this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2025
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I'm trying to take a cue from Trevor Noah (I didn't like his time on the daily show but I still think he has some good takes):
Read the news only a few times a week. That's enough to be informed. We created a 24 hours news cycle that makes us more anxious, angry, and scared than we need to be. Live your life, focus on those around you, stop yelling at people on the internet who have made up their mind.
It seems like a good balance of self care and being informed. You have to set boundaries.
I'd also like to add, be charitable when reading comments. I fucking hate how people ACTIVELY look for stuff to argue about because they are purposefully attributing malice to a comment.
IE: I think this issue is complicated. OMG SO YOU THINK GROUP X SHOULD BE BURNED IN AN OVEN???
I see it all the time and it immediately makes the whole thread / post toxic. It just takes one dipshit to go off to ruin it for everyone and get everyone angry.
Great plan.
Anybody who doesn't know the difference between outrage addiction and being informed isn't qualified to weigh in on what counts as being informed.
It's a tough lesson to learn though and you got to get through it.
Recommend using Ublock Origin filters to filter out all the crap. My browsing experience is so much better without being bombarded by the same bs all day everyday.
“I'd far rather be happy than right any day."
"And are you?"
"No. That's where it all falls down, of course."
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
"This may alarm you...It scares the willies out of me."
It must be nice to be privileged enough to ignore politics and be happy. I could, but my employer doesn't. My landlord doesn't. CEO 's don't. They lobby to keep prices high, wages low, and workers powerless...
It must be nice to be privileged enough to ignore politics and be happy.
Is "privileged" what we're calling it when when you've resigned yourself to being powerless? That seems less like privilege and more like despair.
my employer doesn’t. My landlord doesn’t. CEO 's don’t. They lobby to keep prices high, wages low, and workers powerless…
If the privileged people are engaged with politics and the disenfranchised people are powerless, wouldn't this suggest that engaging with politics is the privilege and its being reserved for the exceptionally wealthy?
I don’t think they meant to bite at anyone. I feel compassion for anyone who has been beaten down by our system and doesn’t have any fight left. I still have a little, and I take that statement as encouragement to keep fighting. Despair and depression are brutal and I’ll keep fighting for both of us.
I think you're correlating people who have stopped engaging with people who don't care.
I have panic attacks when I think about the state of our world. I block out most posts that trigger me. If I didn't, I'd be a nervous wreck sitting in misery if I didn't. That doesn't mean I don't know what's happening, I'm very aware and I keep up, but I'm also not going to have a constant feed of anxiety forced in my face.
We used to be informed if we read a daily newspaper. Don't confuse "refusing to have constant anxiety" with privilege.
Yep, I vote every election and encourage people around me to vote too, what else am I supposed to do? i am not gonna get into politics, I am not gonna organize some activism stuff as I don't care that much about telling people what to think.
I vote based on my conscience, often against my own financial interests and then watch the people do the exact opposite, feel a bit of despair about humanity in general then move on.
Exactly how I feel. I did what I could. I voted, I encouraged others to vote, I informed myself and others of the issues. I voted to help those in need and to bolster protections for those in need - even at my own expense. Then over half the country voted against their own interests. Ironically, financially the policies I expect to be put in place will probably help me, but I worry for our country. But what else am I supposed to do now? People who voted for this or didn't vote (and in my mind that's just a lazier way of voting for what happened), well, I wish them luck if they needed those programs. I feel for everyone who voted for them and are looking at having them taken away.
Being able to participate in politics and democracy is a privilege in itself, imo. Not as much as not having to do so anyway (under a democracy, dictatorships don't count), but I still think it's a privilege.
Not to brush off your problems, though. Sorry you're dealing with all of that.
look at that privilege ☞
I think the promise here is the idea it will bring happiness. As any good buddhist will tell you it will just avoid suffering.
Not sure what you mean, Buddhists are some of the best activists out there. Buddhism believes in the Middle Way. By avoiding suffering, you are denying yourself enlightenment. However seeking/creating unnecessary suffering is also bad.
I mean it will not bring happiness but it will avoid suffering. I get that is not what is meant I was just being cute about the comic and the general interpretation of the four truths.
Totally fair. I misinterpreted what you meant, my bad
Well they’ve got the time and money for hobbies like that.
And I’m pretty sure they’re not commenting on political posts so they’re happy.
I’m sure if I could do more than howl into the uncaring void I’d be happy with politics, too.
I'm willing to forgo my happiness to snark at NAZIs.
isn’t the monks response inherently political? are we to assume he himself is not happy?
The older I get the more I wish I was one of those people who are able to completely ignore what's going on around them and completely invent an alternative for themselves. Those are some of the happiest people I know.
If you aren't out there commenting on political issues someone else will be. You should give your 2cents so that discussions reflects accurately what the users think. If only 1 group of people comment then lurkers will think that group is the majority.
If you aren’t out there commenting on political issues someone else will be.
If you're participating in a social media ecosystem full of artificial content and bot-engagement, you're not engaging in any kind of interpersonal debate. You're just arguing with robots.
At a very absolute minimum, you should be engage with people IRL. Log Off. Touch the fucking grass.
If only 1 group of people comment then lurkers will think that group is the majority.
This is why the best use of your time is to go onto the 8chan boards and spend all your time posting.
Social media is filled with bot content but its still filled with hundreds of millions of real people looking at those posts and comments and subconsciously forming an opinion. My comment applies to IRL as well.
If everyone on the left logged off and touched grass and entire generation of kids growing up on the internet would move to the right. If you dont want to participate that's fine, im only giving my opinion on why you should consider doing so.
Social media is filled with bot content but its still filled with hundreds of millions of real people
Picking through my email spam for the real people, so I can debate them.
If everyone on the left logged off and touched grass and entire generation of kids growing up
Would have more time to spend with their left-leaning family and friends, rather than watching them stare at their fucking phones arguing with nobodies.
This is why the best use of your time is to go onto the 8chan boards and spend all your time posting.
That is some slick use of the statement and some thick sarcasm and it got a chuckle out of me.
Also terrifyingly enough I think probably the thought process of the people on those sites but viewing the rest of the world as the majority.
By relegating ourselves to unhappy lives, we are making the world a better place!
I think, in reality, those bad people are just dragging us down with them.
Great point. This is why I strive to stay vocal with my boring opinions like "all the trans people I have met were pretty chill and just want to be acknowledged" and "I'm not sure the average politician has the rest of our best interests in mind" and "truck nuts make me laugh".
While this post is talking about the internet, in general it is important to talk about "politics" with people (what is "political" ?).
If you don't talk to people about why racism, sexism, transphobia or something else is bad, they will bring that conversation to people who don't have the choice to ignore the conversation. They will harm and harass minorities.
I agree that the internet might not be the best place to change people's minds, but it is important to name and argue against bigotry when encountered.
You should of course still be mindful of your own mental health <3
Agree. But if you're not going to argue in good faith, if you're not going to discuss with an open mind, if you're going to add toxicity.....then best to stay silent. Shouting your opinion at other people (no matter how ignorant their opinion is) is never going to change their mind.
I can see where you come from, but as a gay man, I would go crazy if I had to enter every homophobic encounter with an open mind.
Also, entering an argument might not change the other persons mind, but it might change the mind of bystanders
Most of the time when I get into an argument with someone on Lemmy (formerly Reddit) it was for the people who may read it more than the other person. The best outcome in those cases is civil disengagement, not changing their mind. But the goal is to reveal some faulty logic and dismiss some disinformation for random strangers.
Open mind to racists, homophobes, ....? Are you serious?
Yes, I'm serious. Depends on if you want to actually change minds, or if you want to try to take a punitive approach to try to shout down narrow minded people (which doesn't really achieve anything).
If a black man can convert high ranking KKK members through conversation alone, then it certainly is possible. Daryl Davis was directly responsible for between forty and sixty, and indirectly over two hundred people leaving the Klan. Or if you want to hear detail about the process then there's a podcast episode about this as well.
(what is "political" ?)
Anything that relates to the polity
in general it is important to talk about "politics" with people
Absolutely. People used to talk about this stuff in pubs and on the streets all the time. People used to literally go out and stand on streetcorners and harass everyone passing by with their opinions (soapboxing). Political structure and governance were common public discourse, with strangers, in public settings. The Federalist Papers were widely distributed and read because there was an interested audience, and they weren't the only example of political publishing for public consumption at the time, just one of the best-known examples.
That's why they say, would you rather be happy or right?
The aesthetic lifestyle is one of divorcing oneself from the world in order to achieve the nirvana of oblivion.
It is less the secret to happiness and more the secret to the absence of sadness.
Ascetic*. I assume the aesthetic lifestyle is primarily shared on instragam.
Yooooo check my dad bod posts @weakfluencer over on the 'graam. While you're there like and follow lol
Think like a scientist and you can have both. Being happy to learn you are wrong because otherwise would be inconclusive.
It's the other people being wrong that's the issue
I see it as further data to observe and explore. It's fine once you get past the nihilistic thoughts.
Me not posting about politics makes everyone happy, because I despise and criticize Trump. I also despise and criticize the Democrats.
So you're welcome.