Comment by nialv7 4 days ago
What a privilege, what a luxury, to be able to turn a blind eye to all the injustice that's currently happening in the world...
Sure, do what you want, ignore news if that makes you feel better, but do realise for many, they are not afforded this kind of luxury.
I keep reading this point of view, that not being glued to the news is "privilege".
I completely disagree.
Refreshing your feed all day long, getting angry at all the news, does not make someone superior. I'm not going to travel to support the iranian uprising, or going hide illegal immigrants in a Minneapolis basement, and it is likely that neither are you. So the end result is the same, except the person consuming and reacting to the news is wasting more time. Worst, they become radicalized and are now part of the extremism that keep being pushed.
I research policy and vote when asked. In between, there's too much going on in my life to spend it with daily news
Billionaires and/or other oligarchic dictators love it when the zone is flooded, consent is manufactured, the people are divided and conquered, and the people no longer pay attention to meaningful signals nor travesties. This gives them maximum power when the people ignore everything and obey in advance or suffer from learned helplessness.
I hear you, but spending an hour to research every name on the ballot come election time will make you better informed than most people.
If you want to do more, you can find some protests to participate in. Or do something other than protest like clean a local park or feed hungry people.
If I spend 3 hours on a random Tuesday consuming the news, that doesn't help anyone. It does the opposite; it makes me less able to focus, and makes me have less personal power and discipline to affect change in the world.