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Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

scientificamerican.com

631–640 of 980 posts

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#631

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That helped the issue click into place - NONE of the past 15 days are unremarkable. And again, ITS BEEN 15 Days! If you stop your thought at just “people are losing their shit”, thats seeing half the world. I’d say thats disingenuous, because it misses or dismisses the incredibly alarming actions that have precipitated them. If you genuinely care about it, then you might be interested in knowing why people are respon…

Let me put it another way. Trump is likely to try many outrageous and unexpected things. As someone who tries to be non partisan, and isn't even american, I am fatigued by all of the claims that the world within the USA is ending. Whenever I take the time to examine any of the claims they tend to be fairly hollow or making slippery slope arguments. As an international user of reddit, there are many of us I presume, I…

> slippery slope arguments

If we review democracies through history that have at some point become less democratic, I think describing the process of how that actually happens as being a slippery slope is quite apt. I’d say it’s more of a fallacy to assume that democracy is a secure default state of being rather than an ideal that we must collectively support or lose entirely—that we can safely “slip” a little without risking a slide further down the slope.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#633

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Subreddits like r/pics are packed full of thinly veiled death threats towards the sitting president or Elon Musk. This is just blatant misinformation. Since r/pics is the only example you've chosen to give us, let's evaluate it: I've scrolled through the current first 50 posts in Hot, and 0 of them are death threats, thinly veiled or otherwise. "Packed full", indeed. And here, so it isn't simply my word vs. his; th…

Yeah "packed full" is probably a bit too heavy here. To pick a few examples though: - The nazi punching thread had several moderated comments ranked near the top which were presumably calls to violence. - The Mitch McConnal thread has many people looking forward to his death, hoping he goes to hell, and a few deleted comments. - A musk thread has "eat the rich" and storm the capitol. Not super highly ranked. I didn't…

I’m a researcher working at a supposedly prestigious university and I can see homeless people with rotting limbs if I step off my campus and don’t look the other way. Some of my colleagues recently were awarded significant private funds to push a compound for a currently incurable dementia to clinical trials. They attended an instructional conference with other awardees and found that several were not there because they are at the NIH and so are under a gag order and travel ban. I am pretty sure Mitch “McConnal,” who spent his career obstructing any progress on the issues I describe below and who paved the way for current events, is actually dying of either a related dementia or the one they are working on, btw. So, what do you recommend Americans do? Never reveal we might have some anger towards being at the whims of people who would rather die themselves than help others? Don’t get me started on the genius who invented the single-person subway or et al.

You are misattributing American madness to the people it is being inflicted on rather than the instigators. We have oil wells behind our homes and schools and the white picket fence chemists I knew and looked up to as a kid are the reason we all have PFAs in our blood. Our president vacillates between saber-rattling at our closest allies, starting a new war in the Middle East, and causing constitutional crises every other day. We don’t have a single-payer healthcare option like every other developed country and our “social safety nets” are so impacted and difficult to get, they might as well not exist for most people. We do, however, have some very, very profitable oligopolies (some which make very tasty fish sandwiches) and higher income inequality than India or Russia.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#634
post #570

Living in Poland ruled by trumpists for 8 years I have these experiences: - Get subscription of high value newspaper or magazine. Professionals work there, so you will get real facts, worthy opinions and less emotions. - It is better to not use social media. You never know if you are discussing with normal person, a political party troll, or Russian troll. - It is not worth discussing with „switched-on” people. They…

Out of curiosity-- does "trumpists" mean PiS? Are the "trumpists" still in power? What is the current trend (toward trumpists or away?).

> Get subscription of high value newspaper or magazine. Professionals work there, so you will get real facts, worthy opinions and less emotions.

This is excellent advise. I'm worrying that post-paper news have a really strong incentive nowadays to drive outrage, and that the current level of reporting we see online is the new normal.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#635
post #167

I've been an avid news consumer since ~2016 and early on I remember getting very outraged at articles, tweets and other pieces of news I read. Over time I realized that these articles want you to be outraged, and that the outrage is a form of control. Over time though I picked up on these "outrage triggers" and that's helped me be much more objective about news I'm reading. I'll be reading an article and I can usuall…

I had to give up news altogether before I could notice this, but yeah, news exists for the sole purpose of creating outrage in order to generate ad impressions. When you get outraged by one story, you’re more likely to click on the next related headline. We’re destroying our society so we can make less than a penny per page.

> news exists for the sole purpose of creating outrage in order to generate ad impressions

I like the idea of distinguishing news from journalism. If we say they're distinct, then yeh I think I can agree that news is–via weird unintentional evolution of incentives–an outrage machine, but true journalism is a wondrous and professional exercise of human scrutiny on centres of otherwise unchecked power. We need that.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#637

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit? Or the circumstances of Trump’s presidency? Hacker News is radicalizing, and is very likely going to have to decide if it’s going to be pro MAGA or not. What did people think the response was going to be once Trump did everything he said he would? People would lie back and let things happen? In America? The land of the second amendment? I mean people should be happy, after this liberals are going to be proud…

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:D you forgot the /s

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#638

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit? Or the circumstances of Trump’s presidency? Hacker News is radicalizing, and is very likely going to have to decide if it’s going to be pro MAGA or not. What did people think the response was going to be once Trump did everything he said he would? People would lie back and let things happen? In America? The land of the second amendment? I mean people should be happy, after this liberals are going to be proud…

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> deported a few thousand illegal immigrants who are criminals and rapists

As well as thousands who are normal hard-working people.

> taken back Panama Canal from Chinese dictatorship

By using threats of force like a dictatorship.

> attempted to shrink the size of the government and American tax burden

In illegal, non-democratic ways.

> put more tariffs on Chinese dictatorship

As well as more democratic allies.

> focused US on AI

Without understanding the huge risks involved for all of humanity.

> taken over Gaza to prevent another war between Israel and Hamas

By doing ethnic cleansing.

> gotten Mexico and Canada to finally own up to protecting the border

And in the process lost the trust and respect of allies.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#640

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…

Good on you. I have been pushing the idea of leaving social media to people for well over a decade now, for the same of people learning to communicate with each other in more meaningful ways and improve their mental health. It worked for me and everyone that actually listened to me.

But the emotionally violent resistance I get from people who are embedded in it is wild. I've commented on here before and subsequently pissed people off, but it is an addiction and needs to be treated like one.

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