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-Looks out window. Lawn's engulfed in flames. Closes window shades.-
"All better."
I mean, if there's not anything I can do beyond dumping a thimble of water on the fire six months from now I'd rather just die happy.
Two things
- Politics is for Power provides a pretty good model for thinking about this https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Politics-Is-for-Power/Eitan-Hersh/9781982116798
There's a lot of political hobbyism on social media in general and Lemmy is really bad for it. Take for example the constant Elon Musk rage bait. No one is doing anything productive with that information. They're just getting mad
- Social media, in general, isn't a good way to get informed. It makes you feel really in touch but when a lot of the time you're getting biased and polarizing that is often as enraging as it is unproductive
We treat politics like entertainment and it's making our politics worse. Personally I try to limit my exposure to politics that I don't think will be productive. It might feel like the most important thing in the moment but it's often a huge waste of time
closes blinds
You make some great points. I've seen this in action locally - it's a tiny minority who actually make the effort to change things and they have an amazing success rate, in part because they are often unopposed. The barrier to entry is deceptively low. I think I'm going to read that book.
Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I think that the chances of finding out what's actually going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say, "Hang the sense of it," and keep yourself busy. I'd much rather be happy than right any day.
- Douglas Adams
Great quote, but missing a rather crucial bit at the end:
"And are you?" "No. That's where it all falls down, of course." "Pity", said Arthur. "It sounded like rather a good lifestyle otherwise."
That is such a hard lesson learned; being happy rather than right. It’s one I’m trying to learn more and more, and it has helped.
RIP Douglas Adams. He was an intergalactic treasure. 👍 🦏
Most of us have depressing shit happening at home, we don't need to constantly be reminded of the dumpster fire that is US politics. We have even less influence on that shit than people having to live in that failed state.
Tbf, Lemmy is a place to unwind for many people, we have enough boring exhausting shit going on irl.
It's a link aggregator, if you don't like politics you're in the wrong format of social media.
Ah right, because those other forms of social media aren’t also infested with politics.
Better post about how doomed you are, that’ll fix it.
But for real, some of the communities I’m in have a rule about not posting about negative stories without adding a way to take action, a way to contribute, etc so that it’s not just doom scrolling negativity. Bad news is everywhere and it’s easy to find, anyone can do that.
Taking those bad feelings and channeling them towards something other than wallowing in how bad things are is the important part, not posting and reading. Someone who reads one bad news story a week and calls their representative about it is doing infinitely more than someone who reads every negative story out there to stay “informed”.
I LOVE the idea of including how to take action. As much as Lemmy loves all the guillotine and cranial ventilation comments, they're not actionable or productive for 99.99% of the user base.
Have you considered the fact that not everybody lives in the US?
What if they're not American
There is a global authoritarian campaign to undermine democracies across the globe, the US is not the only country having serious trouble right now.
The picture is specifically about not wanting to hear about US politics
I've bad news about the military base next door to them.
America sneezes, and the world catches a cold.
Now that's the Doomer mindset!