Ask Lemmy

I know exactly what you mean, but more and more lately, considering all news is bad to terrible, I've been considering distancing myself from it.

Part of me very much wants to stay up to date on the world, global and local politics, economy, society, science, etc etc, but honestly at this point I'm not sure why I should bother.

Take political parties for example. I already know everything I need to know about Labour and the Tories. I know I'll never vote Tory, but more and more I look at Labour and realise they're just the Tories with slightly softer edges. The same rich tossers from the same rich world with the same dark dodgy connections and secrets.

And more and more, I think about what it takes for a political party or individual to rise up to the point of being in the running for votes, and realise that they're only allowed to reach that point if the rich ruling class decide they're suitable - (it's not some shadowy secret society, it's just that individuals will create friction and problems for those they know won't be pliable and useful to their cause, and over time they get weeded out, leaving just the ones that serve the rich).

So, I've come to the conclusion that all the major parties that have any chance at real power are actually all the same once you strip away their outer policies (most of which they'll discard once elected, anyway).

So, following politics doesn't seem to be useful any more to make an informed decision on who to vote for, you know? They're all essentially the same, and the radical outliers that could potentially bring about a better world are so, so far outside of the running, voting for them would be a wasted vote (not to say I don't, anyway).

As for the other news, it's all just bad and worse. Living standards declining, workers and civil rights crumbling, cost of living crisis ever worsening, proletariat being crushed, the rich getting richer, more nations turning right-wing aka fascist, climate change ravaging the world, late stage capitalism destroying our lives piece by piece, inflation and prices up with wages down as always, etc etc etc....

I still stay informed, but there will come a point that I just have to admit it's only making me depressed and miserable.

Even the supposed good news is couched in caveats and issues..... New vaccine for an illness? Great! So many antivaxers will fight it that it won't be very effective. A new cancer treatment? Great! The waiting times and crumbling health service (intentionally destroyed by the government to force healthcare to rely on rich healthcare companies instead of public healthcare) will make it difficult for the new treatment to make much difference. A society wide realisation that working from home and 4 day weeks lead to happier, healthier employees and increased productivity? Great! Except that healthy employees with breathing room will start to question why they have so few rights, and why their lives are forced to revolve around their employers, and we can't have that.

Etc etc. Almost all good news had a sinister flip side that renders any benefits moot.

Reading the news and staying informed is a noble goal, and one I've stuck to, but all it's done is made me miserable and no longer trust the government, the police, employers, heck I don't even trust supposedly highly trustworthy media outlets any more. Nowadays I see the extreme yet careful bias the BBC employ at the behest of the government and the rich, as every media outlet does, to try to control what we believe.

Take for example the unprecedented strikes of the past few years. Every single time the BBC report on say, a postal or rail or bus strike etc, it's never framed as the workers taking this desperate last resort nuclear option to resolve the issue that they really wish they didn't have to take, but their employers are being evil so they have to, etc. No. They always frame it as something like:

"Rail workers on strike again. Here's how their actions will inconvenience you, gosh they're so inconsiderate and greedy!"

They'll say it with a softer, more clever touch, and "for balance" have a paragraph or two very briefly mentioning things from the striking workers side of things, without really going into much detail, and that's it.

So.... Yeah :-( I agree with you, really I do. But... if you meet a person that chooses to no longer stay informed on events, don't immediately lose respect for them or think less of them. They may be choosing to stay uninformed with reasons that matter to them, like their own mental health ❤️