cal...

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#59

Post by mathewsanders »

Danjoe4 wrote: post #50
jmcgough wrote: post #27

As a queer person watching a slew of recent anti-LGBT laws pass, I wish I could have the luxury of just ignoring the news and not caring. Aaron was 20 when he wrote this and it shows.

I'm not aware of any recent laws that restrict the rights of LGBT individuals, could you please name them?

Both ACLU and HRC have convenient tracking for these bills.

Last year over 300 bills were introduced, and 29 were signed into law (still far too many).

https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/human-rights-campaign-wor...

https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/how-the-aclu-tracks-a...

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#60

Post by kweingar »

Danjoe4 wrote: post #50
jmcgough wrote: post #27

As a queer person watching a slew of recent anti-LGBT laws pass, I wish I could have the luxury of just ignoring the news and not caring. Aaron was 20 when he wrote this and it shows.

I'm not aware of any recent laws that restrict the rights of LGBT individuals, could you please name them?

Just one example:

Tennessee has recently passed a law banning “male or female impersonators” from performing in public places. Tennessee also does not alter sex on birth certificates for trans people.

Arguably this means that Tennessee banned trans people from performing in public in any capacity.

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