Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I stopped following the news

mertbulan.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 205 posts

Re: I stopped following the news

#131

Post by gigatexal »

WithinReason wrote: post #103
gigatexal wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I’m grateful for the people who do follow the news, read it, protest against the bullshit, and participate more in the democratic process than I do. This is a completely human response to the horrible things happening the world both domestic and abroad. It’s also history repeating itself: doing nothing when bad things are happening in our communities is what allows them to happen. Think what the villages around…

With the news being so biased it could very well make you less able to participate in democracy effectively. Maybe the villages around concentration camps did nothing because they were consuming nazi propaganda.

Contrasted to that they had the smell of the furnaces. And we have first hand video of citizens being shot by DHS.

Re: I stopped following the news

#132

Post by leadingthenet »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #118
tessierashpool9 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second that and I think the HN moderation (@dang) here should do a better job keeping things on topic. That is actually super important because HN will eventually just be another reddit. Quality of conversation here has been deteriorating already significantly in the past years due to more and more people with insignificant curiosity about technology and science but all the more interest for engaging in pointless p…

Reddit is a shit platform for discussing politics. The users on this site have much more interesting things to say about politics from my experience.

If the last couple of weeks are anything to go by, I'd strongly argue the quality of discourse on any ICE/Trump/Tariffs-related topics have been at exactly Reddit-level, along with the most upvoted opinions mirroring those on Reddit almost to a tee.

I vaguely remember checking one of those ICE posts out the other day, and there was not a single comment going against the grain that was neither flagged nor heavily downvoted, out of over a hundred. Nuance/dissent wasn't even vaguely on the cards.

I don't know what your definition of Reddit-like is, but that's mine.

Re: I stopped following the news

#133

Post by JKCalhoun »

leadingthenet wrote: post #132
JKCalhoun wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is a shit platform for discussing politics. The users on this site have much more interesting things to say about politics from my experience.

If the last couple of weeks are anything to go by, I'd strongly argue the quality of discourse on any ICE/Trump/Tariffs-related topics have been at exactly Reddit-level, along with the most upvoted opinions mirroring those on Reddit almost to a tee. I vaguely remember checking one of those ICE posts out the other day, and there was not a single comment going against the grain that was neither flagged nor heavily down…

Reddit comments would focus on the headline—essentially confirming they never read the article. And of course add a sprinkling of "Cheeto Emperor" or whatever. I've not seen that (that wasn't also then heavily "disappeared" on HN).

Regarding the past couple of weeks, I think it's rather difficult to find nuance when we all saw the videos of protesters being killed by a federal police force. Anyone trying to take the Administration's side is, I imagine, going to come across as shrill.

On the more nuanced political issues though I have been happy to see opposing viewpoints well reasoned—even when I disagreed with them. There was a time when reddit was young that you might have found the same level of discussions.

Re: I stopped following the news

#136

Post by h02 »

Rolf Dobelli wrote an excellent book on this topic called "Stop Reading the News: A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life". He addresses directly many of the objections raised in these comments.

Re: I stopped following the news

#137

Post by M95D »

Ralfp wrote: post #30
M95D wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why read news and not directly read the new laws and regulations that were voted and passed, or new proposed laws under discussion? https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-sa...

Because not everything is done as EU law. Frequently its an executive order or a directive passed down from national minister or other govt official to their branch or other branches to make their base happy at expense of people currently blamed for govt’s failures. Eg. no law in Poland regulates legal gender change process. But there is a series of directves for courts on how this should be addressed issued by whoev…

1) So we should just read the news?

2) It was just an example. Each person should study their aplicable law-making process.

Re: I stopped following the news

#138

Post by M95D »

Arainach wrote: post #22
M95D wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why read news and not directly read the new laws and regulations that were voted and passed, or new proposed laws under discussion? https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-sa...

There's way too much going on to follow all of it, and most of the important stuff isn't written down. By the time the text of bills is available, the politicians and influencers have been discussing things for a long time and the opportunity to do anything about it is nearly gone. Perhaps we could pay people to follow important topics, politicians, important lobbyists and see what they're doing and claiming they wan…

But then, some rich people could pay them more to focus on certain subjects and ignore others.

Re: I stopped following the news

#139

Post by 6bb32646d83d »

nialv7 wrote: post #47

What a privilege, what a luxury, to be able to turn a blind eye to all the injustice that's currently happening in the world... Sure, do what you want, ignore news if that makes you feel better, but do realise for many, they are not afforded this kind of luxury.

I keep reading this point of view, that not being glued to the news is "privilege".

I completely disagree.

Refreshing your feed all day long, getting angry at all the news, does not make someone superior. I'm not going to travel to support the iranian uprising, or going hide illegal immigrants in a Minneapolis basement, and it is likely that neither are you. So the end result is the same, except the person consuming and reacting to the news is wasting more time. Worst, they become radicalized and are now part of the extremism that keep being pushed.

I research policy and vote when asked. In between, there's too much going on in my life to spend it with daily news

Re: I stopped following the news

#140

Post by m463 »

sjw987 wrote: post #4

I think it's important to keep reading the news occasionally. Personally, I, as a programmer, read the news in the same way as my grandad who was a farmer. I read a printed weekly publication (in my case The Economist) on Sunday morning. Outside of Sunday morning I don't read the news at all. I prefer printed news to media-supported news, because I think the imagery (I acknowledge The Economist still has images) and…

you could read wikipedia news:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events

Post reply on HN