5 ms·

Why do you want to keep track of current affairs?

manfredo 7y ago
I'm pretty surprised at this question. Why woudn't people keep track of current affairs? Failure to do so is to be ignorant of what is happening in the world.
- 0xffff2 7y ago
  I've long since stopped actively following current events. My only source of news is what percolates through from other outlets (HN, things important/culturally relevant enough to get mentioned in Youtube videos, etc). I would flip the question. Why would I want to keep track of current affairs? The vast majority of the things happening in the world have no impact on my life whatsoever. Even really big things like the Mueller report really don't have any impact on my day-to-day life (NB: I am a US citizen). I do research on individual ballot propositions when it comes time to vote. I virtually always vote for third party candidates or no-one at all, but if a political party I actually support ever gains enough prominence to have a chance of winning I'll do my due diligence on their individual candidates too. Aside from that, who cares?
  - ModernMech 7y ago
    > I would flip the question. Why would I want to keep track of current affairs? The vast majority of the things happening in the world have no impact on my life whatsoever. Even really big things like the Mueller report really don't have any impact on my day-to-day life (NB: I am a US citizen). Then consider yourself privileged. For the rest of us, there are forces out there trying to legislate our bodies, prevent us from loving who we want, oppress who we want to be, take away our rights, and make our mere existence as close to illegal as possible. Keeping track of who is trying to take away our liberties and how those efforts are progressing is very important to us.
    - brighter2morrow 7y ago
      These forces are nothing I can do anything about though. Corporate interests control the outcome of these things, not anything having to do with democracy.
      - ModernMech 7y ago
        Tell that to the civil rights movement, women's suffrage movement, lgbtq rights movements etc. Appreciable gains have been made in civil rights over the years by people paying attention.
        ddingus 7y ago
        And more of us need to pay attention. Only way to do that is to keep talking. Those of us who are paying attention just need to continue talking with others. It will build. As it should.
      - ddingus 7y ago
        Actually, that is only marginally true. The reality is we the people do have very considerable control. An additional reality is we the people are currently very distracted and being messaged to on a near constant basis. Our effective control is at a low ebb right now. That's due to what I just wrote, plus money in politics, and that same money working consolidated media. (Reagan Fairness Doctrine Repeal; Clinton Telecoms Act of 1996) You aren't wrong, but neither is the parent commenter! The civil rights movement is the most immune to these effects as social issues tend to be least impacted by money particularly as big business realizes it's best for business when people get along. And it helps that there are people in executive positions right now who are directly impacted by shit social policy. Progressives, and for purposes of discussion here, are people who are socially liberal and economically left, are building people powered politics as you read this. That's knocking on doors, holding events, messaging directly, largely avoiding big media, and that's largely due to the fact that big media sees the economic left focus as a potential cost and risk. (as they should, but that does not mean some change is not warranted --many feel it is, but I digress here) Manufacturing Consent --Chomskey is a great reference to understand the basic dynamics in play. You probably have read it too. It's here for passers by as much as anything else. Democracy is largely functional, but it's noisy, and the noise is getting in the way of what would otherwise be a respectable state of affairs. All of us know a gay person. All of us know a woman. All of us know a child. These things do matter. While some of us, and this includes me, are in the pocket so to speak, can choose to largely ignore all this stuff, we do so at our friends, peers, future leaders, loved ones potential and personal cost and risk. That's the argument anyway.
  - SolaceQuantum 7y ago
    I offer a few use cases: 1) If I am a person that is capable of getting pregnant and wishes to have the option to terminate my pregnancy, it would be prudent to keep up to date on the legislation involving that. 2) If I am a trans person or a person of LGBTQ status, it would be prudent to keep up to date on legislation involving my healthcare needs and whether or not I am a protected class in my state and whether or not killing me because of my demographic is considered acceptable in certain circumstances ('gay panic' defense). 3) If I am a police officer or related to police offers, it would be prudent to keep up to date on legislation involving my employment or the employment applied to others. This applies also to civil servants in general, I would suspect, such as preparing for an upcoming gov't shutdown. 4) If I care about guns and my participation in guns or hunting, it would be prudent to keep up to date on legislation regarding my allowance, status, and licensing needs in accordance. This also applies if I happen to inherit a weapon from a grandparent or similar. 5) If I care about the tax structure of my country, it would be prudent to keep up to date on legislation regarding tax decisions, especially to keep track of which legislative big spending budget cuts or allowances are being made that will affect my taxes, for example the big tax return changes in america of 2019. 6) If I am related to, depended on by, or use Schedule I or otherwise restricted drugs legally or illegally for my medical need(pain, seizures, anxiety, chronic illness, cancer, etc), it would be prduent to keep up to date on legislation to understand how futures decisions will affect my access to my medical care of choice. 7) If I use or am related to someone who uses veterans benefits, SNAP, disability benefits, social security, medicare/medicaid, etc. it would be prudent to keep up to date to understand legislation on how future decisions would affect my/people I know's quality of life. 8) If I am an immigrant or am applying for legal immigrant status of any kind, it would be important for me to keep up to date with current legislation or direction of parties regarding my status as an immigrant and my children. 9) If I care about any of the above, say, I have relatives or friends that are affected by any of the above and wish to support them by voting, donating, or otherwise advocating in alliance with them, it would be important for me to keep up to date with any of the above in order to participate demographically in a system.
    - 0xffff2 7y ago
      As someone potentially affected by government shutdowns, my employer is planning well in advance of it making the news. I care about guns, but not enough to actively try to influence gun legislation. Historically, as long as my purchases are legal at the time of purchase, I'm almost certainly fine. I care about taxes insofar as I pay them, but outside of when I'm actually doing my taxes I don't really care. I do check current rates periodically when updating my budget, but that's not a "current events" thing, it's a "make sure my budget is accurate" thing. I am related to someone who uses SNAP. I assume that if their benefits change meaningfully they'll hear about it from the government agency managing those benefits and I'll hear about it from them. Unless I'm going to go out and try to influence legislation about any of the above before it's passed (which I'm not), I utterly do not care about them until they affect me, and I'm likely to find out when they do without following the news. As I said above, I do vote and I do research the things I vote on, but I do that right before I vote. I would never remember the odd related news story I read 6 months prior the relates to a particular ballot proposition anyway. (The rest of the points you mentioned don't apply to me at all so I don't have any opinion on whether I would feel differently about keeping up with current events if they did.)
- drivers99 7y ago
  Short and to the point: https://dailystoic.com/dont-read-the-news-today/ https://dailystoic.com/dont-read-the-news-today/ Here's a particularly good post about it: https://www.raptitude.com/2016/12/five-things-you-notice-when-you-quit-the-news/ https://www.raptitude.com/2016/12/five-things-you-notice-whe...
  - manfredo 7y ago
    At best, these links are discouraging people from reading the news because some people find it stressful (fair, if people do find it stressful then by all means they should cut back). At worst, these sites are glorifying ignorance. You can't make effective decisions if you don't know what is happening. Sure, you may not be directly impacted by the events you're reading but it's still expanding your knowledge of the world. Not to mention, the second article seems to be operating under the erroneous assumption that books aren't a form of news. They frequently are. They're long-form and have longer latency from the events occurring and books being published. They're still works intended to describe and explain events or phenomena. They're news, even if the authors of your linked articles don't know it.
SolaceQuantum 7y ago
Well, a variety of things. Owning stocks, investing in the market, preparing for a downturn, and who is doing the things I care about legislatively, including who is representing my desires as a citizen so I can vote informedly.
- ddingus 7y ago
  You should consider advocacy groups. They publish good stuff. There is always bias, and I have spoken to that. But where you have specifics, sign up for the newsletter. Set some email filters and go.

I'm pretty surprised at this question. Why woudn't people keep track of current affairs? Failure to do so is to be ignorant of what is happening in the world.

0xffff2 7y ago
I've long since stopped actively following current events. My only source of news is what percolates through from other outlets (HN, things important/culturally relevant enough to get mentioned in Youtube videos, etc). I would flip the question. Why would I want to keep track of current affairs? The vast majority of the things happening in the world have no impact on my life whatsoever. Even really big things like the Mueller report really don't have any impact on my day-to-day life (NB: I am a US citizen). I do research on individual ballot propositions when it comes time to vote. I virtually always vote for third party candidates or no-one at all, but if a political party I actually support ever gains enough prominence to have a chance of winning I'll do my due diligence on their individual candidates too. Aside from that, who cares?
- ModernMech 7y ago
  > I would flip the question. Why would I want to keep track of current affairs? The vast majority of the things happening in the world have no impact on my life whatsoever. Even really big things like the Mueller report really don't have any impact on my day-to-day life (NB: I am a US citizen). Then consider yourself privileged. For the rest of us, there are forces out there trying to legislate our bodies, prevent us from loving who we want, oppress who we want to be, take away our rights, and make our mere existence as close to illegal as possible. Keeping track of who is trying to take away our liberties and how those efforts are progressing is very important to us.
  - brighter2morrow 7y ago
    These forces are nothing I can do anything about though. Corporate interests control the outcome of these things, not anything having to do with democracy.
    - ModernMech 7y ago
      Tell that to the civil rights movement, women's suffrage movement, lgbtq rights movements etc. Appreciable gains have been made in civil rights over the years by people paying attention.
      - ddingus 7y ago
        And more of us need to pay attention. Only way to do that is to keep talking. Those of us who are paying attention just need to continue talking with others. It will build. As it should.
    - ddingus 7y ago
      Actually, that is only marginally true. The reality is we the people do have very considerable control. An additional reality is we the people are currently very distracted and being messaged to on a near constant basis. Our effective control is at a low ebb right now. That's due to what I just wrote, plus money in politics, and that same money working consolidated media. (Reagan Fairness Doctrine Repeal; Clinton Telecoms Act of 1996) You aren't wrong, but neither is the parent commenter! The civil rights movement is the most immune to these effects as social issues tend to be least impacted by money particularly as big business realizes it's best for business when people get along. And it helps that there are people in executive positions right now who are directly impacted by shit social policy. Progressives, and for purposes of discussion here, are people who are socially liberal and economically left, are building people powered politics as you read this. That's knocking on doors, holding events, messaging directly, largely avoiding big media, and that's largely due to the fact that big media sees the economic left focus as a potential cost and risk. (as they should, but that does not mean some change is not warranted --many feel it is, but I digress here) Manufacturing Consent --Chomskey is a great reference to understand the basic dynamics in play. You probably have read it too. It's here for passers by as much as anything else. Democracy is largely functional, but it's noisy, and the noise is getting in the way of what would otherwise be a respectable state of affairs. All of us know a gay person. All of us know a woman. All of us know a child. These things do matter. While some of us, and this includes me, are in the pocket so to speak, can choose to largely ignore all this stuff, we do so at our friends, peers, future leaders, loved ones potential and personal cost and risk. That's the argument anyway.
- SolaceQuantum 7y ago
  I offer a few use cases: 1) If I am a person that is capable of getting pregnant and wishes to have the option to terminate my pregnancy, it would be prudent to keep up to date on the legislation involving that. 2) If I am a trans person or a person of LGBTQ status, it would be prudent to keep up to date on legislation involving my healthcare needs and whether or not I am a protected class in my state and whether or not killing me because of my demographic is considered acceptable in certain circumstances ('gay panic' defense). 3) If I am a police officer or related to police offers, it would be prudent to keep up to date on legislation involving my employment or the employment applied to others. This applies also to civil servants in general, I would suspect, such as preparing for an upcoming gov't shutdown. 4) If I care about guns and my participation in guns or hunting, it would be prudent to keep up to date on legislation regarding my allowance, status, and licensing needs in accordance. This also applies if I happen to inherit a weapon from a grandparent or similar. 5) If I care about the tax structure of my country, it would be prudent to keep up to date on legislation regarding tax decisions, especially to keep track of which legislative big spending budget cuts or allowances are being made that will affect my taxes, for example the big tax return changes in america of 2019. 6) If I am related to, depended on by, or use Schedule I or otherwise restricted drugs legally or illegally for my medical need(pain, seizures, anxiety, chronic illness, cancer, etc), it would be prduent to keep up to date on legislation to understand how futures decisions will affect my access to my medical care of choice. 7) If I use or am related to someone who uses veterans benefits, SNAP, disability benefits, social security, medicare/medicaid, etc. it would be prudent to keep up to date to understand legislation on how future decisions would affect my/people I know's quality of life. 8) If I am an immigrant or am applying for legal immigrant status of any kind, it would be important for me to keep up to date with current legislation or direction of parties regarding my status as an immigrant and my children. 9) If I care about any of the above, say, I have relatives or friends that are affected by any of the above and wish to support them by voting, donating, or otherwise advocating in alliance with them, it would be important for me to keep up to date with any of the above in order to participate demographically in a system.
  - 0xffff2 7y ago
    As someone potentially affected by government shutdowns, my employer is planning well in advance of it making the news. I care about guns, but not enough to actively try to influence gun legislation. Historically, as long as my purchases are legal at the time of purchase, I'm almost certainly fine. I care about taxes insofar as I pay them, but outside of when I'm actually doing my taxes I don't really care. I do check current rates periodically when updating my budget, but that's not a "current events" thing, it's a "make sure my budget is accurate" thing. I am related to someone who uses SNAP. I assume that if their benefits change meaningfully they'll hear about it from the government agency managing those benefits and I'll hear about it from them. Unless I'm going to go out and try to influence legislation about any of the above before it's passed (which I'm not), I utterly do not care about them until they affect me, and I'm likely to find out when they do without following the news. As I said above, I do vote and I do research the things I vote on, but I do that right before I vote. I would never remember the odd related news story I read 6 months prior the relates to a particular ballot proposition anyway. (The rest of the points you mentioned don't apply to me at all so I don't have any opinion on whether I would feel differently about keeping up with current events if they did.)
drivers99 7y ago
Short and to the point: https://dailystoic.com/dont-read-the-news-today/ https://dailystoic.com/dont-read-the-news-today/ Here's a particularly good post about it: https://www.raptitude.com/2016/12/five-things-you-notice-when-you-quit-the-news/ https://www.raptitude.com/2016/12/five-things-you-notice-whe...
- manfredo 7y ago
  At best, these links are discouraging people from reading the news because some people find it stressful (fair, if people do find it stressful then by all means they should cut back). At worst, these sites are glorifying ignorance. You can't make effective decisions if you don't know what is happening. Sure, you may not be directly impacted by the events you're reading but it's still expanding your knowledge of the world. Not to mention, the second article seems to be operating under the erroneous assumption that books aren't a form of news. They frequently are. They're long-form and have longer latency from the events occurring and books being published. They're still works intended to describe and explain events or phenomena. They're news, even if the authors of your linked articles don't know it.

SolaceQuantum 7y ago

Well, a variety of things. Owning stocks, investing in the market, preparing for a downturn, and who is doing the things I care about legislatively, including who is representing my desires as a citizen so I can vote informedly.

ddingus 7y ago
You should consider advocacy groups. They publish good stuff. There is always bias, and I have spoken to that. But where you have specifics, sign up for the newsletter. Set some email filters and go.