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Comment by lovelearning | Hacker News Reader

Giving up political news didn't make me happier, but it certainly reduced that niggling feeling that everything is headed towards doom.

It's said that "an informed citizenry is the bulwark of democracy", and that's probably why many of us consume so much political news.

However, I feel seeing the news and expressing outrage privately or on social media have become low-effort excuses for not doing things that can actually improve our governments. Outrage does not affect anything except our own peace of mind and health.

As far as I can tell, atleast in my country, only two things lead towards any real change - 1)protests and 2)money. Either I should put in the effort to organize people and protest, or I should spend money trying to influence decision makers. Since I suck at the first and lack in the second, I decided to be apathetic towards everything political.

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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/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.

"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.

What sources do you use to catch up?

It'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.

> Giving up political news didn't make me happier, but it certainly reduced that niggling feeling that everything is headed towards doom.

I highly recommend Steven Pinker's "Enlightenment Now" (2018) as a cure against the doomsayers.

Thanks for that recommendation! The book's summary certainly looks very relevant to what's happening in my mind, will definitely give it a read.

>it certainly reduced that niggling feeling that everything is headed towards doom.

Every new day is the greatest day in the history of human civilization. One wouldn't think that though looking at any MSM homepage.

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