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Comment by zeta0134 | Hacker News Reader

This is my strategy as well. There are some issues I care about enough to follow, mostly related to lgbtq+ topics and technical regulations affecting my industry. But for the larger political sphere and what I hesitantly refer to as "headlines that belong in tabloids" I actively do not care.

It'll take me about a day or two (per candidate) to get back up to speed when elections come around, so I can do my civic duty and vote. Beyond that I don't let it consume my life. I've got stuff to do, and not very much time left to do it.

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That's kind of my attitude.

I have a number of friends that are addicted to Outrage Pron (almost all media -mainstream or fringe- qualifies). They -literally- spend almost every waking hour, doomscrolling. One of them occasionally forwards videos to me, that are clearly edited for angst, but he takes as gospel. AI will make that kind of stuff much, much worse.

I had a friend tell me "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!" He thought it was a clever, brand new saying (Spoiler: It's not —I first heard it, in the 1970s).

I've found that I can get a lot done, when I pay attention to the things over which I have direct control.

> "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!"

Yea.. that outrage won't lead to any change. On the contrary, being in this state of distress eventually makes you unable to cope, breaking you down.

Being complacent also won't lead to any change. People need to be outraged but they also have to do something about it. You have to pick a lane -- if you're going to not do anything about it, then commit to not doing anything and bury your head. If you're going to get outraged, you can't just go into work every day like everything is normal, the cognitive dissonance will get you. Outrage needs an outlet.

Generic Outrage leads people to ignore the issues they do have control over. Local government bodies in the US are immensely powerful. You can call a city council rep and talk to them about concrete plans/actions which can happen in your community. Local reps can largely even block federal mandates by virtue that there are simply too many local bodies to sue for compliance.

Focus on what you can control. Consider that the goal of the outrage inducing media is to make you feel powerless, or direct attention at impossible battles.

There's very little under your control, that's the first lesson. Once you let go of the need to control the chaos, everything becomes a little more bearable.

> Outrage needs an outlet.

You've really let yourself off the hook there; that's way too easy to say. What exactly do you suggest, that would make an actually useful contribution to improving the situation?

You're right that optimism has a difficult job of looking for tangible, actionable things while nihilism can stretch out in a hammock and watch the world burn.

Historical situations like our own might be a good place to start to look for solutions.

> Historical situations like our own might be a good place to start to look for solutions.

If you have a suggestion about something practical, that can actually help, please speak up. Offering more platitudes is just way too easy; it feels good, maybe, but it's really just an admission that we don't have a good outlet for our outrage. Which is why so many of us spend our days venting online, because apparently (judging from the lack of concrete ideas offered) it's about as effective as anything else we could do.

I know little about history. I had hoped perhaps you did — or that you could seek out someone who does.

Why are you afraid to say "off with their heads"? Is it because you know that it's not actually useful advice that anyone can or will follow today? If you can't even bring yourself to utter it online, why should you expect anyone to take it as a serious suggestion?

I ask again, do you have any practical advice that people can follow today?

But "off with their heads" is just belling the cat. I would never suggest a thing I wasn't willing to do myself.

Your insistence that someone have a concrete, unassailable answer for you plays right into nihilism. Why don't you suggest something yourself? Or is "off with their heads" in fact your suggestion?

Because I don't believe there is anything to be done. You're the one who claimed history held the answers we needed. Why are you so reluctant to actually spell out your solution? If you are so positive about the future, please stop asking me to guess what part of history you're suggesting we emulate. Or just admit you have no idea what to do, and you're just spewing platitudes about avoiding nihilism.

I guess it depends on why the outrage. But if you are outraged about issues that are caused by the recent political shift, then the best thing you can possibly do is work, as in make it your actual job, to elect the political opposition.

A lot of people don't like that option. They find it distasteful, they don't have the time, or they think it will not change much at all. But that's the truth -- Democrats taking control of Congress in 2027 is the fastest way to improve the current situation.

> I'll take me about a day or two (per candidate) ...

I have so much trouble deciding on primary elections. There are often 5 primary candidates, and 10 seats to decide upon. And I've found no good tool to help evaluate their policy and record.

I want some sort of score board website that tracks their political and public behaviors towards various policies.

I’ve found sites like Balletopedia to be good starting points when I do my research.

Then I generally go to the candidates individual websites or see what their main talking points are. You don’t always get a sense for everything, but you kind of figure out who they are in general.

From an actual example of a candidate’s official Facebook page in my state, if you see them post something like “how come the MAINSTREAM media isn’t covering the BLACK on WHITE crime?!” you generally don’t need to do much research on them after that.

That's my standard process too, ballotpedia > candidate website. But campaign websites often feel like general bland taking points repeated by all the primary candidates.

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