I've been wondering about this for a while as well. I don't read the news but I used to. And when I used to it felt like putting my emotions through a grinder (that too first thing in the morning)
Choosing not to read the news is a form of preservation but my tradeoff is I just don't know what is going on (but I don't think reading the news helps with this either)
I appreciate reading essays that synthesise what's going on though but those are rare and they are rarely helping me sensemake right at the moment
Left me thinking about how much of what we call being informed is actually social pressure dressed up as responsibility. It takes effort to step away from that loop, especially when silence is often read as ignorance or indifference. If someone chooses to step away from news to protect their focus, how should they stay aware of issues that directly affect their decisions without getting pulled back into the same cycle you describe?
My apologies for not having interacted with your content in some time, Anuradha! This was a very good article! The news makes you less informed and holds you back. It does NOT make you more informed or educated! That’s not what the mainstream media’s purpose is. It’s purpose is to divide America for ratings and profits and protecting powerful people from being held accountable for things they’ve done wrong. The press in this country does NOT work for you or care about you, they work tor the elites, those being the U.S. government, the intelligence agencies, big business, and the military-industrial complex. They do the bidding of elites whether it be CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CBS, ABC, NBC, the New York Times, or the Washington Post. Look at everything they’ve lied to us about: the Iraq, Afghanistan, Libyan, and Syrian Wars, the Hunter Biden Scandal, COVID-19, January 6th, Kyle Rittenhouse, Nick Sandmann, the Twitter Files, the BLM riots, Russiagate, Ukrainegate, numerous things Trump said, Joe Biden’s mental health, the Epstein Files, you name it!
They tell lies and half-truths, omit inconvenient facts, gate keep what the “acceptable parameters” for debate are, play the partisan game, fear monger, don’t care about fact checking, race bait, practice sensationalism and yellow journalism, kiss up to powerful people, are stenographers who repeat whatever they want them to say, push war all day long, and do endless fear mongering about everything under the sun. All mainstream journalists are either nepotism cases or empty drones who say what they’re told to say to collect a check at the end of the day. They all went to the same Ivy League journalism schools, come from money and privilege and all think alike. The days of journalists coming from the working class are over. As to the idea you’re “privileged” if you avoid the dumpster fire that is the news, it’s total nonsense. You have every right to do it. By the way, Radha is a woman of color from an immigrant background, if we’re going to play that game she’s among those who are supposed to be the least privileged in this country.
If you want to rot your brain out reading The New Republic or Breitbart all day be my guest. But I’m not going to subject myself to that. For news that is actually unbiased and nuanced, I would recommend the following: C-Span, Tangle News, The Free Press, Ground News, 1440, and The Flip Side. The Good News Network is great because they report only good news all the time. UnHerd, Spiked Online, Quillette, Persuasion, and Free Black Thought are all great commentary sites to look at for opinions you won’t typically hear out of the mainstream. But don’t move too far in the other direction and start listening to tin foil hat nonsense like InfoWars, World Net Daily, The Jimmy Dore Show, The Daily Kos, The Young Turks, Secular Talk, The David Pakman Show, Prison Planet, the Tucker Carlson Show, or the Megyn Kelly Show. Just because Rachel Maddow or Sean Hannity aren’t trustworthy doesn’t mean Alex Jones or Cenk Uygur are.
I've been wondering about this for a while as well. I don't read the news but I used to. And when I used to it felt like putting my emotions through a grinder (that too first thing in the morning)
Choosing not to read the news is a form of preservation but my tradeoff is I just don't know what is going on (but I don't think reading the news helps with this either)
I appreciate reading essays that synthesise what's going on though but those are rare and they are rarely helping me sensemake right at the moment
Left me thinking about how much of what we call being informed is actually social pressure dressed up as responsibility. It takes effort to step away from that loop, especially when silence is often read as ignorance or indifference. If someone chooses to step away from news to protect their focus, how should they stay aware of issues that directly affect their decisions without getting pulled back into the same cycle you describe?
My apologies for not having interacted with your content in some time, Anuradha! This was a very good article! The news makes you less informed and holds you back. It does NOT make you more informed or educated! That’s not what the mainstream media’s purpose is. It’s purpose is to divide America for ratings and profits and protecting powerful people from being held accountable for things they’ve done wrong. The press in this country does NOT work for you or care about you, they work tor the elites, those being the U.S. government, the intelligence agencies, big business, and the military-industrial complex. They do the bidding of elites whether it be CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CBS, ABC, NBC, the New York Times, or the Washington Post. Look at everything they’ve lied to us about: the Iraq, Afghanistan, Libyan, and Syrian Wars, the Hunter Biden Scandal, COVID-19, January 6th, Kyle Rittenhouse, Nick Sandmann, the Twitter Files, the BLM riots, Russiagate, Ukrainegate, numerous things Trump said, Joe Biden’s mental health, the Epstein Files, you name it!
They tell lies and half-truths, omit inconvenient facts, gate keep what the “acceptable parameters” for debate are, play the partisan game, fear monger, don’t care about fact checking, race bait, practice sensationalism and yellow journalism, kiss up to powerful people, are stenographers who repeat whatever they want them to say, push war all day long, and do endless fear mongering about everything under the sun. All mainstream journalists are either nepotism cases or empty drones who say what they’re told to say to collect a check at the end of the day. They all went to the same Ivy League journalism schools, come from money and privilege and all think alike. The days of journalists coming from the working class are over. As to the idea you’re “privileged” if you avoid the dumpster fire that is the news, it’s total nonsense. You have every right to do it. By the way, Radha is a woman of color from an immigrant background, if we’re going to play that game she’s among those who are supposed to be the least privileged in this country.
If you want to rot your brain out reading The New Republic or Breitbart all day be my guest. But I’m not going to subject myself to that. For news that is actually unbiased and nuanced, I would recommend the following: C-Span, Tangle News, The Free Press, Ground News, 1440, and The Flip Side. The Good News Network is great because they report only good news all the time. UnHerd, Spiked Online, Quillette, Persuasion, and Free Black Thought are all great commentary sites to look at for opinions you won’t typically hear out of the mainstream. But don’t move too far in the other direction and start listening to tin foil hat nonsense like InfoWars, World Net Daily, The Jimmy Dore Show, The Daily Kos, The Young Turks, Secular Talk, The David Pakman Show, Prison Planet, the Tucker Carlson Show, or the Megyn Kelly Show. Just because Rachel Maddow or Sean Hannity aren’t trustworthy doesn’t mean Alex Jones or Cenk Uygur are.