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0 pointsblep_3y ago0 comments

Not that person, but I'm the same way.

You just... stop caring. The only two good reasons to pay attention to news are if it affects you in some way, or if you can do anything about it. The vast majority of news is in neither group.

That's the first pass. From there, you adjust your definition of "affects you". I'm in the US, for example, and our government does plenty of bad things I do not approve of. But most of them, even the ones that ostensibly should affect me, don't actually noticeably change anything in my life. After a while, it all blurs into "my team scored a point" or "the other team scored a point".

Is this privileged? Of course. But it's also a requirement for my mental health. Paying attention to it wouldn't even improve anything for the people who are suffering, so there's not even any sort of utilitarian tradeoff. It would just be making my life worse for no reason, so I don't.

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H8crilA3y ago

Works until it doesn't - see the high amount of dead Russian soldiers, especially the mobilised soldiers. They delegated political decisions until someone literally grabbed them from their workplace and sent them to die in a ditch. I.e. somewhere along the way they found out that despite them not having an interest in politics the politics found some serious interest in them.

sidewndr463y ago

Your personal opinions, feelings, thoughts, and emotions aren't going to matter in the least bit to someone who is going to send you off to die in their war.

swader9993y ago

You think the ones in Russia that followed the news are any better off?

girvo3y ago

Yes. They left the country.

enraged_camel3y ago

Uh, absolutely. They saw the way things were going and fled the country before they could be pressganged.

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SamoyedFurFluff3y ago

I think this is helpful and honest. For example this kind of disengagement is much harder for my female friends of child birthing age in certain states, but it is also emotionally exhausting for them even when they feel like they can’t disengage because… yknow… lol

blep_OP3y ago

As someone in another often-politically-attacked group... yeah. It sucks when it's things that actually do affect you. Those are the times I'm glad I saved my mental energy so I can properly deal with it.

I'll admit to sometimes taking this too far and continuing to ignore things that I probably shouldn't. Eventually, someone mentions the actually important things to me, so I continue to get away with it.

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