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Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

scientificamerican.com

941–950 of 980 posts

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#941

I don't have outrage fatigue. Outrages are outrages and they are what they are. Are there many exaggerations and fake outrages? Sure. But things like the USA's current constitutional crisis are real. What I struggle with isn't fatigue at outrage, it's knowing what to do about it. I think violence is going to become more common, but I don't particularly think it will be effective. So less so than outrage, it's the fee…

>> But things like the USA's current constitutional crisis are real. While I have no doubt this is true, is it _actually_ having any impact on your day to day life? If you didn't have social media, didn't read the news, and somehow didn't even know there was an election (I know this one isn't possible) would your day to day life have changed at all? Look at the past week as an example. Threats of tariffs, headline ne…

Sure, many people can dramatically turn down news consumption and may do better (working towards their personal goals). This is an information diet and stress management question.

At the same time, the parable of the slow boiling frog is apropos here. The Trump administration is breaking many laws as they try to scare off career government employees and install loyalists.

As a general principle, I’m not opposed to improving government efficiency, but it must be done legally.

It will take time for the courts to respond to the executive overreaches. But what happens if the administration doesn’t comply? This has already happened and will likely happen more. If we have an executive branch not complying with the courts, the one branch remaining is Congress. If not that, then massive civil unrest. Or some kind of internal power struggle. This could boil over more quickly than some might expect. It is a test of our resolve.

What happens when some people in the administration realize they are likely going to be held accountable? Will they do the right thing then? Or will they double down?

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#942

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will worrying stop Trump? I believe that is the overarching point here. Stressing over things you can't/won't impact is largely a waste of time and energy. Your worry wont help Gaza.

Worrying is a precursor for planning and action. I have agency. We all do. Sad that you squander yours.

Definitionally there is no action that you will or can take about the things I said not to worry about, since I made that the condition. Comon man, at least read the comment.

I didn't say "never worry about anything ever".

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#944

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'thedonald' was not violent are even hateful by Reddit standards. Banning it was a big mistake and gave fringe supporters headroom. Reddit has in general got way worse since 2016. The amount of bloodthirst and hate is very unsettling.

the_donald was very hateful but I wouldn't call them violent. They were a cultish meme sub like /r/Conservative is. They got banned was for brigading not for being violent and hateful.

I would go as far as to say it was a childish meme sub (edit: and cultish, ye). I wonder if it was like that Flat Earth Society started. Once the "Qanon" type of guys turn up the memes become dogma.

I might have a different threshold for hateful on the internets or I didn't look closely enough.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#945
post #740

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m saying if you don’t seriously consider that someone is talking shit about their ex when talking to someone, until proven otherwise, you’ll be easy to fool eh?

The claim I was commenting on was "you are not going to get neutral news from them." Neither Powell Jobs nor The Atlantic is an ex of Trump.

So close…

They are political opponents though, correct?

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#946
post #851

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I subscribed to International Intrigue, which sends a digestible summary by email every day. https://www.internationalintrigue.io/

This is the second reference to this site. I like the style and lack of propaganda pitch. I wish there were more writings like this. You know of any other apolitical or with more authentic writing style?

It's it's political by nature, and biased because it's written by humans, but I think the brevity of the format helps keep things to the point.

Really, you have to do the pre-social-media trick of comparing multiple sources, adjusting for known biases, and synthesising a world view.

I've always rated the Financial Times for world news. It has a high-capital bias of course, but because its goal is to help investors make investment decisions it is incentivised to report things accurately rather than spin.

Also old media international news reporting is usually leagues better than domestic reporting. The BBC's reporting of UK politics is pretty weak, but it's international reporting is very high-quality. I wouldn't trust Al Jazeera to report on things the Qatari royal family have a stake in, but their remit is (or was) to inform said royal family accurately about world affairs.

On that note, I've seen plenty of adverts for Ground News, which supposedly lets you compare the bias of various sources for the same story. I've not tried it.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#947
post #851

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the second reference to this site. I like the style and lack of propaganda pitch. I wish there were more writings like this. You know of any other apolitical or with more authentic writing style?

It's it's political by nature, and biased because it's written by humans, but I think the brevity of the format helps keep things to the point. Really, you have to do the pre-social-media trick of comparing multiple sources, adjusting for known biases, and synthesising a world view. I've always rated the Financial Times for world news. It has a high-capital bias of course, but because its goal is to help investors ma…

It is hard to be apolitical, but most news are constantly repeating propaganda. Financial journals are great informing people. Right now business insider has an article on Wallstreet embracing opensource. The problem is that their pitch is always: How can we squeeze more from the working class and into our pockets?

I am looking for more authentic/humane writing style. There is a lot of info to keep informed, so the way in which things are expressed is important to me. Even outside the news it's hard to find good writing.

I think sites like ground.news just make things worst. The issue is not if something is left or right. It should be whether it is correct and in which setting. They are exploiting peoples' biases to make money.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#948
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Instagram dating thing is because, in the heteronormative sense, a guy without one odd WAY more likely to be cheating. If you’re in a relationship, even if you don’t post, your significant other will likely tag you in their posts. I’ve never really understood doomscrolling on Twitter or Reddit. The only social media I find remotely useful out entertaining is actually TikTok. The comments are IME the least toxic a…

I 100% believe that guys with Instagram accounts are more likely to cheat than guys without them.

Agreed, but we are getting thrown in with the people who have an insta account, but say they don't so they don't get fact-checked on their relationship status.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#949
post #776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You’re making such an absurd comparison in situations. The death of your own family has an immediate and extreme impact on you personally. > 99% of what you see on the news you would never know happened if it wasn’t presented to you. What I'm hearing is that if the government kills someone, only their immediate family members are allowed to protest. We shouldn't protest when the government is killing people who are…

You seem very emotionally uncalibrated if the first place you go is that the majority of news must mean your family is going to die. I’m not going to stop you from becoming emotionally destroyed by impossibly-worst-case-scenario perseverating any time something doesn’t politically go your way. I’m also not going to stop you from blowing 99% of political events so far out of proportion that you can’t sleep at night. I…

A lot of political news is that my government is torturing or mass-murdering other people's families in a distant land. I understand your comment to say that I shouldn't feel bad about it unless (until) they're killing *my* family. This idea leads to losing by a thousand cuts, as in "First they came for the socialists..."

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#950

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One thing to consider for those of us who are more sensitive to online outrage is to just quit social media all together. This is hard to overstate. Checkout Jonathan Haidts research into social medias role in skyrocketing mental health problems in kids over the past decade. The junkfood comparison is great. It feels good now but makes you extremely unhealthy long term. Its deceptive because it doesnt look that bad…

> Checkout Jonathan Haidts research I love that guy! He generally makes the rounds as a guest on most of the large podcasts and I’d recommend anyone listen to at least one podcast where he’s a guest.

I hope he becomes more influential. He is the tip of the spear in terms of combating the negative effects of social media and improving youth mental health.
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