unixknight Posted January 24, 2019 Report Share Posted January 24, 2019 Every once in a while the relentless hammering of political topics gets to the point where I just have to set it aside and take my mind off of it for a while. I listen to political podcasts and watch videos on YouTube about political commentary. I used to call myself a politics junkie, but I don't find myself particularly enjoying it. I guess there's a part of me that feels like I should be aware, so that I can see trouble coming or know the issues so I can make informed decisions at the ballot box. But... it takes its toll. I find myself being less patient with my family, less productive with my work and my hobbies because my mind is on all these issues, less spiritual, and less comfortable around my friends who are of opposing viewpoints. And the truth is... so much of it is just noise anyway. One side is constantly trying to keep me on high alert so I hate the other side, while the other side is trying to constantly keep me on high alert so I hate the first side... There's media on one side telling me I'm supposed to live in a perpetual state of outrage over red baseball caps and private school curricula, while the other side lives on that absurdity to keep me outraged over the outrage machine. Then the media wants me to be outraged at the outrageous things the other side says about the outrageous things the media wants me to be outraged at, which is outrageous, according to the outraged side that's outraged at the outrageous outrage over the outrage of the outrageous stories that outrage people who are outraged by the outrage outgrageoutrageoutrageoutrageoutrage... "Mr. Unixknight, it seems your blood pressure is up since your last visit. Do you have stress in your life?" Why no, doctor... I have a great wife, great kids, a great job, great friends, a great house, and a great ward I got to church with. What's to stress me? Oh, right... I'm not outraged enough, according to everybody's news/commentary I hear, and half the things my friends talk about on all political sides. Seriously. When's the last time you heard a national news report about anything that wasn't supposed to keep you outraged? Or listened to a new commentary that wanted you to be outraged over something else? In advertising, they say that sex sells. I say in the media environment, outrage sells. It must be so, since that's all we get. Even entertainment media is getting into the game with political pandering that just leads to more outrage, or outrage at someone else's outrage. I'm tired of it, and I see through it, and I'm not playing anymore. Midwest LDS, SpiritDragon, KScience and 3 others 4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unixknight Posted January 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2019 Beginning Day 2 of the "Escape From Useless Outrage Program." My wife commented on how I was in a better mood last night than usual. Now, it may have been because I went out with the Missionaries last night to visit an investigator, who committed to Baptism (!) while we were there, but that's not where the better mood started. I'm also still in a good mood now. Instead of political commentary, this morning's podcast listening was horror stories. That's right, horror stories are more uplifting than news commentary. Welcome to 2019! NeuroTypical, Sunday21 and Midwest LDS 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeuroTypical Posted January 25, 2019 Report Share Posted January 25, 2019 Sometimes, "There's too much outrage in the news" becomes a news item: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/year-of-outrage/579100/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/outrage/579553/ https://thefederalist.com/2019/01/24/problem-outrage-culture-isnt-outrage-wielded/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-outrage-be-a-good-thing/ unixknight 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MormonGator Posted January 25, 2019 Report Share Posted January 25, 2019 4 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said: Sometimes, "There's too much outrage in the news" becomes a news item: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/year-of-outrage/579100/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/outrage/579553/ https://thefederalist.com/2019/01/24/problem-outrage-culture-isnt-outrage-wielded/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-outrage-be-a-good-thing/ I think that people being "outraged" is code for "I need attention". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unixknight Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 Day 7. My wife said to me last night that my demeanor has changed noticeably since I took that break from politics. She says I'm less grumpy and more playful than I was. Vort, Iggy, zil and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeuroTypical Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 No Trump and all play makes Unixknight a less grumpy boy. unixknight, KScience, Iggy and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anatess2 Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 Politics in my family is Tradition. We don't "read" politics. Politics is Action. So... reading any news article does not make me "feel" anything, outrage included. It is simply fact-gathering that we can use to inform our Action. So, I read in the news that New York City signed a late-term abortion bill. Being outraged about it doesn't equate to meaningful action. Rather, I file that information so that I can use it for meaningful political action. I don't have much power in the US as I'm not an American citizen. So all I can do is inform other people, correct misinformation, and try to spread influence in my sphere. I have a lot of power in the Philippines. So, if I ever find out some Philippine legislature is trying to follow in the New York footsteps, I won't just be limited to social commentary, I can be on the frontlines on that legislative action. In this way, I am interested to know anything on politics. But I don't have to care about all of them. Those I can't do anything about can just sit in the FYI pile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unixknight Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 2 minutes ago, anatess2 said: In this way, I am interested to know anything on politics. But I don't have to care about all of them. Those I can't do anything about can just sit in the FYI pile. The problem in the way it's portrayed in the media, is that it's so light on fact and so heavy on emotionally weighted words. That, and it's all cluttered with news stories that aren't news. The President nominating somebody for a Judgeship is news. The news media vomiting all over itself over a bunch of high school kids is not. If anybody can recommend a news site that's just the facts, I'd be very grateful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MormonGator Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 25 minutes ago, unixknight said: If anybody can recommend a news site that's just the facts, I'd be very grateful. News doesn't work that way because all humans are biased and emotional, to some degree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unixknight Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 (edited) 2 minutes ago, MormonGator said: News doesn't work that way because all humans are biased and emotional, to some degree. I know they're always going to be biased, but there's a big difference between bias and sensationalism. Edited January 30, 2019 by unixknight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeuroTypical Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 Whenever there's news to hear, I go to news.google.com. They will list half a dozen sites, half of them skewed left, half right. I read through a couple and then adjust my swing for the wind I detect from those sources. Also, stratfor.org. They make money by predicting the future, not by forwarding any particular agenda. Their take on things is fairly unbiased (which sort of ticks me off when they don't get as outraged as I think they should about what they're predicting). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MormonGator Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 4 minutes ago, unixknight said: I know there's always going to be biased, but there's a big difference between bias and sensationalism. Remember that bias is in the eye of the beholder. The more right wing/left wing you get, the more you accuse everything that doesn't agree with you of having a certain type of bias. Most Trumpers view any new source that doesn't fall down and worship their God as "liberal". Hence why the Weekly Standard and National Review-two conservative magazines-have collapsed. Most people on the left view any news source that doesn't call for the immediate impeachment of Trump as "conservative". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unixknight Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 (edited) 2 minutes ago, MormonGator said: Remember that bias is in the eye of the beholder. The more right wing/left wing you get, the more you accuse everything that doesn't agree with you of having a certain type of bias. Most Trumpers view any new source that doesn't fall down and worship their God as "liberal". Hence why the Weekly Standard and National Review-two conservative magazines-have collapsed. Most people on the left view any news source that doesn't call for the immediate impeachment of Trump as "conservative". I guess what I'm looking for is a source that won't waste my time with non-news stories that are purely designed to incite outrage for clickbait. Edited January 30, 2019 by unixknight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MormonGator Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 (edited) 2 minutes ago, unixknight said: I guess what I'm looking for is a source that won't waste my time with non-news stories that are purely designed to incite outrage for clickbait. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/center/ Edited January 30, 2019 by MormonGator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MormonGator Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 My rule of thumb? When both sides complain about it, it's usually dead on. That's why I love Snopes. Both the right and the left complain about it being "unfair". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anatess2 Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 (edited) 54 minutes ago, unixknight said: The problem in the way it's portrayed in the media, is that it's so light on fact and so heavy on emotionally weighted words. That, and it's all cluttered with news stories that aren't news. The President nominating somebody for a Judgeship is news. The news media vomiting all over itself over a bunch of high school kids is not. If anybody can recommend a news site that's just the facts, I'd be very grateful. There's none. Not even Fox News. If it's not emotionally weighted words, it's selective fact focus to favor a narrative. So, what you have to do is find out the bias so you can learn to "read" the news and ignore the bias/emotion. For example, on those news items you linked above: The Atlantic has an American center left bias, The Federalist has an American center right bias, the Scientific American has a left bias (yes, yes, even Science has a political lean to it). So, you know that if you read something from the Atlantic, it may have selective fact focus to favor the left. So, if you want to find other missing facts regarding that news story, you're going to have to find that same story from a news source with a different bias. Then you combine the facts presented, ignore the charged words used to invoke an emotion, and apply your own opinion on what is actually happening. This is not just right/left liberal/conservative, etc. etc. There's also things like nationalist propaganda, etc. For example, RT is a Russian government news site. Al Jazeera, although they insist they're independent from the Qatari government, I still don't trust to not be used as a propaganda machine for Qatar. So if you're reading OPEC news stories from Al Jazeera, it's best to just keep that in mind as you seek other sources. And then, if that's not complicated enough, some national news sources has bias depending on whose in power in that government, for example, PBS is an American government-funded news source but it has shown some bias towards the Democratic wing of the US government. And, if that's not complicated enough... other news sources simply copy-pasta from other major news networks/publications unwittingly including the bias therein. So, that's how you get something like the Covington High School incident become a massive echo-chamber without much backlash. That's the only way you can consume news stories in this new age of the Information Super Highway. Edited January 30, 2019 by anatess2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anatess2 Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 (edited) 26 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said: Whenever there's news to hear, I go to news.google.com. They will list half a dozen sites, half of them skewed left, half right. I read through a couple and then adjust my swing for the wind I detect from those sources. Also, stratfor.org. They make money by predicting the future, not by forwarding any particular agenda. Their take on things is fairly unbiased (which sort of ticks me off when they don't get as outraged as I think they should about what they're predicting). This is not true. News.google.com does not list half-half bias. It simply lists which ones are the most accessed/linked etc. As right-leaning news is a lot fewer than left-leaning ones (the major networks are collectively left-leaning and they're used as sources for smaller news agencies), you'll find the google news aggregator show more left-leaning sources bubble to the top. Edited January 30, 2019 by anatess2 NeuroTypical 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unixknight Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 13 minutes ago, anatess2 said: There's none. Not even Fox News. If it's not emotionally weighted words, it's selective fact focus to favor a narrative. So, what you have to do is find out the bias so you can learn to "read" the news and ignore the bias/emotion. ... That's the only way you can consume news stories in this new age of the Information Super Highway. Yeah that's prettymuch common knowledge. And that's the problem. No matter what you do, it's going to involve sifting through a lot of garbage looking for the nuggets. Not worth it to me anymore. NeuroTypical 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MormonGator Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 Just now, unixknight said: Not worth it to me anymore. Like a character from a Greek tragedy I'm cursed. I'm a news junkie, I can't just "switch it off." I need to have that constant information stream going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unixknight Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 1 minute ago, MormonGator said: Like a character from a Greek tragedy I'm cursed. I'm a news junkie, I can't just "switch it off." I need to have that constant information stream going. In my case, it's a matter of weaning not just for myself, but for my media sources. My YouTube recommended lists are gradually shifting from political commentary to Star Trek, movie reviews and so on... but it's a slow shift. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anatess2 Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 (edited) 21 minutes ago, unixknight said: Yeah that's prettymuch common knowledge. And that's the problem. No matter what you do, it's going to involve sifting through a lot of garbage looking for the nuggets. Not worth it to me anymore. Unfortunately, this is a lose-lose scenario because the only way it can change is if we clean out the levers of power corrupting everything. And we can't do that if we don't keep ourselves informed so we can at least recognize where the corruption stems from and at the very least keep ourselves on the other side of it so we don't inadvertently help the baddies. Edited January 30, 2019 by anatess2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unixknight Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 5 minutes ago, anatess2 said: Unfortunately, this is a lose-lose scenario because the only way it can change is if we clean out the levers of power corrupting everything. And we can't do that if we don't keep ourselves informed so we can at least recognize where the corruption stems from and at the very least keep ourselves on the other side of it so we don't inadvertently help the baddies. Correct, which is exactly why I want to find sources with a minimum of ragesauce poured over them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Godless Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 Reuters is my go-to for straightforward news with minimal spin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anatess2 Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 (edited) 24 minutes ago, unixknight said: Correct, which is exactly why I want to find sources with a minimum of ragesauce poured over them. Hmm... I have all these political data in my head. Maybe it's time to put the thing to better use and create my own news site. Hmmm... Anyway, for now... I have this one guy to recommend - if you don't read anything else, at least you can spend 10-15 minutes at a time listening to Styxhexenhammer666 on YouTube's news commentary. He usually covers the major news stories including a bit of international news and is not reactionary (which sometimes means he is delayed in his news, sometimes by 3 days out). Now Styx is not perfect, he gets some whack especially in international news but he usually gets a good feel for all the players and he is credible with domestic news. He has a libertarian bias - anti-war, small government, maximum liberty, and he's irreligious (he's into the occult). But even so, he still tries to be fair in his assessment - like he still covered the Bible literacy news story with fairness. And he always separates his news and social commentary from his personal commentary (the occult stuff and his vegan stuff) so you don't have to get hit with those while listening to his news updates. Note: It's always better to go with multiple sources, so I'm only recommending Styx specifically for a specific kind of scenario - the least exposure to the outrage machine. I have another one to recommend. Jamie Dupree (he has a news blog site). He is specific to Washington DC politics news only. Jamie is the most unbiased Washington DC news source that I know. Edited January 30, 2019 by anatess2 unixknight 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Godless Posted January 31, 2019 Report Share Posted January 31, 2019 3 hours ago, anatess2 said: I have another one to recommend. Jamie Dupree (he has a news blog site). He is specific to Washington DC politics news only. Jamie is the most unbiased Washington DC news source that I know. I don't do Youtube much, so I can't comment on the first guy, but I like this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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