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Comment by ehnto | Hacker News Reader

Australians knew more about American politics day to day during Trumps presidency than we did our own politics. It was surreal.

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Same in Canada. The CBC was particularly egregious. The "World" section was just the "US Politics" section. I stopped reading; but, of course, like all Canadians, I have kept funding it.

I miss 2010 in America. Politics was mostly an after thought on slow days in social discussions. It was so much more civil without everyone being primed to the teeth on social media with anger.

Trump’s presidency brought a lot of underground resentment (across the political spectrum) out into the open. It might turn out to be a good thing that people are having these discussions now instead of covering them up. It definitely feels less comfortable, though.

To be fair, the rest of the world's activities seemed fairly stable than the random events regularly occurring under the Trump administration.

By comparison certainly. It was the best drama in town.

The CBC produces lots of other quality content, though.

Because trump sells views and ads on coverage worldwide. He was a goldmine for the media, and they made sure to make the most of it.

Now that Trump is no longer the US President, and is banned from social media, I've definitely noticed a significant decrease in US domestic politics in my world news (mostly BBC and Guardian)

Yup. I was up in Canada visiting friends last year and the first 20 min (out of 30 min) of the CBC national news was Trump coverage or coverage of US politics in general.

The last 10 minutes were domestic issues.

Really amazing.

Not being in the bubble makes it easier to see the absurdities of the US system.

Also, watching journalists go after Trump for the wrong reasons was quite an eye opener. Especially when the many valid reasons to go after Trump were often not pursued deeply enough. Same applies to Hillary.

And Obama. Just wow. Plenty of things Trump was attacked for promoting were in fact Obama-era initiatives. Journalism in the US is fundamentally broken. They aren't holding power to account.

I don't think its any better elsewhere. Was it ever? Its possible. Its just more obvious when you look outside your own patch.

Would take it further and say not just the media but also some powerful forces in DC going after him undemocratically, seemingly his whole presidency... the russia investigation revelations, nunes etc, and ukraine call impeachment stuff, really made it clear there was a concerted effort to remove a DC outsider. Not a fan of trump but am a fan of democratic institutions.

> I don't think its any better elsewhere. Was it ever?

The concentration of power in media organisations into a few large conglomerates has likely made things worse.

To that end, it logically tracks that things were better before consolidation, as there was a greater diversity of opinion / perspective being pushed by distinct media organisations.

Many were similar, but less by leadership design, and more by virtue of simply sharing similar views.

As much as I support the recent discourse around Aboriginal deaths in custody, I found it disconcerting that it was triggered by American police killing an African American man.

The complete apathy we show towards domestic politics is shocking, the average Australian can probably name more American politicians than Australian. I have friends who actually complain that they're forced to vote, purely because they can't be bothered to vote. People (including members of the Victorian Liberals) are more concerned with conspiracy theories about Dan Andrews getting bashed than debates on policy.

As an American, I am sorry. It is sad that our wealth is used to export such media and indoctrination.

Speak for yourself. As someone who’s lived in Australia and America, I find Australians (and I imagine people in other countries too) love to consume American politics instead of their own politics because America is more interesting than their own relatively stable politics. Then many of them delight in looking down on Americans because of how “crazy” it seems. I tell people to worry about their own countries. It’s not like they’re forced to care about America on a day-to-day basis They choose it.

I did mean to only speak for myself, sorry if that wasn’t clear.

As an American I’m not sorry. People can choose to consume whatever media they want. Don’t like American politics? Stop clicking articles about it.

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