The news is boring

submitted by fschmidt from self.nonmorons

All news is basically just another step to the gulags. 90% of /s/all could be replaced with "another step to the gulags" with no real loss of information. It is all quite repetitious and boring.

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[–]trident765 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Reading the news teaches you about society's personality. Read the news to see how society will respond to your actions. If police arrest someone after receiving a tip from Google, this is a sign that you should do Google searches as if the police are reading your searches.

[–]fschmidt[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

One can use simple criteria to make general judgements. For example, when they arrest Alex Jones then I know that it is time to leave the country. This simple test is good enough. I naturally assume that the police follow what I do online, and I don't care.

Instead of reading the news, do positive things. Exercise, support good religion, write good software, etc. These are things worth doing.

[–]privatejoker11 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Some people watch or read news just a little "to be informed". I suspect part of the reason they do it is it gives them something to chatter about with the other idiots at the water cooler. (Or at least it did in the halcyon days when people were allowed to approach one another within less than six feet). But there are also those who are obsessed and spend a lot of time receiving news. I wonder, do they actually find the news more interesting than other stuff they could be doing? Or are their lives and brains so empty that they just need any filler to stuff themselves with?

Of course the news is repetitious and boring. It's meant to be. It fills people's heads with useless trivia that is quite irrelevant to their lives. Aside from simply wasting your time, it disempowers you by taking attention away from what matters (family and local community life) and refocusing it on affairs that are distant from you and over which you have no control. Worrying about things you can't control is disempowering; it produces a victim mentality.

Aside from any propaganda purposes of news, the medium is the message. The purpose of news is to keep the sheep within the virtual pen of the media, forever grazing, munching and regurgitating the pabulum. And the "serious" news links into various entertainment media, social media, sports, and so on, creating a self-reinforcing network of brain-rotting bullshit.

Yes, the news was always part of the (free!) programming on the train to the gulag.