Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

So what's your alternative? Living in ignorance until it's too late?

That's a false equivalence which is at the heart of the issue. You seem to be be assuming that "being informed" makes you better placed and/or more willing to take right action, but I'm not convinced that's the case

Not being informed doesn’t even give you the option to consider getting involved.

I'm not arguing. I'm genuinely asking for your approach. I can imagine being overloaded with information. And "research hypnosis" is a genuine thing (and issue I sometimes struggle with). I'm open to accepting I may be falling for it again and am open to other approaches. I genuinely don't know much more to do than keep calling my reps.

I still fundamentally believe that an info overload (as long as you are scrutinizing your news healthily) is better than being in complete ignorance.

Better how? And by what measurement? What are you gaining from info overload opposed to ignorance?

You say you fundamentally believe in one over the other, but you haven't made the case for info overload, and have even made some points against it (hypnosis, futility, etc).

How often do you actually act on something you saw in the news, within, say, a month?

I avoid news qua news as much as possible and try to read up on things after a month or so, when the heat has gone out and more sober analysis has taken place. E.g. I'm vaguely aware there was a plane crash recently and look forward to reading a proper writeup of that at some point, but I doubt there's anything to be learnt from diving into detailed coverage right now.

Most stuff on the news doesn't feel like it threatens my life (e.g. Not a wildfire 5 miles away from me). So admitedtly not that often.

But probably more often than you'd expect. I see layoffs and I check up on contacts to see if they are okay. Major crashes or other kinds of disasters if I know people in the area. I see tarriffs and think "well, gotta grab stuff before that". I see issues with food and warn my family. Since a lot of my family is military I do need to check up everytime some chaos happens in DC. These aren't large actions but I do act on that knowledge.

This is definitely a case right now where I feel it's important to be informed instead of "letting it blow over". There may not be anything left this time. If you don't feel like it that's perfectly fine. But I'm genuinely looking for any ways to help, no matter how small.

>So what's your alternative? Living in ignorance until it's too late?

Too late for what? you are _already_ a slave to the system from birth to grave. If there is anything you can do, do it regardless of the news which is a distraction/propaganda.

I'm begrudgingly fine with that. Let me do something before the deal alters, please.