Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been obsessively researching and buying backpacking gear and soaking up tips for next spring. I am massively looking forward to being on a mountain alone for a few days with only a Garmin inReach Mini as my link to the outside world, gonna be nice to disconnect like that.
Why I Disappeared – My week with minimal internet in a remote island chain
11–20 of 176 posts
Re: Why I Disappeared – My week with minimal internet in a remote island chain
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's definitely privileged to take a trip to the Galapagos, but I don't think it's privileged to ignore the news. A lot of poor people ignore the news. They may be too busy, or they may feel powerless to change anything. I think the real question is what exactly this entirely content-free statement means: "I’ll be focusing more on stories that actually matter instead of chasing the flash-in-the-pan ephemera that nobo…
Privilege isn't just about wealth. The point is that although anyone can ignore the news, the news won't necessarily ignore them!
That's just it though, the "news" is not providing valuable information to the majority of people, it's mostly a series of takes designed to fit into easily digestible narratives so they can attract enough viewers to survive as a business.
Re: Why I Disappeared – My week with minimal internet in a remote island chain
#13Escaping the internet on a luxury trip doesn’t disprove political conflict… it just shows how privilege can opt out of reality and sell the experience as clickbaity insight.
Not "privilege" per se, I think that's the wrong word. Republican or Democrat, left or right, rich or very very rich - there is a lot of self-selection bias in judging the world from a pool of people who decided to go on vacation to the Galapagos...
Re: Why I Disappeared – My week with minimal internet in a remote island chain
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Privilege isn't just about wealth. The point is that although anyone can ignore the news, the news won't necessarily ignore them!
> Privilege isn't just about wealth. Which poor people exactly do you consider privileged, and why? > The point is that although anyone can ignore the news, the news won't necessarily ignore them! What can they do about the news, though? I specifically said, "they may feel powerless to change anything".
We live in democracies. The price of entry is a citizenry informed enough to choose how they want many issues of state handled.
The alternative is worse, and the result of an uninformed citizenry can be disasterous and a regression towards non-democracy.
Re: Why I Disappeared – My week with minimal internet in a remote island chain
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Privilege isn't just about wealth. The point is that although anyone can ignore the news, the news won't necessarily ignore them!
> Privilege isn't just about wealth. Which poor people exactly do you consider privileged, and why? > The point is that although anyone can ignore the news, the news won't necessarily ignore them! What can they do about the news, though? I specifically said, "they may feel powerless to change anything".
> Which poor people exactly do you consider privileged, and why?
those with insulation from genocide and displacement despite poverty.
their point is that, say, a german peasant in 17th century couldn't avoid the Thirty Years War.
Re: Why I Disappeared – My week with minimal internet in a remote island chain
#16I had a similar experience many decades ago, taking a long overland trip and being out of touch of news for almost half a year. Coming back, I realized that the world had gone on perfectly well without me following all the daily drama. Most news seemed so irrelevant for a while after that trip. Of course I fell back in to following the news, and the rest of the internet. Thank you for reminding me that it is not so i…
I did this except it was more like a month. When I got back I realised how much happier I was to be off of X and oblivious to the news. There is virtually zero utility to being "informed" of most things, and plenty of downsides.
Re: Why I Disappeared – My week with minimal internet in a remote island chain
#17> Contrary to the national security threat machine’s picture of a country at war with itself, we all got along so swimmingly that the idea of a civil war or anything like it struck me as laughable, as did the notion that the statistically insignificant number of politically-motivated killings, though real, said anything at all about the vast majority of real-world Americans.
This line of thinking drives me crazy, especially from someone like Ken. Just because a bunch of privileged Americans were friendly with each other while enjoying an amazing time in nature doesn't immediately negate the very real problems going on in the US.
Re: Why I Disappeared – My week with minimal internet in a remote island chain
#18I bet everything will get partisan right after if they got stuck on that island. Or stay for a year. This is delusional.
Re: Why I Disappeared – My week with minimal internet in a remote island chain
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's definitely privileged to take a trip to the Galapagos, but I don't think it's privileged to ignore the news. A lot of poor people ignore the news. They may be too busy, or they may feel powerless to change anything. I think the real question is what exactly this entirely content-free statement means: "I’ll be focusing more on stories that actually matter instead of chasing the flash-in-the-pan ephemera that nobo…
Privilege isn't just about wealth. The point is that although anyone can ignore the news, the news won't necessarily ignore them!
The point is that 90% of the news is unimportant. Often you can read a weekly and that is enough
A politician said something and other politicians reacted. Usually unimportant unless it was backed by a law or something. If it was important then the weekly will cover it.
Main Character of the day on Social media. unimportant
A crime happened nearby. Unimportant
A celeb did something. Unimportant
Something happened to random person. Unimportant
Sport result. If you follow that team you already know, if not then not important.
Seriously go to the front page of the New York times or some other outfit and count the stories that you needed to read today.
Re: Why I Disappeared – My week with minimal internet in a remote island chain
#20The article doesn't deliver on the headline of why the author disappeared. At no point is the motivation for going to the Galapagos disclosed.