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

641–650 of 980 posts

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#641

Post by foldr »

Dalewyn wrote: post #572
xvector wrote: post #568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It feels like everyone forgot Reddit's roots as far as its politics are concerned. Namely, the place was Libertarian Central on the internet until 2015 when it got astroturfed basically overnight to swing the other way. I was there to witness it and the whiplash was something fierce. Reddit has been basically unusable for anything concerning politics since, and nowadays with politics leaking out into every damn sub p…

It’s not a Reddit thing. I also remember the days when everyone online was a libertarian. But Conservatives then turned to nationalist ideologies that don’t emphasize the free market, that are anti-immigration, and that take a dim view of personal sexual freedom. There are fewer people expressing libertarian points of view all over the shop. There’s a good article about it here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/06/05/the-individual...

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#642

Post by anamdhek »

warkdarrior wrote: post #404
zombiwoof wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t this how they win? I mean the people in Germany in 1930 just said , this is crazy , it doesn’t feel right, but hey I have outrage fatigue so the concentration camps are just fine

Much of the German population in the 1930s and 1940s was not aware of concentration camps, and learned of them once the Allies arrived.

Early 30s, sure. Late 30s and 40s? You should qualify your statement with “this is a heated historical debate, but some people argue that…” Keep in mind the significant incentives to not seek out information, to disbelieve the information one did come across, and to lie after the war was over.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#643

Post by paganel »

There is no use in staying "informed" in the current societal environment, there is no propaganda-free information floating around anymore, if there ever was. As long as one is aware of that basic fact then things will fall into line more easily.

And, yes, I have been in the boat of "trying to stay informed" for almost 20 years now, as in I was actually paying money for The Economist and the Financial Times, but around a couple of years ago (in fact three, since the war in Ukraine started for good) I realized that they were as propaganda-infested as the rest of the media and that was the end of my journey of trying to remain "informed". No information gathering and receiving is neutral, none at all.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#644

Post by lazide »

majgr wrote: 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…

The constitution (any constitution) and laws are just words on paper. They only matter when the people in the system make it matter. And larger society is part of that system.

Having a system which incentivizes people to not allow this to happen certainly helps - but corruption is inevitable and requires constant work to correct.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#645

Post by Cthulhu_ »

karaterobot wrote: post #17

Avoid following the news constantly. Check in every once in a while—a couple times a week at most. Get your news from long articles, not tweets. Actually read the articles, don't just learn about the world from hot takes. > ... people have found that, actually, outrage can be useful. It actually can help you identify a problem and react to it. But it can also be harmful if you’re experiencing it all the time and beco…

To add, find the source itself; submissions to HN are sometimes guilty of this (and often get corrected), posting an article about an article instead of the article itself, the meta-article telling you how to feel and think about the source instead of the source sticking to the facts. And the headline on HN itself priming you as well (but there's the policy that titles on HN should not be editoralised).

It's why I like kinda "boring" news outlets like Reuters. I don't know for sure but our national news thing (NOS) feels fair as well, it doesn't have an overt political alignment and will often report on both sides - even if I'm very much inclined to dismiss one side, but I won't claim to be unbiased.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#646

Post by lazide »

throwawaythekey wrote: post #603
intended wrote: post #581

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…

And firing most of the national security council, and all the FBI agents who went after folks who did Jan 6th?

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#647

Post by foldr »

xvector wrote: post #605
intended wrote: post #581

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…

[flagged]

> Off the bat, you've called everyone that disagrees with you a Nazi that needs to be violently attacked.

They did not do this. Everyone can read the post that you’re responding to.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#648

Post by magicalhippo »

CrimsonRain wrote: post #575
majgr wrote: 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…

Are you sure these high value professionals are fair? I saw this story the other day; don't have much idea about Poland. So verify yourself. https://notesfrompoland.com/2025/02/03/polish-billionaire-of...

You know what you can do? Subscribe to multiple papers, from both sides. Then you can do some comparison to see when things are reported differently.

When I grew up we had at least two papers, sometimes three. One was leaning left, other leaning right.

These days it's what Ground News[1] is trying to do from what I can gather, though haven't tried them as they don't cover the news in my country.

[1]: https://ground.news/

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#649

Post by _7acn »

majgr wrote: 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…

What do you mean by “trumpists” precisely? In Poland, two centrist parties take turns in power. One uses more conservative and pro-American rhetoric, while the other is more liberal and pro-European. However, if you focus on what these parties actually do, there is no fundamental difference between them. Both raise taxes, expand bureaucracy, and limit freedom. And neither of them represents Polish interests.

And yet, people supporting one or the other party are furious at each other. It’s like a battle between warring tribes.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#650

Post by throwaway290 »

_7acn wrote: post #649
majgr wrote: 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…

What do you mean by “trumpists” precisely? In Poland, two centrist parties take turns in power. One uses more conservative and pro-American rhetoric, while the other is more liberal and pro-European. However, if you focus on what these parties actually do, there is no fundamental difference between them. Both raise taxes, expand bureaucracy, and limit freedom. And neither of them represents Polish interests. And yet,…

How do they limit freedom and what kind? Is it like blocking websites and police searches or like "you can't drink booze outside"?
Post reply on HN