[lm28469]

The real question is why are people following the news anyway? It's pure entertainment at that point. "Hey Karen have you seen that a girl was raped and murdered 1000 miles away from you ? Have you heard what _unknown politician of a third world country you couldn't even place on a map_ said ! that's outrageous. A cop killed an innocent man today #thoughtsAndPrayers".

The world would be a much better place if everybody only checked what's happening around them instead of the other side of the country / world. 99% of the "news" have 0 impact on you and you have 0 power (direct and indirect) on 99% of what's happening, why even bother ?

[zouhair]

Well that's short sighted. It's because of this flawed logic that a lot of Americans think they have the best education/healthcare in the World.

Just now that they started to look at what is happening elsewhere that they are starting to understand what they are lacking.

Here is the thing, and it works for everything in life: Knowing a thing is almost always better than not knowing it, even if it is not clear what use to make of it.

This said knowing what is happening near you is also very important.

[edejong]

No, the statement 'knowing a thing is almost always better than not knowing it', is balderdash.

An individuals knowledge is like a garden. It needs to be kept in order and it takes time to maintain. There is simply too much information being produced and a limited bandwidth to ingest this information. To select the right information is of the essence. Form a strategy of knowledge gathering. For example, one can decide to pick a topic that is not well known, in order to be a valuable amateur expert on that topic. But, just ingesting information without any rhyme or reason is a recipe for disaster.

[Red_Leaves_Flyy]

So, because you found one, rather extreme case, where blindly consuming disparate pieces of information is maybe harmful you're arguing the entire premise is flawed?

The statement is not "at the sacrifice of all else, memorize everything possible."

If you take any advice to a logical extreme it will likely become bad advice. Maybe you should try to consider things from different angles before you capriciously write them off.

[edejong]

Personally I am of the opinion that one should always consider the knowledge one gathers similarly to the food one eats and the friends one keeps. One burger doesn’t make you fat, nor does one bad friend make you criminal. But we’d better make conscious decisions lest we’ll be a 200kg drug dealing gang member who believes the earth is flat.

[Red_Leaves_Flyy]

Seems like you're agreeing with me in a very abrasive way.

[edejong]

No, I am not in agreement. We should always be careful with the information we gather and keep a focus. That’s different from: more information is always better.

I am not a native speaker. Where did you thought I was abrasive?

[mistermann]

> Here is the thing, and it works for everything in life: Knowing a thing is almost always better than not knowing it, even if it is not clear what use to make of it.

Isn't that the problem though, knowing what is true? It is an incredibly hard thing to do, even when everyone is acting in good faith and trying their hardest, which certainly isn't the state of affairs today. I'd say much less than 10% of people would get a passing grade on both of those requirements, and I'm not even sure I'd give myself a passing grade.

"It Ain’t What You Don’t Know That Gets You Into Trouble. It’s What You Know for Sure That Just Ain’t So."

And you provided a perfect example: Americans think they have the best education/healthcare in the World.

[jankotek]

Eating junk food is not healthy...

[pjc50]

Did you read that in the news?

[pixl97]

No, I read that in a publication of a medical journal.

[zouhair]

Dying because you cannot afford insulin when you are diabetic is also a thing.

[touchpadder]

Accusing a solid argument of being flawed and replacing it with a bulk of nonsense lol

[frankbreetz]

News also includes what laws are passed, what court decisions were made, it's a citizen's responsibility to be an informed citizen.

[lm28469]

> it's a citizen's responsibility to be an informed citizen.

There are new/updated laws every single day, in my country I can read them online, 99.99% of them aren't presented in mainstream news.

Don't read mainstream newspapers or watch CNN/Fox news to be an informed citizen, that's not how it works.

[Joe-Z]

Yes, but these 'real news' as we could call them, will probably have a legal requirement to be posted on a government-owned source also (and I'm assuming this source would be free of twisted profit incentives). So, still not required to immerse yourself in the constant stream of noise and manipulation that is 'the news'.

[GarrisonPrime]

“it’s a slave’s responsibility to pay attention to his master’s proclamations”

Fixed it for you.

[_akei]

Those in power will certainly prefer your kind of thinking. With your kind of thinking, Nelson Mandela wasn't going to be released from jail. I doubt they were even gonna send him to jail. They were going to quietly execute him. Apartheid wasn't going to be defeated, and black South Africans were still going to be treated like animals in their own country. It was reporting by British media, politicians, celebrities and ordinary citizens that put pressure on the apartheid government to end apartheid. What is happening in another country does affect you. Those people will soon be running to your country when life becomes unbearable.

Same as holocaust, I am sure Hitler was going to prefer that other countries don't report on what was happening so that he can continue to eliminate all German Jews. When he was done, he was going to move to neighbouring countries and continue until he reaches your backyard. By then, it will be too late.

What Donald Trump tweets, does affect me directly because Google Play on my Huawei phone can stop working with one announcement from him. I need to be up to date with the politics of the US. Recession in USresults in recessions all ov er the world. We are part of one global community and what happens on one corner of the world is everyone's problem.

[lm28469]

I'll focus on my town and country before thinking about things happening 10k kilometres from me and on which I have absolutely no power whatsoever. That's why we're supposed to elect competent politicians btw, to take care of the serious business we citizen know jack shit about.

We can take a current event, hong kong, besides posting memes on reddit and #thoughtsAndPrayers on twitter what are people outside of the region doing ? Nothing. You can be aware and upset about something, if you don't do shit about it you're better off taking care of your local community. I also doubt we can compare the vast majority of the click bait news spewed by mainstream media and the holocaust. There is a very big difference between a war next door and whatever happens in the other side of the world.

Let's reverse your argument, what about Vietnam, Irak, Afghanistan ? the US managed to (initially) get public support for those through the medias, are they a net good for the average citizen ?

[madiathomas]

Believe me, those memes are helping to raise awareness. We must always raise awareness. We won't always succeed but we must always try our best.

[pjc50]

> It was reporting by British media, politicians, celebrities and ordinary citizens that put pressure on the apartheid government to end apartheid

Not just British, it was a global effort and a global boycott. The British government of the time wasn't a supporter of Mandela.

> I am sure Hitler was going to prefer that other countries don't report on what was happening so that he can continue to eliminate all German Jews.

The Holocaust was barely reported at the time. Much of the details were only discovered by horrified Allied troops that overran the camps. Internment and the other racial discriminatory laws were reported; and the wave of Jewish refugees was, along with the high levels of opposition to taking in refugees.

Some of those have very striking parallels today.

[madiathomas]

I singled out Britain because they were the most vocal in the fight against apartheid. Maybe it was because they were our former colonisers. They are the ones who imposed sanctions that helped. As for US, it was in fact the CIA who gave apartheid government intel which led to the arrest of Nelson Mandela.