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Comment by zeroonetwothree | Hacker News Reader

I only read local news. It’s pretty nice I don’t feel stressed at all. Turns out random shit far away has no significant effect on my life. And even if it did it’s not like I can do anything about it

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What's your last local news source? I'm jealous of you that you have one. The place where I live had their local newspaper bought out and (in effect) shut down by Alden Global Capital (google them) nearly a decade ago. There's nowhere to go to learn about what goes on in city council or school board meetings, short of attending or logging into their streams - which, at least it's good we have those, but is hardly practical for most residents.

I live in Baltimore county and most of our local news is homicides and stuff like that.

I know some people who moved to Delaware beaches and they told me that there the local news is just folks talking about government administration stuff, which was pretty mind-blowing to me. I would like to check this out.

Same here, but I live in a developing country. I usually switch to international news (or tech news, or no news at all) because local news is mostly about murders and other terrible things. I have family in Portugal, and when I visited, I remember the local news being mostly about pastries and folklore events. I watched TV every day while I was there.

I used to read local news until they made an article "Top Ten dangerous places in our city" where they just listed a bunch of places that someone considered scary based on vibes.

I was talking to my aunt, who has never been much for technology, during covid. Never really had a tv in her home, etc. She's late 70's maybe early 80's now. Anyway, I was asking her how she was doing with all the chaos and she was just like "umm well I just live my life. I go out and volunteer and go camping, not much has changed...". She was just very unbothered by all of it (and she was a nurse for decades, so not in a "masks are criminal, social distancing doesn't work" way).

I more and more identify with that ethos. I want to be informed, but I don't want to be miserable from the bombastic 24/7 news cycle being shoved in my face when I can't do much about any of it.

The closing of Hormuz caused fuel prices to go up around the globe. Voting differently in the US could have prevented it.

So yeah, random shit far away can have significant effects, and sometimes you can do things about it.

That said, focusing on local news does sounds like a great approach, but international news still needs some attention.

You can vote against this trash and still not consume 99% of the "news" content people pretend is information. You don't need to know "the latest" about this second "administration". Consuming "news" is not a civic duty, it just is bad for you and a waste of your time. Don't be fooled.

I really don't think anyone voting against Trump was doing so with the Straight of Hormuz on mind.

Many said that the war with Iran was on their mind. You even have people in this thread saying that Harris being the war candidate was a factor

I don't think most Americans even knew what the strait of hormouz was, expecting them to vote differently based on that last November is wild. Trump constantly ran as the "no more wars" president and people fell for it. At that point, the blame is just for believing in that he was not lying. But strait of hormouz was a non topic for almost the entire world before the war.

It will impact how people vote this November though

but isn't expensive gas a local issue so local news will cover it regardless. That doesn't mean Americans will care about Hormouz in even an year imo. People only care when it affects their wallets.

November 2024 nobody could have reasonably predicted that the strait of Hormuz would be closed in February 2026 because Trump would declare war on Iran.

But they could have seen he was a fool and predicted that putting a fool in charge of the presidency would make something bad happen.

Last year we had stupid tariff wars, now we have stupid actual wars and a screw worm infestation. Who knows what's next? I don't, but I can predict it will be stupid.

I mean yes, but there are reasons why people vote for him even though it might seem stupid to you or me. Politics is a weird dirty game and its not just about good or bad or smart or stupid. It's mostly theatrics and media management. It kind of makes sense a reality TV actor can do well in these situations funny enough.

I agree with the sentiment generally, but there have been lots of times in history when recognizing that you should leave a place turned out to be life or death. The start of WW2 was random shit far away for a lot of people until it wasn’t.

I wish my local news wasn't mostly filled with people going missing and fires but at least balanced it with "this new restaurant just opened". If anything my local news is more fear driven than the national news.

You're here on Hacker News too though.

If there's a way to find happiness without social media, unfortunately, it won't be posted on social media.

It's a shame that local newspapers are dying, they are exactly the thing our generation needs right now.

Interestingly, I read more foreign news than local news.

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