Hacker News Reader

Comment by craig1f | Hacker News Reader

[flagged]

> get a wide swath of information anymore

My personal feeling is that a lot of the social troubles of the past decade stem from information overload. I subscribed to News Minimalist and have been feeling much happier lately.

https://www.newsminimalist.com/

Thank you for this, this will be exceedingly useful :)

> Hacker News is all that's left

While I visit here a lot I would guess that your claim that "HN is all that's left" is just wrong. There are hundreds if not thousands of forums and various gathering places where people are having conversations, just not in a place you are aware of.

> Where do you all get your info lately? How do you stay informed? I really don't know how to get a wide swath of information anymore with Twitter and Reddit gone.

MSM hasn't gone anywhere. And realistically speaking most news doesn't matter anyway.

But I do think the case of "I need to learn about X and it's not on reddit or twitter anymore" is a realistic concern. Hopefully search engines can fight the tide of LLM created bullshit and help you find what you need to know.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Hanlon, is that you?

Reminds me of the joke: Pavlov was sitting at the bar when the last order bell rang. "Oh shit", he thought, "I forgot to feed the dogs".

Conditioning works both ways!

My cat nods in agreement.

> Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Still so many examples of the opposite.

Or greed.

Who do you think is orchestrating this demise? Do you think Elon is willfully participating or is he being manipulated?

> The two remaining sites that allow regular people to post and have discussions are being wiped off the internet in time for the next election. By the next US presidential election, there won't be ways to access information that don't go through the "wrong" people first. Hacker News is all that's left, and it's not big enough to be significant.

The 2028 election is more worrying IMO, especially since it seems like Musk is angling to run for president and doesn't seem to mind running despite not legally being able to hold the office. It feels like he views kowtowing to the MAGA crowd and controlling large media platform(s) as essential to that plan.

> especially since it seems like Musk is angling to run for president

Elon Musk is not eligible to become president as he's not a "natural born citizen" to the USA.

I'm aware. I'm saying that he clearly isn't beyond bribing SCOTUS to pave the way for him to a presidential campaign in 2028 or even initiating a fascist coup.

> Where do you all get your info lately? How do you stay informed? I really don't know how to get a wide swath of information anymore with Twitter and Reddit gone

News sites reddit and twitter source stuff from... Or pick your favorite aggregator.

Sometimes Discord/Matrix and blogs are good for really niche topics.

There are many thousands of forums, but do remember that there was a time (not that long ago) that social networks didn’t exist and things seemed a hell of a lot more rational back then. Both Reddit and Twitter have been highly weaponized by both foreign and domestic entities. If this is a concerted effort to destroy social media (and I’m not so convinced it is), I think it’s not a bad thing. It’s just become extremely toxic and even dangerous for society.

Did you forget that newspapers exist?

Increasingly, many don't.

Both print and online.

Those that remain, outside national papers, are often thin husks of themselves.

A year or so back, the Chicago Sun-Times effectively paid the local NPR affiliate, WBEZ, to take over the paper. That is negative value.

And the competing city daily, the Chicago Tribune is arguably doing worse.

That's in the 3rd largest city and metro region of the US. Many other cities are in similar shape, or have no traditional newspaper journalism at all. There's some coverage through TV & radio, though often it's the local NPR affiliates which seem to do the heavy lifting.

Did you forget that newspapers exist?

How could he? 95% of the "news" on the internet is stuff that's regurgitated from what newspapers and magazines published a day, week, or month ago.

When it comes to news, you get what you pay for.

More and more I'm starting to think "If it lights up, don't trust it."

How about reading candidates' actual campaign platforms and watching campaign debates then?

Nobody needs a "wide swath of information" unless it's part of their job. The world needs to normalize unplugging and going offline more often.

Also, HN is far from being immune to information manipulation. 99.9% of non-tech articles on HN are either misinfo campaigns or egoistical turf wars.

I guess you'll just have to talk to your fellow man with the hole in your face instead of your fingers. I wince thinking of it even now.

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