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Comment by RollAHardSix | Hacker News Reader

I guess I should post...something. Lack of relevancy. I don't watch the news, don't even watch the weather, I don't vote or care about politics, I don't listen to the radio in the car, I went years without even looking at Hacker News, don't use reddit outside of work-related subs, don't use facebook, or other social media. I don't even use youtube except when I want to see some highlight video of Iverson or Pippen or a player soccer highlight (but not match recaps), or the occasional music of an artist stuck in my head. Why would I? The news isn't going to mow my yard, politics won't change a single thing about my life which couldn't be changed through more hard work. There is just nothing in the news for me. I suspect this feeling will continue to grow sharply with the youngest generation (I'm mid thirties personally but my teenage daughter has shared her classmates feel apathetic towards current events etc).

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The truth that is unfolding is that people today have much less agency and influence than people had in the past, resulting in that news don't matter anymore. You are in your mid thirties and should be at the peak of your influence and agency in the world, and dependent on accurate information (news) to make the best decisions. But everything in the industrialized world is owned and controlled by geriatrics, including all and every aspect of government.

> The news isn't going to mow my yard, politics won't change a single thing about my life which couldn't be changed through more hard work.

Ain't that the truth.

> teenage daughter has shared her classmates feel apathetic towards current events

So, a teenager feels apathetic... and you're claiming this is a new development?

> politics won't change a single thing about my life which couldn't be changed through more hard work

Hard disagree. It won't immediately change anything. But on the scale of months, years, decades? It has the potential to change nearly everything. If not for you, then surely for the marginalized.

If you're from the UK - Brexit was not an inevitability. Different parties in power, even a different PM at a certain point, and it wouldn't have happened. And it's demonstrably wrong to claim that isn't changing the lives of everyone in the UK by a huge amount.

If you're from the US - are you really so dumbly apathetic that you're going to claim that the choice of the next president won't affect your life?

There are a few countries that are stable enough (currently) that an argument could be made any political actions like voting won't change much. But these countries are few and far between,and even those are not guaranteed to stay stable.

These kinds of comments are always good times to repost Michael Huemer's "In Praise of Passivity", which tackles these arguments against not following the news in a generalized but imo very effective way.

https://bazhum.muzhp.pl/media/files/Studia_Humana/Studia_Hum...

> politics won't change a single thing about my life which couldn't be changed through more hard work

Maybe that is true for you, but this is not true for minorities and people who are fighting for a cause (abortion and trans rights, for example). Not being willing to cast a vote because it doesn't change anything for you doesn't seem like a virtue.

Personally I find that the weather is pretty actionable.

Highly regional dependent. Some places in the U.S. you could do without any weather reporting. Hot yesterday? Probably will be hot today. Cold today? Probably cold tomorrow. It all comes from NOAA anyhow. You could just drink right from the spigot like the meteorologists do, cut them out, and not miss anything.

I live in Tokyo so during the rainy and typhoon seasons it’s the difference between staying dry and getting soaked - but it is definitely like that in the winter (except instead I pay attention to the snow forecasts in the nearby mountains to know when I should pack up and go snowboarding…)

Perhaps you do in fact care about some selection of specific news, such as tech news, sports news, news of cultural tends, business news, and arts and entertainment news, for instance. Just not "news" news. And perhaps you get your news in specialist or indirect ways. I imagine you have an idea of what's going on generally, somehow, and keep up to date with more than the length of the grass outside.

what about your daughter's ability to get an abortion or health care coverage if she is unemployed?

Being informed doesn't help without the power to change things.

being informed is how you know what needs changing.

You don't pilot the boat though. You are trapped in the current with the rest of us controlled by moneyed forces unknown. Americans are docile cattle in comparison to other peoples who have the passionate collective culture needed to actually totally unseat an unpopular government.

You have the power to change things for yourself, by moving somewhere where things suit you. Especially true for a young person.

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