What do you think about people who have don't follow the news?

I have come across too many people recently my age(45) who don't follow the news, have no idea about the healthcare debate raging.

I just can't understand parents of teenagers setting a bad example for their kids by being totally disengaged.


Red Sox scores yeah! political news? don't even bother to bring it up.

They are just concerned about their own lives. I've heard, more than once, people say, "I'm not worried about it. It doesn't affect me," when asked about some current event or other.

from the periphery. I still understand what's going on and what's at stake but I can no longer afford to immerse myself in it. It's proven to be extremely bad for my overall well-being. I needed out in the worst way.

:hi:

it was literally effecting my health to be immersed in it. I now skirt the periphery enough to keep 'in the know'. :hi: I even had to step back from DU for a while.

I now usually only haunt the forums of my interests such as reading, cooking, photography, gardening, etc. The rude people in the big forums can have at each other all they want. The disrespect they show to one another on a regular basis just sickens me, too. As I mentioned in another recent post, they're no better than the screaming idiots on right-wing radio and TV.

:hi:

I shall seek it out

in stressing myself over details I can have little or no influence over. I prefer to wait out the idiocy and tune in when something significant happens.

in the car to and from work. And some things here, but I don't seek them out unless something piques my interest, such as the sarcastic death panel threads that were posted here in the lounge. They signaled me that something big was afoot so I went and checked it out. Frankly, I could have lived forever without hearing that load of shit.

:hi:

Honestly... no matter how worked up or outraged or thrilled or excited or depressed or whatever *I* get about health care, it won't change the eventual policy decisions one whit. The machine will do what it does.

I can spend 16 hours a day trying to be informed, or I can be ignorant on this (and 99.7% of other political topics). It won't make a bit of difference.

I'm starting to realize that if I just spent ONE hour a day making myself healthier, it would be far more useful and valuable and have a direct effect on my health care costs now and in the future. That's something sitting in front of a computer casting asparagus won't do for me.

I'm realizing that most "political discussions" basically center on envy. Concerns that somebody else is getting something they DON'T deserve, while others do without what they need. The rich have too much money and don't really deserve to keep it. The government takes my money and gives it to poor people who don't deserve it. Moochers vs robber barons. And it's all basically pointless.

That's a little harsh. Sure some folks play the system but I doubt they are in the majority.

I was just sort of characterizing the pointless rhetoric of both sides... the right has been using the term "moochers" a lot lately since the resurgence of Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged" as some sort of utopian vision.

"Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce."

That sums up what the right and "libertarians" are chanting now... despite the fact that most fortunes are made with a lot of help from society in one form or another.

I'm just sick of it all...

Thank goodness. :hug:

nowadays i read my local papers but not the bigger daily i used to, i dont watch TV really at all except for a few shows i like, and just read specific websites that i enjoy, so much that is out there in the world is just dross and some people just dont want to wade through it.

Other times I think they're just fuckheads. :)

the ignorant people i meet are suffering terribly, they are just striking out at the wrong direction and don't know why they're unhappy, but they're still unhappy

and some of them are suffering needlessly, worried about nonsense like social pressure from the baptist church or whatever

before I go so intensely involved. The weight of the world is a terrible thing to carry around.

the first time someone made the radical declaration that they no longer watched the news or read newspapers I thought "intentional ignorance!" but I have completely come around to the same position. Being informed is not the same as being sucked into mainstream media. I know WAY more about important things than I know about celebrity gossip or the latest murder/car chase/robbery. The events that I am actually interested in can be looked into in great detail here on the internets if desired. The flucff can be found if wanted but it isn't in your face all the freaking time. And being free of most of that advertising has made a HUGE difference in my life - to the point when I do see it on a tee vee somewhere it actually makes me feel strange - almost drugged and not in a fun, recreational way. Kind of confirms what I feel about people I know who spend so much time with tee vees running.

if they don't follow the news because they're busy and can admit that those of us who do follow current events might know more than they do...i'm cool with it

but too many don't know what the fuck is going on but still want to try to tell you want to think about it...got NO use for that

some people consider it rude to discuss politics so "don't even bother to bring it up" is fine by me, in fact, i don't bring it up unless they do

I found a lot of women who said, "Oh I don't know anything about politics- my husband decides who we vote for." It kills me to think of how hard women fought to get the vote, and then there are women who just wait for a man to tell them what to do. But I don't think this is just true in conservative areas.

and I had no clue. I probably read too much economic, politics and science news :shrug:

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=8278249

that they're secretly miserable. :eyes:

There is a reason it's a truism that ignorance is bliss, because ignorance gives you less to worry about and get upset about.

Polls have pretty consistently shown that conservatives know less about current events than liberals, and that conservatives report being happier with their lives that liberals. There is a correlation between how much you know and care about the world and how happy you are.