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Comment by nerdawson | Hacker News Reader

The news is meaningless distraction designed to trigger an emotional response in an effort to maximise engagement.

Big events travel by word of mouth. I don’t need to actively be reading the news to find out about them.

I’ll take blissful ignorance over living in a state of permanent anxiety.

Fill your mind with ever changing news of little to no consequence and you’ll have no time left to do anything that might genuinely impact the world in a positive way.

I don’t vote either.

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One can certainly consume news without entering a state of permanent anxiety. If one does, I think that suggests an independent condition rather than a problem with the news. A healthy stoicism does not demand ignorance.

Almost everyone overestimates their ability to be aware of and manage their emotions. While it's important to work on how we react to things, it's also important to be clear-eyed about our in-built fallibilities and how difficult they are to overcome, as well as just how hostile the environments we encounter are.

With a great deal of goal-directed effort, an individual could get there, but realistically getting our existing population to effectively adopt any meaningful level of reduced emotional reactiveness to these triggers would require a massive culture shift and billions of billions of hours of therapy and related activities. In other words, it's not a realistic short- or medium-term position at the population level, so it's at best only a small part of any solution.

I read the news every day without stressing out about it, and I did not have to go to therapy or whatever to be able to do so. I can't help but think that finding the news stressful is irrational. In the grand scheme of human suffering mainstream news is table stakes. Read about what life is like in North Korea, Afghanistan, Venezuela, or South Africa. When reading an article about US healthcare, think about what healthcare options are available to mothers in sub-Saharan Africa. When reading about the ending of Affirmative Action, remember that 70% of urban Chinese students are admitted to college, compared to only 5% of rural ones.

This isn't to say that finding the news stressful is some sort of moral failing. It's irrational, but humans are irrational. If reading the news stresses you out, then sure, don't read the news.

I think you either overestimate yourself or don't consume very much news.

It is quite bizarre to be told by multiple commenters now that I really have entered a permanent state of anxiety and that I've just overestimated myself. Are you that confident that reading news inspires such a state in everyone?

Personally I can't remember the last time I experienced anxiety reading the news - and I read an hour or two's worth daily. So I have trouble relating to those who do, but I don't insist that they must be "underestimating" themselves.

You spend up to 60 hours per month reading the news? Almost 4 days worth of waking hours dedicated to it?

Is being “well informed” on current affairs worth that much?

People have to spend their time somehow - reading news seems likely more valuable than watching sports, arguing on the internet, gambling, watching cat videos, or playing cell phone games. All those are common time sinks for people.

Seems odd to question the value of reading news, considering.

I enjoy reading.

Sure fine, whatever, but this is only possible because you rely on others to prop you up. Obviously this attitude and behavior wouldn't work at scale.

It is working at scale. Would you seriously characterize the US voting populace as "well-informed" or "well-educated"? They don't need to be because they have no real power.

And the mass-marketed "news" most of them watch is only reinforcing their ignorance.

I wouldn't call this working, civil rights aren't doing as well as they were 10 years ago (just as one example).

American society has taken multiple large steps backwards precisely because people have been convinced to vote against their own self interest.

The system is not working in our (the citizenry's) interests, no. But it's working spectacularly for the multinational corporations that just happen to finance and produce the news, though. Think that's a coincidence?

It's not working for the multinational corporations either. They're getting fined in the trillions, they're losing workers faster than they can replace them, their profits are shrinking again, and the world in which they conduct business is destabilizing.

There isn't some comfortable ruling secret society pulling any strings, it's just a lot of unpredictable people doing unpredictable things.

> It's not working for the multinational corporations either

Checks the S&P500 Lol.

> They're getting fined in the trillions

Lmao even!

> There isn't some comfortable ruling secret society pulling any strings, it's just a lot of unpredictable people doing unpredictable things.

You don't think the comfortable billionaire class are pulling strings. I'll take a hit of whatever you're smoking, please.

I genuinely feel bad for folks who think “billionaires” or any other group of people are either capable or willing to successfully coordinate in a general sense to steer global events.

I genuinely feel bad for "folks" who can't read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carlyle_Group

This is purely your political opinion not some kind of fact like Ukraine war or a recent Nuclear fusion breakthrough etc.

...yes? Does me having an opinion about the state of my society as a result of following what happens in it bother you?

Gay marriage became legal in all states in 2015.

You’re presenting emotion as fact which is precisely what a lot of the news does too.

Ah and that’s the actual problem; I didn’t do what you claim, but you can’t tell the difference between my judgement and a fact, can you? Or to be more accurate, you can tell but you think that’s because you saw through a ruse.

Reading news doesn’t have to make one anxious.

There’s also countless times when lack of knowledge makes on life far harder than it needs to be.

I doubt a mind will be changed by reading that warning. But one can try.

And collective action by informed voters would quickly solve most major issues - but most Americans becoming well informed voters is an unrealistic expectation.

> And collective action by informed voters would quickly solve most major issues - but most Americans becoming well informed voters is an unrealistic expectation.

If all Americans had my education, they would think exactly like me.

> Reading news doesn’t have to make one anxious.

I disagree, unless its news ignoring world, politics, suffering and other aspects of mankind's daily grind. Especially if you are smart enough to realize what kind of shit show the human society in 2023 still is with no change in sight. Or what kind of people do get to real power in politics. Or how great the world would actually be if top 50 folks holding power would be sane balanced moral human beings, and what kind of shitbags they are instead.

If it doesn't make you sad or pissed off at least a bit, you are already self-curating the news intensively to experience some alternate version of reality, or have some emotional intelligence issues.

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