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Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

scientificamerican.com

651–660 of 980 posts

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#651
post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"media is in general is very right leaning" Wow. You don't need to be very right leaning to feel the complete opposite. I'm simply amazed someone could feel that way, as nearly all media is very left-leaning (to my perspective).

Your perspective may be miscalibrated. Organizations earning all their income from large corporations are unlikely to propagate socialism.

And there's the core of issue. If you use vague terms like "left" and "right", then different people in the discussion will be using different definitions. You're using them to mean socialism vs capitalism, whereas others mean Democrats vs Republicans. Some are even using liberal vs conservative. Occasionally, I've seen it as authoritarian vs libertarian, even though that should be an orthogonal axis. If you're going to commit to the logical sin of the false dichotomy, at least say what you mean.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#652
post #620

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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> stereotype [...] innuendo [...] slippery slope No need for histrionics, it's simple: Someone doesn't need to actively desire a terrible outcome to be morally culpable of making bad choices , ones they should-have-known would enable or encourage it to happen. Multiple such people can and do form groups. It's not limited to politics either, which is how we get idioms like "playing with fire."

Notably, people will also be nearly universally angry at anyone who points out the inevitable consequences of their actions in cases like this. Especially if they know you’re right.

Near as I can tell, the biggest failure of the left (and one that keeps getting repeated) is thinking words/knowledge matter in situations like this.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#653

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternatively carefully curate your social media accounts. My reddit home page is all books and formula 1. I'm quick to hit 'show me less like this' when anything drifts in from the front page. My Facebook feed is all friends and family who don't discuss politics and ads for nerd shirts. I've purchased a few. It is also easy and effective to hit show me less of this. I agree about LinkedIn and don't go there unless I…

That didn’t work for me, at least with FB and Insta. I unfollowed/unfriended anybody who kept posting political stuff. I did the same for anybody I didn’t interact with in real-life regularly. That basically left my parents, and about 5 friends. None of whom post anything regularly. So, now my feed is just random shitposts and memes from “influencers”. So, I deactivated my Meta accounts. And I’m still alive. And prob…

Yeah, I you should see the curation totally from the top, so fully dropping certain platforms is part of the curation. I mean, in essence we all already do that as certain platforms are not even considered a candidate in our 'portfolio'.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#654
post #638

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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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. > foc…

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

Do you have sources for that? Honestly trying to find out. Thanks!

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#655
post #620

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> stereotype [...] innuendo [...] slippery slope No need for histrionics, it's simple: Someone doesn't need to actively desire a terrible outcome to be morally culpable of making bad choices , ones they should-have-known would enable or encourage it to happen. Multiple such people can and do form groups. It's not limited to politics either, which is how we get idioms like "playing with fire."

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Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#656

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…

Just want to add that, while Reddit is a huge time sink, it is pretty easy to just see the good parts of it: - Mute any subreddit you do not enjoy - Generously block any asshole in the comments - Subscribe to the subreddits you do enjoy - Create one or more themed multireddits of the subreddits you enjoy My Reddit experience is cheesy feel good clips, cool videos of skilled people or weird occurences, funny niche hum…

the same can be said about any social media. you can block/unfollow/mute anything, but it creeps through anyway.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#657

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I checked reddit recently for the first time in a while, and I was shocked by how radicalized its become. An echo chamber of hateful people and perhaps GPTs that are agitating the big subreddits. The contrast is stark with all the "no place for hate" in the rules and endless banning of microaggressions. I saw dozens of death threats. Even an explicit death threat thread with over 40,000 upvotes before reddit stepped…

This is just the consequence of the API protests. Despite people claiming it had no lasting impact, admins coming in and making sweeping changes to mod teams replacing them with loyalists, alongside ramping up centralized feeds to serve more ads onto meant content quality took a nosedive. This is obvious in most subs if you actually look at who is submitting the threads (something the app and All/Popular pages hides…

It's wild how bad it has gotten since the election. It's important to remember that free speech does not protect directly inciting violence and it does not protect advocating for the murder of anyone, even a politician. These are generally illegal

So what Reddit has morphed into, is an illegal content factory - there has already been a comment or two about it from the government and the Trump admin is not one that is likely to sit on my sidelines over this.

Whatever your politics may be, I'm just saying this is going to burn Reddit bad.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#658
post #649

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"?

I'm referring to actions that can be observed in the vast majority of countries. There are two main cases here, which, surprisingly, are rarely discussed in the media.

The first case is when the state openly violates certain rights concerning individuals or groups, often under some pretext. An example could be a situation where you run an independent political website, and suddenly, it gets taken down by your ISP because they have received an ORDER from the intelligence agency, claiming that what you write is dangerous propaganda. Meanwhile, your constitution guarantees you freedom of speech. Another example might be someone being imprisoned for several months without a verdict or a concrete charge. Simply because they have fallen out of favour with the wrong people and are punished for it. I know this may sound like something that only happens in a 3rd-world country, but it is occurring in nearly all Western nations - it's just that the media choose not to report on it.

The second case is when a law is introduced, usually under a very appealing name - something like "The Environmental Protection Act". After all, who wouldn't want to protect the environment? Then, you suddenly discover that you are not allowed to build a private hydroelectric power plant on your own land because it is deemed illegal. This is happening in almost every country. When was the last time you heard about a law that removed restrictions? One that expanded civil liberties? Probably a long time ago. And yet, new laws are constantly being introduced.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#659
post #9

Those of us in the west tend to forget that much of what we see is a form of propaganda, whether by governments or businesses, or even a large number of people. When you keep this in mind, everything you see becomes an opinion and your mind can comfortably (or at least not emotionally/hurriedly) form your own opinion over time.

I agree that most messaging is propaganda, but that doesn't really counter the real pain that is being inflicted upon large populations of people by these government (and corporate) moves, and being cheered on by pretty large masses of people. The propaganda is like environmental pollution -- hard not to breathe it in. That said, I have no answer here..

I must agree, but I think the global public's awareness has been shocked into growth. I find the biggest problem with social media is actually user error. Unfortunately social media apps have become so complex that many have given up on curating their feeds. This is critical. If you can tune your social media to show you _interesting_ things, you can stay informed, possibly get good context, and not lose your mind.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#660

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…

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