I have started unsubscribing to any subreddit the moment I notice a post is generating a negative emotion. Nowadays my feed is mostly woodworking, cooking and photography.
The world is a messed up place. Sure, we shouldn't be bombarded by this fact day in and day out, but I personally think it's a good thing to remind yourself now and then how fucked up the world we live in can be - to maintain a sort of tether to the "reality" of the world's current messed up situation; it puts a lot into perspective.
Any thoughts? Am I wrong for thinking this way? (P.s. I have not yet read the OP's article)
The world is indeed a pretty messed up place and it's sad we need Corona to be reminded of a lot of long-standing issues as they affect also other groups now:
- lack of universal health insurance/insufficient social support systems
- lack of pandemic plans
- precarious living conditions are more prevalent than represented by social/news media
Actually very few news outlets even attempt to give global coverage, BBC is the only one I know of that somehow gets close to this.
Still, I try to consume news more responsibly. I stopped using Google News and instead subscribed to a handful of online papers/magazines that produce quality content.
Far fewer still, are news outlets covering child sex trafficking. But hey, "I don't want to see this, this is terrible, let's call it a conspiracy and move on".
The world has it's priorities completely fucking backwards, is the problem. We've got a million dead every year in Africa because of AIDS. It's a completely preventable problem. No one seems to give a shit. Over 100k dead from covid-19 in a few shorts months. But, this weekend, I was bombarded with "news" about Trader Joe's "racist packaging." What the fuck?
Maybe I'm cynical but this most of the news that I come across lately looks like standard election cycle bullshit to me.
</rant>
I also unsubscribed from subreddits who started allowing false, but entertaining posts (like a image with a fake caption for karma). That was a good choice.