Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

Likely take a break from social media and talk with some real people. Lots of people voted for trump aren’t radical actually none that i know are. I come from a small town in a red state and yes they completely disagree with democrats on pretty much everything but the stuff you read on reddit is so far fetched and extreme I don’t know how anyone would take it seriously.

They believe people hate Americans and everyone should be ashamed traveling overseas. As someone who travels all the time to multiple continents not just Europe i have never encountered anyone who asked or even cared. Most people don’t live in a political bubble where they need to stop being friends with people over politics.

Anyway a lot people are choosing to live in an angry little bubble. It is really sad to see.

> Lots of people voted for trump aren’t radical actually none that i know are.

The same can be said for the supporters of many radical and terrible historical regimes. I'm not radical, I'm simply pushing this radical boulder along, and I can stop it whenever I wan tooo-oops."

You realise this works both ways? The average left leaning person doesn't have 700 pronouns and isn't calling for a communist revolution. They're not paid by Soros. They don't have blue hair and have a meltdown at the slightest upset.

The online charicatures are just that. In both directions.

Real talk though: the US, via the current administration, is trashing its international reputation. With tariffs and lashing out at (former?) allies. Or with Musk demanding regime change in the UK, for instance. On a personal level people will still be chill no doubt, but you should be prepared for some negative attitudes towards the US if things continue unabated.

> stereotype [...] innuendo [...] slippery slope

No need for histrionics, it's simple: Someone doesn't need to actively desire a terrible outcome to be morally culpable of making bad choices, ones they should-have-known would enable or encourage it to happen. Multiple such people can and do form groups.

It's not limited to politics either, which is how we get idioms like "playing with fire."

Notably, people will also be nearly universally angry at anyone who points out the inevitable consequences of their actions in cases like this. Especially if they know you’re right.

Near as I can tell, the biggest failure of the left (and one that keeps getting repeated) is thinking words/knowledge matter in situations like this.

Hey, this is a PSA: this was going to happen.

I’ve seen this sequence of events play out before.

In many was ‘go outside’ is dismissive of what many people feel is happening, that to within 15 days of this new presidency. This is a low key way of saying you don’t like people protesting.

While at the same time others are saying people aren’t protesting enough.

If you aren’t ok with all of this, I strongly suggest deleting all social media, including hacker news. Take your advice and go outside. Be good to your neighbors and your mental health.

There is zero space for passive consumption when one of the biggest cultural and economic forces in English speaking Internet land is dismantling itself.

There is going to be very little space for any tolerance of nuance - because Trump is going to continue to escalate. He is going to follow a plan which was known, and it aims at gutting the US, and justifying it with DEI or whatever the cassus belli of the month is.

This is eventually going to result in ‘riots.’

Which will feed the righteousness of the conservatives, which will result in a new round of “well you were so happy when the year started, where are you now.”

It will escalate into attacks on democrats as the devil. And HN will swing from left outrage to right outrage.

At that time the roles will be reversed, and the positions will switch.

Again - If you or anyone reading these comments is tired on Feb 6th - leave the internet right now. This is your tornado / natural disaster warning.

This isn’t meant to be hurtful to you, or to be any defense of anything.

I always assume I am wrong, and I hope I can look back at these comments with embarrassment over what looks like histrionics.

The problem I have is that i deal with social media and online safety as work and as research. Papers on this topic are my fun reading when my brain isn’t fogged up.

This is going to be worse than brexit. And that’s if we are all lucky.

I was asking bankers if there’s any slack in the financial system in November - and I asked this in multiple countries.

The answer was no. So when the trade shocks start hitting the system, expect a downturn.

This is aside from the walking dead syndrome which america will face after gutting multiple systems in-flight.

I wish you luck and the very best. Sorry.

> you want to stereotype [...] innuendo [...] slippery slope [...] you're pre-convincing [...] thought crimes

You're the one who's been making all the personal condemnations of evil intent, stop with the psychological projection.

OK. Why did you dismiss the claim above that "some but not all" aren't radical?

I was in Europe for a while starting right after 9/11 and there was a lot of shame and no lack of pointed questions. The locals didn’t hate us, but there was a decent amount of “what the hell is wrong with you guys?” It was not uncommon for American travelers to put Canadian flag pins on their backpacks to try to deflect attention or curry favor.

It’s surely ten times worse now. Trump makes W look like a statesman, and we could at least plead that W didn’t win a majority and only became president because the system is stupid.

> morally culpable

Whose morals? What morals?

I remember the anti-US sentiment among people at the time of the invasion of Iraq as way harsher than now during Trump. Like not even close.

It seems to be mainly European neoliberals that are more upset about Trump.

I think it's more that there is nothing to be gained about asking an American in Europe about Trump. Most likely, they think he's a douchenozzle too so why bring him up and ruin a vacationer's day. On the off chance they are a Trump supporter, now the European has to listen to an idiot spout Newsmax nonsense until they can get away.