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Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

(www.scientificamerican.com)
757 points headalgorithm | 1 comments | 05 Feb 25 14:55 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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yowayb ◴[05 Feb 25 15:22 UTC] No.42949712[source]▶
Those of us in the west tend to forget that much of what we see is a form of propaganda, whether by governments or businesses, or even a large number of people. When you keep this in mind, everything you see becomes an opinion and your mind can comfortably (or at least not emotionally/hurriedly) form your own opinion over time.
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lawn ◴[05 Feb 25 18:53 UTC] No.42953321[source]▶
The danger with this way of thinking is that it's easy to start weighing all information equally, while that's very far from the reality.
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lordfrito ◴[05 Feb 25 19:24 UTC] No.42953735[source]▶
If everything I read online [that I don't pay for] is a form of propaganda, then the only choice I have is to either: 1) weight all information equally 2) bias information based on [personal beliefs XYZ]

I'm trying hard to do #1, mainly because #2 is confirmation bias (and reinforces it).

What other options are there?

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1. jltsiren ◴[06 Feb 25 04:56 UTC] No.42959240{3}[source]▶
3) Use your first-hand experience as an anchor. Propaganda is often easy to see through in concrete situations. Even as a kid, it was easy to tell the difference between the quality of life in the USSR and Western Europe.

4) If you don't see it in the real world, you probably don't need an opinion on it.

5) And the same applies to other people as well. Prioritize the opinions of the people the issue actually concerns over abstract word salad.