[hot_gril]

I went the other way, expanding the news I read to include more international stuff. Really makes me see the partisan stuff in the US as silly, so I don't get heated about it, just lazily keep up with what's happening. International propaganda is easier to spot cause I'm not living in it, which helps me identify it more at home. Anything I consider real news is still too far away to really upset me but important enough that I want to do something about it in a cool-headed way.

And if I weren't doing that, I'd go no-news. That's fine too.

[tasty_freeze]

> Really makes me see the partisan stuff in the US as silly, so I don't get heated about it,

Some of the partisan issues are not silly if you are affected by it. To pick a left issue, if you are gay and would like to marry your partner and get the benefits of such legal recognition, the differences are very consequential. To pick a right issue, if you think that Democrats are voting illegally by the millions, then addressing such threats to Democracy is incredibly important.

There are many other issues where there is a real difference. As an affluent, well educated, older white guy with job security, I'm well insulated from many of the issues. But I have empathy for the people who can't be so aloof; to say "both sides are equally bad" across the board is lazy enlightened centrism.

[hot_gril]

I don't think they're equally bad, only equally silly. They use the same scare tactics every time, and it helps to look past that. Yes I care about the issues.

But how I vote is different: just straight down for whatever is the minority party in my state. Only battleground states get the pandering, and I'll stop doing this if I ever live in a battleground state or they change how voting works. State propositions are a separate thing.

[whitemary]

Same but I just don't vote at all, unless there are any strong trustworthy pro-worker candidates which basically doesn't happen. I will also show up to vote against anti-worker ballot measures, which are more frequent.

[wolverine876]

You'll end up with a many more anti-worker activity if you don't vote. And you will be ignored.

And who will make decisions for you? Who will take on your responsibilities? What other authority is there? When we are children, we can be irresponsibile and our parents ultimately see to them. As adults, there's nobody else; it's just us.

[hot_gril]

One vote doesn't matter, in fact you get negative value out of it cause it takes time and exposes some of your private info to the public. I vote despite that, only cause I want to. There isn't a logical explanation for it.

[wolverine876]

> One vote doesn't matter

C'mon, we can think deeper than that. One soldier doesn't matter; are militaries useless? One software developer can't do much on a sizeable project; should we abandon all software? All open source? One journalist, one HN comment, etc. etc. When can one person accomplish much by themselves?

You're right, one person alone doesn't accomplish much, yet somehow humanity has accomplished incredible things. We are social creatures, we naturally work together to build and do amazing things. Please join us! The sky is the limit, and not even that since 1961.

[timeon]

There are barely any Left-wing policies because there are no Left-wing voters anyway.

[whitemary]

I would go one step further: There is no left wing to speak of in the United States, and if there were then it would only vote for its own democratically disciplined candidates.

[seanmcdirmid]

I only read biz/economic news religiously, like stock market crashes, bank failures, layoffs, etc…because they are more likely to affect me and I can act on that news. Business news also seems to have less bias, since they are judged on their ability to help their consumers make and retain money, rather than just cater to their cognitive biases.

[hot_gril]

Not sure if this is what you're referring to, but there's a lot of "buy now" or "sell now" news that seems like straight up market manipulation.