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My late father was career military/Navy who served in WWII, Korea, and the Vietnam Wars so at a young age he taught me to always be aware and interested in what is going on in our country and the world politically and militarily. And now as an adult working for the Federal Government for nearly the last 20 years this awareness and interest my late father instilled in me is just as important to me. But, I listen to no MSM unless I catch blips of it on my car radio and instead follow several citizen investigative journalists on YouTube that I believe provide me the most accurate news.
Hi OP
I am the exact opposite. I pay more attention to news/politics now I am old. I am afraid of America so I watch every step.
What good does overly worrying do for you and what does it do for the USA? It causes you distress and it has very very little impact on the path of the USA unless you have some sort of huge political following or influence other than your vote.
I would recommend to everyone how to survive in today's news driven media environment: Consume multiple sources and make up your own mind. There is nothing wrong with reading the New York Times and listening to Rush Limbaugh. Do both if you like. And trust your own eyes and ears. Forget all the "media bias" and "fake news" nonsense. If you like, go to a Trump rally yourself. Or watch it live on CSPAN - no filter. If you hear the President of the United States say something you know is false, then you can make a judgement about that. If people close to the President are being convicted of lying and are going to prison - is that the deep state? Or is it that they actually committed crimes and are being held accountable? "Russia, if you are listening" - was that a Trump joke? Or was he calling for a hostile foreign power to interfere in our elections? So consume the news and make up your own mind. Not everything is corrupt, but some of it is. Go vote. Make a difference. That is all I am saying.
That is exactly how I deal with it all. I watch all the news channels but not obsessed with it. I watch all of the debates, the town hall meetings and speeches because I want to hear for myself what is said and not rely on some newscaster to tell me and/or assert their opinion. And, depending on their biases, I catch a lot of taking things said out of context. Someone trying, and failing, to tell a 'joke' that gets taken wrong and they pay...forever. So, I want to hear what was said, and how they said it, so I can decide for myself what's what.
I would recommend to everyone how to survive in today's news driven media environment: Consume multiple sources and make up your own mind. There is nothing wrong with reading the New York Times and listening to Rush Limbaugh. Do both if you like. And trust your own eyes and ears. Forget all the "media bias" and "fake news" nonsense. If you like, go to a Trump rally yourself. Or watch it live on CSPAN - no filter. If you hear the President of the United States say something you know is false, then you can make a judgement about that. If people close to the President are being convicted of lying and are going to prison - is that the deep state? Or is it that they actually committed crimes and are being held accountable? "Russia, if you are listening" - was that a Trump joke? Or was he calling for a hostile foreign power to interfere in our elections? So consume the news and make up your own mind. Not everything is corrupt, but some of it is. Go vote. Make a difference. That is all I am saying.
Agreed.
I've always been politically opinionated, and back in college, was a remember of the College Republicans and some other politically-motivated organizations. I was a big Trump supporter for the first year or so, but I really don't care as much, though I will probably vote for him again.
I also have a NYT/Economist subscription, and I regularly listen to Limbaugh. Hannity is like nails on a chalkboard to me, and I don't much care for him. I'll listen to Michael Savage if he's on or local talk. If anything, I find the people who comment on the NYT online articles to be far more partisan and hateful than Limbaugh.
When a person reads the NYT, they're ostensibly going for unbiased news, unless they're specifically going for editorials. I think their news is relatively reliable. When you're tuning into Limbaugh, you know it's going to be partisan. He's a talk show host. He's conservative. That's his business model.
Personally, I've always found Limbaugh to be easy and fun to listen to, and IMO, compared to basically every other radio host, he's actually very upbeat, does not come across as extremely partisan or shrill, and has a positive mindset. There's a huge difference in personality between someone like Savage and Limbaugh. Limbaugh seems like a very cool guy and fun to be around.
What good does overly worrying do for you and what does it do for the USA? It causes you distress and it has very very little impact on the path of the USA unless you have some sort of huge political following or influence other than your vote.
The sad thing is that virtually of us have basically no influence over anything at the federal or even state level. I've always thought that if someone wants to be politically involved or get wound up over something, then go run for a local office or become the thorn in the side of your local government on some specific issue. Local and small scale is the only way most of us can meaningfully attempt to influence politics.
I've run the gamut. Like many of you I like to think I'm fairly open-minded, want good choices, intelligence and civility in politics and don't care for news presented to me with a slant. I suspect there are multitudes of us who feel a lack of support and representation.
And as an aside, as a former English teacher I can barely stand reading what passes for journalism these days. That alone will send me into a rant.
A couple of years ago I realized trying to stay up on current events was affecting my mental state and happiness and quit cold turkey. I glance at the headlines. If I need to know more I research it.
I check the candidates at voting time and try to pick the ones who will do the most good for the most people. The rest I leave to those who still like getting into the thick of it. It seems to run its own course with no help from me as it always has.
I save my volunteering for real-life local people where I can see that I am doing some good.
One reason I think that the news is so mentally taxing these days is because the velocity of the news cycle is increasing and flow of information is basically continuous.
I have news apps on my phone. I have the NYT, CNN, some magazines, some local news apps, Alex Jones, etc. If I just kept the default notification preferences, my phone would be consistently blowing up with news notifications. There's so much incoming information these days that you specifically have to filter it down or you will quickly be on sensory overload.
Fifty years ago, most folks' news exposure was through a thirty minute local news program and a thirty minute national broadcast. Maybe they got the local paper and the weekly Time circular - stuff like that. Today, we have numerous 24x7 cable news channels. Once a story is reported, we're getting updates and addenda virtually by the minute. It's difficult to sometimes even mentally process what news just came out before being bombarded with more news.
Superb topic! One of my best friends has been retired with his beautiful wife over in Dumaguete Philippines. He said one of the reasons why he retired overseas is to escape the extreme political division that exists in America. He'll continue to monitor it at arms length but for the most part, he's over it. He loves the people of the Philippines because they are so harmonious ie the complete opposite of his home country.
My wife and I lived in the DC area for decades - worked in DC for Uncle Sam for decades - my uncle worked for Speaker of the House John W. McCormack for decades ..... yeah, I don't ignore political/social issues in retirement.
I like to keep up with what's going on. I don't get any newspapers (except the local Sunday paper - not much national/international news there) ; I watch local and national news on TV - that's news, not FOX. I often check online sources like The Guardian's US edition, The Hill, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post.
I try to keep up with my Representative and Senators in Congress, and they have all heard from me on multiple occasions on various topics. The Congressional Record is also available online, and when I hear something on the news about what some Senator or Representative said about an issue I am interested in, I can go to the Congressional Record and read the actual words that were spoken, rather than someone's interpretation of it.
Other than all that, I'm kinda normal. Really.
PS. And I always vote.
Last edited by GreenGene; 02-15-2019 at 02:15 PM..
Reason: one addition
One reason I think that the news is so mentally taxing these days is because the velocity of the news cycle is increasing and flow of information is basically continuous.
I have news apps on my phone. I have the NYT, CNN, some magazines, some local news apps, Alex Jones, etc. If I just kept the default notification preferences, my phone would be consistently blowing up with news notifications. There's so much incoming information these days that you specifically have to filter it down or you will quickly be on sensory overload.
Fifty years ago, most folks' news exposure was through a thirty minute local news program and a thirty minute national broadcast. Maybe they got the local paper and the weekly Time circular - stuff like that. Today, we have numerous 24x7 cable news channels. Once a story is reported, we're getting updates and addenda virtually by the minute. It's difficult to sometimes even mentally process what news just came out before being bombarded with more news.
That's just it. And because I wasn't willing or trusting of taking one faction's version of a story I found myself spending entirely too much time trying to make sure that I had a realistic viewpoint of the news. The worst though, was having to wade through reams of poorly written "journalism." My mental red pencil was burning up.
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