@NewsDesk Ex-journalist here who has thought about this a lot in the past and came up with these tactics for staying sane and functional:
1, choose sources carefully;
2, stay a day or two behind the news cycle, when possible, for perspective, and to reduce sense of urgency about terrible things that you cannot influence;
3, learn the news through print media, which engages the rational parts of your brain, rather than video, which plays straight into emotional reactions.
@NewsDesk My primary (offline) news sources is #NPR - A rather more sober and far less hyperbolic delivery and discourse than most other options. In fact I don't listen to or watch any commercial media, I listen to NPR during most waking hours and occasionally stream the #PBS_Newshour in the evening. The funny part is always hearing references to celebrities and stuff on commercial media on NPR with no context or explanation because it's assumed everyone consumes commercial media.
@NewsDesk I only read news for 1 hour on Sunday morning and mostly from weekly magazines in Apple News+. There is little value in real time news reporting or analysis. One of the best things I did for my mental health.
@NewsDesk I gave up news in favor of sanity years ago. I avoid news outlets as a matter of course; & I still seem to be pretty well informed as to what’s going on. If there’s something interesting or concerning happening; I look it up through trusted secondary sources, or primary sources if they’re available.
I dig to find news sources that aren't filthy mind-destroying propaganda.
Particularly sources that actually discuss solutions-- which do in fact exist. MSM doesn't talk about solutions because they're dangerous to the status quo. If we start thinking we can actually DO stuff to make the world better, we tend to get uppity.
@violetmadder We also endanger GOP interests when we start thinking we can actually make the world better, and as every Serious Person knows, That Just Won't Do. @NewsDesk
Indeed. I wish somebody would remind them of that. Diversity of thought is a value inherent to the left-- they need to push for some form of ranked choice voting to encourage that, instead of doubling down on the spoiler effect to force monolithic "unity"... But then they might actually win elections and have to do their jobs.
@violetmadder Yeah, I don't know that RCV would solve all our problems, but it would definitely make things better than they are now. Here in NC, though, the GOP controls the legislature and they'll never go for it for general elections. The N.C. Dem Party might go for it for primaries; their new chair is a young woman who seems more open to new ideas than her predecessors. @NewsDesk
It wouldn't, but it would be a start-- a sign of good faith effort at least. When the spoiler effect is used as a weapon to suppress dissent, the hair on the back of my neck stands on end.
@violetmadder Yeah, I don't know which is worse, that, or the prospect of re-electing Trump (or, here in NC, electing batshit-insane lite gov Mark Robinson as governor). @NewsDesk
@NewsDesk@isotope239 Well now I have a term - news sober - for my best friend who consumes no news in any form. She figures that if something happens that she really needs to know about, someone will tell her directly
@NewsDesk I also limit my news sources to more reliable/proven sources - sources that aren't editorial in nature. So like news wire services or those sources on the Media Bias report that are neutral and factual.
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