7 ms·

Well written piece. I stopped reading news after Trump got into office and I have no shame about it. It feels great and I don't I miss out on anything. When p

• Cleisthenes 9y ago
  That was your lesson from this? Stick your head in the ground and pretend politics is pointless? Ignorance of politics is a luxury afforded only to citizens of authoritarian regimes. You live in a democracy (assuming that discussion of Trump in politics means you live in the US). Politics is how society chooses to make and use government. People pretending they are morally superior or lead better lives through ignorance never cease to amaze me. This article talks about sensationalism in news. Sure, avoid it. Be skeptical of bold claims. But right now Trump and Republicans are talking about making gigantic changes to the nation's healthcare system. Regardless of where you sit on the fence, this absolutely matters. Pay attention. Find less sensational news. Pay for good journalism and also look for balanced analysis.
  • ryanmarsh 9y ago
    Pay for good journalism Where? He that is without sin among them, let him cash the first check. I’ve checked out too. The S/N ratio is way past what my filters can handle. I either need algorithmic filtering or noise attenuation. The fact is we’re all part of an intersubjective reality. It’s impossible for me to determine what is fake news and anyone who claims they can is fooling themselves or has primary sources.
    • kermittd 9y ago
      Off topic but have you read Homo Deus?
      • ryanmarsh 9y ago
        Yes
        • kermittd 9y ago
          Great so have I! Intersubjective is what clued me in. The whole idea of Intersubjective reality cleared up a lot of misgivings I had about civilizations/societies.
          • ryanmarsh 9y ago
            Same here. It also makes people who are adamant about any position related to fake news (what it is, who is making it, whether it's good or bad, etc...) sound like a barking dog.
    • defined 9y ago
      This is what I'm finding too. I'm suffering from what I suppose one could call "issue fatigue" (or perhaps "drama fatigue"). This characterization is not pejorative[0], it's just that inarguably real and serious events (hurricanes, earthquakes, and other disasters, whether natural or man-made) are presented with as much gravitas (or excitement) as merely scandalous (or, more likely, scandalized) news. One gets so tired of perceiving this, one could be forgiven for throwing one's hands up in disgust and sheltering from the torrential wordpour. [0] A favored phrase from, IIRC, the original K&R 'C' book.
  • Typhon 9y ago
    You can pay attention to politics, you can do politics without necessarily following obsessively every little happenstance of things. Once you know some politician is a racist crook, you don't need a reminder every day. You especially don't need a remind from people who will give the same amount of space to the president's crooked necktie or and to the healthcare reform. What you mostly need is coordination to fight his politics, which is not what the media give you. The american media were bad before Trump, and they have remained bad as far as I can tell. They completely fail to disentangle the serious from the merely ridiculous.
    • forapurpose 9y ago
      > The american media ... bad This is too easy an answer to serious problems. It is similar to saying 'all American developers are bad', because a lot of my software is buggy. It depends on the developer and on the news source. Some news sources are exceptional, though like all human endeavors they are always far from ideal. Some are far better than others; to lump in the National Enquirer with the New York Times is to "completely fail to disentangle the serious from the merely ridiculous."
    • JauntyHatAngle 9y ago
      >The american media were bad before Trump, and they have remained bad as far as I can tell. They completely fail to disentangle the serious from the merely ridiculous. The issue here is, you paint too broad a brush saying this. I don't want this to seem like I am aiming this at you necessarily, because I am more just piggy backing a comment to write about rather than aiming this at you so take the rest of the comment with that in mind.. but.. You can follow particular journalists that have a high reputation, and disregard ones that have a bad reputation without disavowing all journalists and the media in general. Similarly, you can treat bias in journalism the same way you treat a review - you know what journalists see things particular ways and therefore view their slant on things as a bent on an already established world view. Some journalists are so unbiased that you can almost ignore this. Some journalists are so biased you can use them as the canary in the coal mine for how a segment of a population is likely to view the issue etc etc. There are majority mediocre people in every profession, media is an industry that has picked up a huge proportion of hacks and automated articles in the past 10 years, instead of viewing it as an overall industry - look for the good ones and the interesting ones, not just "all media bad".
  • tdb7893 9y ago
    99% of political news has no significant impact on my life (and actually focusing on it makes me less happy). You can significantly reduce the amount of news you get while still getting the few things that really matter. I've found personally there's about one news story every other week that I think is important to know
  • treehau5 9y ago
    > You live in a democracy > People pretending they are morally superior or lead better lives through ignorance never cease to amaze me. First of all, we don't have a direct democracy. This concept that everyone has to be 100% engaged (or even 90, or 80, or whatever subjective figure in your head that qualifies good enough is, which is another issue, your concept of being engaged enough doesn't match another) need not apply. Just enough people have to be engaged, which historically speaking has happened. Second of all, I don't think anyone is claiming a moral high ground here, and if they are you are correct to say shame on them. Third of all, people who place the same onus of keeping up with whatever the hell is going on in the world as some moral duty never cease to amaze me because it is so easy to flip the script on you and say you don't know enough. There is an endless amount of information out there. "News" as a concept is not even a fraction as old as the concept of government and democracy. We face information overload. How can you blame people for just wanting to live their lives? What if I never signed up for this system? Most people care more about their issues locally (which is in line with human psychology, we weren't meant for these large social networks) but people who sit here and cast stones at people who aren't keeping up with what happens with the Mueller investigation, for example, (which something happens every 2.5 seconds) is what never ceases to amaze me.
    • whorleater 9y ago
      > First of all, we don't have a direct democracy. This isn't an argument against being informed, it's a pointless debate over semantics. You and anyone reasonable understood what GP meant, they meant democracy as a "national built on foundations of democratic values, such as freedom of press, freedom of speech (to varying extents), right to assemble, etc" in contrast to "authoritarian regime where those values are not enshrined in the government legislature or cultural values". > There is an endless amount of information out there. "News" as a concept is not even a fraction as old as the concept of government and democracy. We face information overload The concept of modern news may not have been a invented at the same time, yet it remains a fundamental core part of many democratic-leaning nation's values. > How can you blame people for just wanting to live their lives? What if I never signed up for this system? You're probably free to move to an authoritarian regime if you cared to. No one chose to be born into a government system, but to claim no responsibility in a system that you've benefited from since you were born is passing the buck.
  • mustaforgot 9y ago
    I am not morally superior to you, and I don't even know that such a thing exists because it makes no sense. I do however have a heightened sense of empathy and awareness of the things going on around me, which means I'm not well suited to caring or paying too much attention to global or even national-level politics, because it would literally make me physically ill. So I might be superior to you when it comes to caring about local politics, whereas you might be superior to me when it comes to caring about broader scope politics.
  • inopinatus 9y ago
    I don't think the OP's granularity preference of "monthly" for current-affairs consumption deserves such an strong rebuke. I have limited interest in the toxic modern ouroboros of the so-called "news cycle" and the hysterical yelping of politicians of any colour. I don't believe I have a civic obligation to follow the tedious, self-serving minutiae of political horse-trading. My time and energy are allocated to making things, and real-time news is a productivity-destroying distraction. But I still like to be informed. A monthly summary of goings-on in the world, written specifically according to my general (but not immediate) interests, why, yes, that'd be something I'd pay for as well. So this isn't "ignorance of politics": when the next election comes around, then I'll make my assessment based on what I've read, and play my part in choosing the next government. In the meantime, I've got work to do.
  • kermittd 9y ago
    Though I pay attention to politics like you and unlike the OP I have become skeptical in journalism to truly inform anyone. I've migrated to books primarily for my information and this was before Trump was a serious political contender.
  • racer-v 9y ago
    Democracy is to power what pornography is to sex. Do you really think that participating in scuttlebutt about the reality show of presidential politics has anything to do with governance? The first step is to turn off the noise and take direct action to help the people around you.
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  • hitekker 9y ago
    You are 100% right on the money.
  • cisanti 9y ago
    I live in eastern-Europe and your bipartisan politics leak here too. If I was an American, I would read politics even less since you already know who to vote for, you pretty much have 2 choices. It's a bit more complex here.
• whorleater 9y ago
  > month and only about topics that matter What topics matter? The ethnic cleaning of Rohingya muslims? The latest javascript framework? Your local city elections? Trump's legal gaffs? The earthquake in Mexico? Basically every subset "topics that matter" is available, yet there are arguments like this one, bemoaning the fact that "topics that matter" is somehow an unfilled void. Don't shift your unwillingness to become an informed citizen on the media.
  • sugarpile 9y ago
    The ones that affect me directly.
    • spaceseaman 9y ago
      If you truly think that the repeal of ACA won't affect you directly, I suppose there's nothing anyone can do to convince you that the news does matter.
      • e9 9y ago
        Please explain. I honestly have no idea how repeal of ACA will affect me.
        • spaceseaman 9y ago
          ... http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+will+the+ahca+affect+me http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+will+the+ahca+affect+me https://www.cbsnews.com/news/here-is-how-the-american-health-care-act-would-affect-employer-based-insurance/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/here-is-how-the-american-health... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/12/us/politics/republican-health-plan-impact.html?mcubz=0 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/12/us/politics/r... https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-health-care-bill-would-affect-you-1493863810 https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-health-care-bill-would-affe... All that is a bit dated, since the current bill hasn't actually had time to be evaluated. Here's an article http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-obamacare-101-graham-cassidy-20170919-story.html http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-obamacare-101-grah... Oh and if researching this is too hard for you too: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=How+would+graham-cassidy+repeal+affect+me http://lmgtfy.com/?q=How+would+graham-cassidy+repeal+affect+... The most obvious things being you wouldn't have to worry about the individual mandate, but you would have to worry if you currently have a pre-existing condition (which is pretty damn common). Do people seriously have such little ability to research things anymore?
• nihonde 9y ago
  Try NHK World News[1]. It follows a reasonably-paced daily news cycle and has some distance on domestic issues in the western world. [1] https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/ https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/
• nrb 9y ago
  What about when the politics bleeds into important areas of peoples everyday life, such as their health care? I think people should probably be aware of something like not being able to afford coverage because of a pre-existing condition before that protection is taken away.
• tomfitz 9y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017#August https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017#August
• qq66 9y ago
  A good service that mails you once a month about things that matter is a subscription to a proper news magazine like _The Atlantic_ or _The Economist_.
  • adricnet 9y ago
    _The Week_ is quite good (US or UK). They have people read many of the things you don't have time to (including _The Economist_ :) ) and pull highlights from them across a broad range of topics.
  • cisanti 9y ago
    The Atlantic is not a newspaper but propaganda for their selected political elite.
• chris_wot 9y ago
  I don’t get this. You want the news media to give in-depth, accurate and insightful articles about complex issues and topics but you want it summarised into a several paragraph summary once a month. And you complain about the news media now...
• forapurpose 9y ago
  What you are saying is that you are leaving your part for someone else to do; thanks. If you were involved you would know that the number one reason that bad things - and many are obviously bad - happen is that so many people don't pay attention. They let the sharks and con artists run rampant over them, use them like suckers, and of course they complain later.
  • dang 9y ago
    > What you are saying is that you are leaving your part for someone else to do; thanks. Please don't post acerbic personal swipes to HN. They violate the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
    • forapurpose 9y ago
      Sure, but I see plenty of it on HN, especially far-right trolling. Is that so common that it's just normalized and overlooked? For example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15297953 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15297953 EDIT: Or maybe mods just can't realistically every comment.
      • dang 9y ago
        We definitely don't see every comment. Though I did reply in that thread. The way to get us to see the comments is to flag them. To flag a comment, click on its timestamp to go to its page, then click 'flag' at the top. Alternatively, email hn@ycombinator.com in egregious cases.
• hackermailman 9y ago
  There's a few slow journalism outlets like Delayed Gratification https://www.slow-journalism.com https://www.slow-journalism.com I also don't watch any news. I listen to the 5 minute local radio news channel on my way to work, since this covers local news I should know. Once in a while if I have time I read journals like Oxford's Foreign Policy Analysis. I used to pick up local community papers but they jumped on the moral panic bandwagon too and they're filled with international political hit jobs and talking points now instead of anything local.
  • cisanti 9y ago
    Thank you so very much, this is exactly what I was looking for, but couldn't find. it was worth to write my comment because you replied with this link :)
• dqpb 9y ago
  I ignore my memory monitoring tools for the same reason. It feels great not worrying about all the processes about to OOM. Id pay for a service to email me once a month to tell me if my site is down. If I care I can just sift through the logs later.
• michrassena 9y ago
  I stopped years ago, and unfortunately have let myself be dragged back into it recently. I wouldn't advocate being so disconnected that you don't know the major things going on in the world. What I've found by not paying close attention to the news is that the important stuff still finds its way to you. Instead, perhaps we'd all benefit if we didn't keep our hands on the pulse of the news, so to speak. Stepping back from the day-to-day, he said/she said, tit-for-tat, inside-baseball everyday news cycle is what I'm getting at. The news, by and large, is bad news. It can be a constant reminder of our powerlessness as individuals. It can be a barrage of situations we can't change, but feel some anxiety over. What about the news is actionable? We can grab an umbrella. I'd rather view the news as a troubled friend who is always mired in drama. While I respect its role in my life and the importance to society, news delivers too much drama to be invited around every evening, let alone all day long.