4 ms·

this is a false dichotomy. I'm the textbook "i do not watch the news person" and when things like Covid happen you cannot just ignore them. Not only that, bu

this is a false dichotomy. I'm the textbook "i do not watch the news person" and when things like Covid happen you cannot just ignore them. Not only that, but there are many things where paradoxically I'm better informed than people "watching the news". You see, there is being informed and there is actually spending your mental resources on problems you don't have or you have 0 say in them. to debunk some of the things you brought up: - you don't decide to go to Ukraine and you book your vacation without at any point learning about this (you will learn about this from the booking agency, you will learn about this at the airport, you will learn about this from people around you). The odds of you landing in Ukraine are 0 unless you really want to go there. - if you drive a a VW you may not be in a position to stop driving it. Choosing your car based on a scandal screams privilege. You may choose to pick your next car based on it, but again: you will learn about this no matter way. Other car manufacturers will tell you, people around you will tell you about how crappy VW is when you bring it up (are you going to buy it solo without talking with anyone?). - work for Facebook: it's cool to hate Facebook and I have personally stopped using it eons ago. But not suspecting that some of the things that they are doing aren't exactly heavenly and ending up working there? again, the odds are zero - use to much water? how can you be in a drought season and not see the drought. Also: everyone likes capitalism until the fish from the lake is depleted. If you can afford to use the water and pay for it, why not? The pricing should be tiered in such a way that there is a strong incentive against you using the water - we should not expect people to just do the right thing. this rarely work s without economic incentives. - BBQ in during fire season? I think there are legal and economic things in place that should prevent this. - using condoms? really? really? you're gonna put the equal sign between the news and basic sex ed. really?

themacguffinman 5y ago
> The odds of you landing in Ukraine are 0 unless you really want to go there. Oh yeah, you'll definitely find out eventually, but timing matters. This whole debacle started a fair amount of time before Putin gave the order to invade and most travelers book holidays further in advance. In that time, you could have cancelled and rescheduled your commitments around this news, but instead you'll spend most of that time clueless. > how can you be in a drought season and not see the drought Uh, are you saying that if I live in a nice little house or apartment unit in a Californian city, I can just see the drought by looking outside? Perhaps if you live near farmland, but the effects of drought have never been noticeable to me in the urban jungle. Even if they are, how the govt responds to drought is not obvious. It's not always just a tiered pricing change. California, as just one example, will apply restrictions on when and how you use sprinklers. > BBQ in during fire season? I think there are legal and economic things in place that should prevent this ...like what? By the time there are legal consequences, isn't it too late? I agree with your central thesis that you shouldn't spend time worrying about problems that you don't have, but making that distinction isn't straightforward and your stated counterpoints are muddled themselves.
- mirceal 5y ago
  so, at one point I planned a trip to New York and a hurricane made an appearance in the area. Had to cancel everything (you could not fly in there) and we actually got automatic refunds on anything. If this can happen with New York and a hurricane it can definitely happen with Ukraine and a war. What does spending all that time clueless mean? I'm sorry but I just don't buy it. >Uh, are you saying that if I live in a nice little house or apartment unit in a Californian city My point was that if there is a drought and we need to save water this will be highly visible. The water company will tell you, the bill you pay should be higher, etc > By the time there are legal consequences, isn't it too late? nope. breaking the law always involves a reward and a risk. The risk/punishment is not properly calibrated for the consequences but there is no reason why it shouldn't be.
  - themacguffinman 5y ago
    Spending all that time clueless means that you're wasting time you could have spent reacting to the situation. It's not just about refunds, if you blocked out four weeks for a doomed vacation, then knowing that the vacation is doomed in advance will give you time to prepare an alternate itinerary for those four weeks rather than finding out perhaps a few days beforehand. > The water company will tell you, the bill you pay should be higher, etc My water usage varies across months, I am hardly unique in saying that I don't keep a close tab on the water price breakdown. Many people auto-pay their electronic bills and don't check in very often until something goes very wrong (like the water gets shut off). These are the kinds of important items that show up very prominently in local headlines though. > breaking the law always involves a reward and a risk. That's not what I'm saying. By the time you realize that you're actually breaking the law, you're already being punished. Suppose there's a law that punishes BBQs during fire season. If I'm not aware of this BBQ law in advance (eg. via the news), by the time I'm fined or arrested for unknowingly hosting a big BBQ, it's too late for me to figure out that it's illegal. As others have said, there are other ways to obtain this information but news feeds will highlight noteworthy issues. Do you repeatedly poll the health dept website for the latest guidance? That's one way to keep up to date on Covid restrictions, but generally it's even more inconvenient to poll everything that matters.

themacguffinman 5y ago

> The odds of you landing in Ukraine are 0 unless you really want to go there. Oh yeah, you'll definitely find out eventually, but timing matters. This whole debacle started a fair amount of time before Putin gave the order to invade and most travelers book holidays further in advance. In that time, you could have cancelled and rescheduled your commitments around this news, but instead you'll spend most of that time clueless. > how can you be in a drought season and not see the drought Uh, are you saying that if I live in a nice little house or apartment unit in a Californian city, I can just see the drought by looking outside? Perhaps if you live near farmland, but the effects of drought have never been noticeable to me in the urban jungle. Even if they are, how the govt responds to drought is not obvious. It's not always just a tiered pricing change. California, as just one example, will apply restrictions on when and how you use sprinklers. > BBQ in during fire season? I think there are legal and economic things in place that should prevent this ...like what? By the time there are legal consequences, isn't it too late? I agree with your central thesis that you shouldn't spend time worrying about problems that you don't have, but making that distinction isn't straightforward and your stated counterpoints are muddled themselves.

mirceal 5y ago
so, at one point I planned a trip to New York and a hurricane made an appearance in the area. Had to cancel everything (you could not fly in there) and we actually got automatic refunds on anything. If this can happen with New York and a hurricane it can definitely happen with Ukraine and a war. What does spending all that time clueless mean? I'm sorry but I just don't buy it. >Uh, are you saying that if I live in a nice little house or apartment unit in a Californian city My point was that if there is a drought and we need to save water this will be highly visible. The water company will tell you, the bill you pay should be higher, etc > By the time there are legal consequences, isn't it too late? nope. breaking the law always involves a reward and a risk. The risk/punishment is not properly calibrated for the consequences but there is no reason why it shouldn't be.
- themacguffinman 5y ago
  Spending all that time clueless means that you're wasting time you could have spent reacting to the situation. It's not just about refunds, if you blocked out four weeks for a doomed vacation, then knowing that the vacation is doomed in advance will give you time to prepare an alternate itinerary for those four weeks rather than finding out perhaps a few days beforehand. > The water company will tell you, the bill you pay should be higher, etc My water usage varies across months, I am hardly unique in saying that I don't keep a close tab on the water price breakdown. Many people auto-pay their electronic bills and don't check in very often until something goes very wrong (like the water gets shut off). These are the kinds of important items that show up very prominently in local headlines though. > breaking the law always involves a reward and a risk. That's not what I'm saying. By the time you realize that you're actually breaking the law, you're already being punished. Suppose there's a law that punishes BBQs during fire season. If I'm not aware of this BBQ law in advance (eg. via the news), by the time I'm fined or arrested for unknowingly hosting a big BBQ, it's too late for me to figure out that it's illegal. As others have said, there are other ways to obtain this information but news feeds will highlight noteworthy issues. Do you repeatedly poll the health dept website for the latest guidance? That's one way to keep up to date on Covid restrictions, but generally it's even more inconvenient to poll everything that matters.