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

Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

scientificamerican.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 980 posts

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#111

Post by DFHippie »

33MHz-i486 wrote: post #81
bende511 wrote: post #20

[flagged]

[flagged]

> a department within his purview

That's not how it works in the U.S. If an executive branch department was created by the legislature, it is up to the legislature whether or not it exists, not the executive. If the legislature has passed laws regarding how its resources are to be used, its employees treated, the executive is not free to disregard those laws.

The legislature is the source of laws in the U.S., not the executive. The irony is that the Republicans control the legislature as well. They could pass laws to achieve what Musk wants. It would be slow, but it would be legal.

A coup is seizing power outside the legal mechanism for doing so.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#112

Post by nineplay »

Been there, done that. I've tried to stay informed but not outraged for the last 8 years and it didn't make a damn bit of difference. I got involved in local issues, I phone banked, I tried to put my money where it would do the most good.

I'm out. I'm hiding away and hoping nothing affects me personally, and if it does I'm not going to think there's anything I could have done about it.

We're not in control anymore. Not unless there are any tech billionaires lurking on HN, and they don't give a shit about us.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#113

Post by dboreham »

wesselbindt wrote: post #30
okeuro49 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're nothing like Trump? You should research what happened to Liz Truss.

Since you're asking, yes they are. Johnson is a right wing populist, and Liz Truss recently spoke at a far right conference, complaining about the deep state thwarting her plan. They're Trump without the funny accent.

Parent is probably noting that neither is now in office, in part or whole due to their stupidity and criminality.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#114

Post by DFHippie »

morpheos137 wrote: post #88

If you're outraged by anything that does not directly impact your life you're doing life wrong. We all have limited time and energy. I have never been able to understand people who get emotional over things they read online that have no impact on their day to day life.

> If you're outraged by anything that does not directly impact your life you're doing life wrong.

This is a pointless truism. Everything relies on "does not directly impact your life", and there's no useful guidance on that point.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#115

Post by psunavy03 »

seneca wrote: post #110
jquery wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve generally found that overtly biased outlets on the right aren’t a huge source of outrage for me because their spin is so blatant—once I notice the propaganda, it’s easy to tune out. The bigger frustration is knowing how many people take that coverage at face value. It’s not quite the same “outrage” the article describes, though. By contrast, the NYT often feels more subtle and therefore more effective at stoking…

You're absolutely correct, but you're missing an important detail. I'm assuming you're more aligned politically with the left. If you're not, I apologize for the assumption. To someone who is more right-wing, the bias of e.g. NYT is just as blatant as Fox News is to you, and Fox may come off as "fair". This is because the propaganda is specifically intended to land with their own audience. It's tuned to your sensibil…

Subreddits are a great place to see the result of this . . . it's incredible how much utter shite and misinformation is just taken for granted as "the way things are" and how much the details of said misinformation depend on your political leanings.

And of course everyone is convinced that they have the rational truth and it's the other guy who's the "low-information voter" being taken by the propaganda.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#116

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK »

joshdavham wrote: post #42

One thing to consider for those of us who are more sensitive to online outrage is to just quit social media all together. I’m technically gen z and I’ve been off of social media (aside from HN, WhatsApp and discord) for years and you wouldn’t believe how great it’s been for my overall state of mind. Reddit, instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads, etc are all the equivalent of digital junk food and I’d argu…

I reduced my news intake to a daily email from reuters + HN. Special thanks go to AI, as reddit and others no longer allow reading content without login.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#118

Post by dageshi »

ryandrake wrote: post #89
dageshi wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps it depends on the individual, but I never found it possible. The news just made me sad, sad and angry most of the time, it's just a stream of 24/7 misery and if there's not enough misery going on locally the news will find misery from around the world to fill the run time.

What helped me is to realize: Sadness and anger come from within, not from the outside. Nobody can "make" you mad. They will do what they do, and it's up to us to decide if and how to emotionally respond to it. We are not amoebas that simply respond to stimulus. We have agency over our own thoughts and feelings. This is something I try to teach my kid, and I think it's also helped her deal with others who she would p…

I think "deciding whether to emotionally respond" to something... isn't emotion?

Emotion is something you feel, not something you decide to allow yourself to feel.

Like, if I hear about someone being raped or murdered, how am I not going to have an emotional reaction of sadness or anger to that? And ultimately what use was that emotion? I cannot prevent the event happening, it has already happened, I am just a voyeur to someone else's tragedy.

Most of the news is like that. It's events that have already happened, that I can do nothing about but I'm vaguely meant to be up to date with because.... reasons? Some vague concept that everyone is meant to have an inch deep understanding of current events so they've got something to gossip about?

I truly don't see the point or the benefit.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#119

Post by yakhinvadim »

I tried to solve this problem by making AI rank the stories by significance and rewriting the news titles in a boring, factual style.

I think it worked quite well, there's only about 10 headlines a day (out of 15k+) that get a significance rating higher than of 5.5 out of 10.

It also helps avoiding the overfocus on western issues and actually learn what's happening around the world.

https://www.newsminimalist.com/

Post reply on HN