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The average citizen (not organizing protests and keeping away from fruitless online outrage) can probably catch up with all relevant political news in 1-2 hours
by gtirloni 9y ago
The average citizen (not organizing protests and keeping away from fruitless online outrage) can probably catch up with all relevant political news in 1-2 hours/month of concentrated effort.
I've started doing just that and it has had great impact on my mental health. I don't feel any less prepared to make an impact when the time comes (elections, sporadic talks with friends and family).
Should I be more engaged? Surely. But I just look at all of it and think it's a necessary evil and I'm happy other people feel more inclined to participate heavily. I just don't have the mental skills to keep up and be sane.
- sk1pper 9y agoWhat sources do you use to catch up?
- gtirloni 9y agoIt's highly centered on my country so I'm not sure it's of use to a global audience. But it's a mix of filtering actual facts from newspaper articles on both sides of the spectrum (they usually carry very little information and mostly repeat words to fill up screen space), then check a few respected journalists publishing analysis after a few weeks (again, from left/right). They will be biased, like anything, but there's a kernel of Truth even when I disagree. So that's useful for informing my thoughts.
- maxxxxx 9y ago"catch up with all relevant political news in 1-2 hours/month of concentrated effort." I have noticed this too when coming back from a month long trip. Usually nothing important has changed. I would argue that by checking once a month you get a better idea of the big picture because you deal less with the noise. At my company they have CNN playing at lunch time and during that hour almost nothing important gets transmitted. It's just endless discussion about the same topics.