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I'm not saying this is your intent, but it is a pretty privileged and insular take.

If new events or a new policy change unfairly affects a (neighbor|friend|minority group|stranger), is it a good thing for the unaffected to plug their ears and go about life?

I don't mean to suggest following the news 24/7 is a solution to this, but I also do not see how it's healthy for every person to ignore everything that doesn't personally affect them.

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You're right, that isn't my intent. I didn't say not to develop an opinion, or to learn to care about issues that affect people other than you. My aim was to communicate that you aren't required to develop and express an opinion about every single issue.

Attempting to formulate an opinion on every issue that can possibly come up is a fool's errand; carefully following the outrage cycle for the sake of expressing an opinion that falls on the "correct" side of issues you have no stakes in is even worse, as it adds empty noise to the conversation and distorts the Overton window away from the concerns of people who do have stakes in the issue.

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