4 ms·

I’m going darker by the day. I don’t seek out news, and when I do read it, I tend to feel disturbed by how little it presents as reporting, and instead, how muc

I’m going darker by the day. I don’t seek out news, and when I do read it, I tend to feel disturbed by how little it presents as reporting, and instead, how much it appears to have an agenda. I could do better. I followed the Ukraine-Russia war for a while, and although I wasn’t glued to it, I put too much focus on it. There is literally nothing that happens if I know what’s going on there. Nothing at all. It distracts me from my family, friends, work, and myself. I have no interesting insights or original thoughts about it, and if I did, absolutely no one would care. So why read it? I think it’s worth getting a sense of where things are every quarter or so? Over time I feel myself moving further towards that kind of pattern, and I spend far more time interested in my little corner of the world. I read relatively more local reporting and look at what’s happening with my municipality, the mayoral and council proceedings, try to find out what’s changing with local problems, etc. But even that isn’t a requirement. I’m getting involved with a 50 year plan to help restore a watershed. Things like this seem infinitely more important and worthwhile than the news.

drak0n1c 4y ago
Just today I ran across this widely promoted ABC/CBS article claiming that "Texas, Oklahoma ranked among least safest states in the country". The type of supposedly non-opinion flavor piece syndicated above-the-fold in Windows 11 Search, Apple News, Android home pages, and Reddit/Twitter defaults. https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/texas-oklahoma-ranked-among-least-safest-states-in-the-country-wallethub-emergency-preparedness-financial-safety https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/texas-oklahoma-ranked-among... It turns out that it is wholly based on a corporate PR puff piece by Wallethub, with a very pseudoscientific and manipulative use of statistics to reach its conclusions. The arbitrary weight assigned to the entire category of physical and property crimes was 15%. Bullying incident count was weighted as more important than drug overdoses. And when factoring in Covid, they weighted based on vaccination rates - not actual local hospitalizations/deaths. https://wallethub.com/edu/safest-states-to-live-in/4566 https://wallethub.com/edu/safest-states-to-live-in/4566
- socialismisok 4y ago
  Drug overdoses are probably a pretty minor impact to safety though, right? And vaccination rates are a pretty standard way to indicate the safety of a community against a virus...
  - skellington 4y ago
    Sure, so I guess you're being willingly misled here because the most important thing is dunking on red states due to your politics. So, if some random article says "Dallas is less safe than NYC," you are forced to believe it even though the article weighted covid vaccine rate at 90% and murder at 10%.
    - tomjakubowski 4y ago
      The average American is much more likely to die from Covid than from murder (and, in the recent past, Covid was the far more likely fate), so this doesn't seem crazy on its face.
      - cudgy 4y ago
        What is an average American?
        socialismisok 4y ago
        The number of deaths divided by the number of Americans. The phrase "average American" is shorthand for "statistically across all Americans".
      - leereeves 4y ago
        Sure, but the relevant statistic is Covid death rate, not vaccination rate. And by death rate, Texas is actually #21 (#1 being best) among states and surprisingly safer than New York: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covid19-death-rates-us-by-state/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covi...
groceryheist 4y ago
> There is literally nothing that happens if I know what’s going on there. > Nothing at all. It distracts me from my family, friends, work, and myself. > I have no interesting insights or original thoughts about it, and if I did, > absolutely no one would care. So why read it? Do you vote or participate in politics in any way or do events in the news directly affect your life? One reason it's rational to read the news: If you don't read the news, then you're at risk of lacking important contextual knowledge about society and social norms. It's pragmatic to keep track of these conversations to avoid embarrassment and to not behave in ways that might offend others. I find it useful to be aware of contentious issues on which I might have a side or a stake.
- gernb 4y ago
  > > I tend to feel disturbed by how little it presents as reporting, and instead, how much it appears to have an agenda. > If you don't read the news, then you're at risk of lacking important contextual knowledge about society and social norms. Unfortunately there's very little news that doesn't have an agenda. So I'm not getting the news. I'm getting someone's opinions with various facts spun in a way so as to try to get me to vote one way or another. Is that a better way to be informed on how to vote?
  - unfoldedCravat 4y ago
    As Mark Twain once said "If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed." I guess it's up to the individual to choose what they prefer.
    - mdp2021 4y ago
      You may note that it is substantially symmetrical to "To be, or not to be ...: Whether 'tis nobler ... to sleep No more ... [or] in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" I.e.: if you want to participate, then some degree of effort is involved.
- shaky-carrousel 4y ago
arlcode 4y ago
Getting involved in local politics was what helped me to scratch the itch of doing something to improve society. At least in my area there is a surprising large number of things the city council can do to improve (or not improve) the everyday lives of me and my loved one. I love that those decisions are usually very accessible in that they don't concern themselves with big sweeping legal frameworks and fundamental political ideologies. Even without being a council member it feels nice to ride on a bike lane that you helped to bring to live. You don't "win" everytime of course but you tend to learn a lot about how other political factions think on a local level.

drak0n1c 4y ago

Just today I ran across this widely promoted ABC/CBS article claiming that "Texas, Oklahoma ranked among least safest states in the country". The type of supposedly non-opinion flavor piece syndicated above-the-fold in Windows 11 Search, Apple News, Android home pages, and Reddit/Twitter defaults. https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/texas-oklahoma-ranked-among-least-safest-states-in-the-country-wallethub-emergency-preparedness-financial-safety https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/texas-oklahoma-ranked-among... It turns out that it is wholly based on a corporate PR puff piece by Wallethub, with a very pseudoscientific and manipulative use of statistics to reach its conclusions. The arbitrary weight assigned to the entire category of physical and property crimes was 15%. Bullying incident count was weighted as more important than drug overdoses. And when factoring in Covid, they weighted based on vaccination rates - not actual local hospitalizations/deaths. https://wallethub.com/edu/safest-states-to-live-in/4566 https://wallethub.com/edu/safest-states-to-live-in/4566

socialismisok 4y ago
Drug overdoses are probably a pretty minor impact to safety though, right? And vaccination rates are a pretty standard way to indicate the safety of a community against a virus...
- skellington 4y ago
  Sure, so I guess you're being willingly misled here because the most important thing is dunking on red states due to your politics. So, if some random article says "Dallas is less safe than NYC," you are forced to believe it even though the article weighted covid vaccine rate at 90% and murder at 10%.
  - tomjakubowski 4y ago
    The average American is much more likely to die from Covid than from murder (and, in the recent past, Covid was the far more likely fate), so this doesn't seem crazy on its face.
    - cudgy 4y ago
      What is an average American?
      - socialismisok 4y ago
        The number of deaths divided by the number of Americans. The phrase "average American" is shorthand for "statistically across all Americans".
    - leereeves 4y ago
      Sure, but the relevant statistic is Covid death rate, not vaccination rate. And by death rate, Texas is actually #21 (#1 being best) among states and surprisingly safer than New York: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covid19-death-rates-us-by-state/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covi...

groceryheist 4y ago

> There is literally nothing that happens if I know what’s going on there. > Nothing at all. It distracts me from my family, friends, work, and myself. > I have no interesting insights or original thoughts about it, and if I did, > absolutely no one would care. So why read it? Do you vote or participate in politics in any way or do events in the news directly affect your life? One reason it's rational to read the news: If you don't read the news, then you're at risk of lacking important contextual knowledge about society and social norms. It's pragmatic to keep track of these conversations to avoid embarrassment and to not behave in ways that might offend others. I find it useful to be aware of contentious issues on which I might have a side or a stake.

gernb 4y ago
> > I tend to feel disturbed by how little it presents as reporting, and instead, how much it appears to have an agenda. > If you don't read the news, then you're at risk of lacking important contextual knowledge about society and social norms. Unfortunately there's very little news that doesn't have an agenda. So I'm not getting the news. I'm getting someone's opinions with various facts spun in a way so as to try to get me to vote one way or another. Is that a better way to be informed on how to vote?
- unfoldedCravat 4y ago
  As Mark Twain once said "If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed." I guess it's up to the individual to choose what they prefer.
  - mdp2021 4y ago
    You may note that it is substantially symmetrical to "To be, or not to be ...: Whether 'tis nobler ... to sleep No more ... [or] in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" I.e.: if you want to participate, then some degree of effort is involved.
shaky-carrousel 4y ago

arlcode 4y ago

Getting involved in local politics was what helped me to scratch the itch of doing something to improve society. At least in my area there is a surprising large number of things the city council can do to improve (or not improve) the everyday lives of me and my loved one. I love that those decisions are usually very accessible in that they don't concern themselves with big sweeping legal frameworks and fundamental political ideologies. Even without being a council member it feels nice to ride on a bike lane that you helped to bring to live. You don't "win" everytime of course but you tend to learn a lot about how other political factions think on a local level.