• OpenStars@piefed.socialEnglish
    4·
    6 days ago

    One thing I’m noticing, and starting to hear from others as well, is a shift away from institutions and more towards individuals. So like I’ve avoided CNN, but Fareed Zakaria on the other hand seems to be making some sense - not that I agree 100%, but enough to get me thinking outside of what I would have unaided.

    Perhaps in the future it won’t so much where or how we get out news from - like it could just as readily be Mastodon as YouTube as news org - so much as who we choose to listen to.

    Which pisses me off to no end, bc now I have to suddenly keep track of individual names in order to know anything at all?! Plus the good ones will burn out, usually somewhat shortly after they get really good, before which they made mistakes more often, leaving only a window of time in-between where they are awesome.

    It’s almost like capitalism enshittifies literally every fucking thing that it touches, ya’know!?:-P

    Oh well, the trick is to keep up. Somehow.

    • Pete Hahnloser@beehaw.org
      2·
      6 days ago

      Not saying you’re among them, but I think a lot of people neglect the ability of RSS to essentially roll your own morning paper from several disparate sources. Most of what I post on here is just waiting for me in a tab each morning … I have sections broken down into tech, news, politics, science and more.

      When a source stops being useful, I remove it. Anytime I run into a good piece from a new source, I attempt to subscribe (usually with success). This keeps my feed from calcifying, and Beehaw is often how I run into new things.

      • OpenStars@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        6 days ago

        You might not be saying that… so then allow me to: I definitely am one of those people!:-P

        I tend to live in places where my vote doesn’t count much, and have to move around a lot, so not always, but often. And for the first 20+ of my life did not really get into politics and such at all - I found it too confusing, and intuitively realized that despite how people would urge me to just get out and vote, I was legitimately better off not doing that, until I was willing to put forth the time and effort required to understand matters and make an actual informed decision.

        Translation: I would have voted Republican, bc that’s what my family was, thus amplifying their voices merely due to the fact that they had me as a child. I am so glad that I ignored all the socially accepted advice that somehow always neglected to mention the other side of that coin: e.g. that if you vote for (or against) something - a war perhaps, or a budget cut - it makes you complicit in the outcome. Probably so too does not voting, but I’m talking about when I was a dumb kid here, where it’s more understandable.

        Now I realize that my church had lied to me, my state had lied to me, my news had lied to me - or rather, has rather than had for each of these bc it continues to happen - and I see just how much effort it takes to be a responsible citizen. And I see that others are unwilling to put forth that same level of effort that I did.

        So yeah, I hope that curated feeds can be made for people. And automation can help with that. On the one hand it continues to make us more and more tribal, but on the other hand if such do not exist then how are the even younger generations going to so much as begin the process of figuring out even the tiniest nuggets of truth as they lie buried amidst all of the numerous and insidious lies?

        • Pete Hahnloser@beehaw.org
          4·
          6 days ago

          You put forth some profound questions well above my pay grade.

          I prefer to view it as “what can I do to help myself and others?” I started out in journalism wanting to change the world. Then I hit my 20s. Then the buyouts accelerated.

          And I can’t change the world by rewriting press releases. It keeps my belly full, and I believe in what I do, but Jan. 20 looms large.

          Here’s the thing: The education system was intentionally gutted starting in the '80s to make critical thinking feel too hard, leading to where you’re at. If you want to screw the man, put in the effort to cultivate your own selection of news sources. It’s some upfront time, but then like a minute to add or remove sources.

          I’ve never really lived anywhere my vote counted at the federal level, but downballot races are important because that state rep starts up the ladder. Whether your presidential pick matters is relevant and perhaps feeling fruitless now, but 10, 20, 30 years down the line, who you picked for school board could be running in a federal election because you supported them, alongside those in your community.

          What can we do right now? This is going to be a dark period with some oncoming trains presenting as the light at the end of the tunnel. What we can do is vote people in at the bottom so they can eventually rise to the top.