Yup. Steve created a community, he stayed healthy, he cared about the things that mattered to him the most… and fuck anyone who thinks that’s somehow more harmful than scrolling every night until you fall asleep, listening to streamers rant about politics or the latest video game patches.
The most important thing you can do to make both the world better and your own experience of it better is to challenge yourself and be social. We are hardwired to have social connections and without them, we slip into apathy and hate and despair. Even if you’re deep off the far edge neurodivergent spectrum, you need people, you need friends or family or a future with others to look forward to.
When you care about your life and the people around you, you will have more pressure to get off your damn ass and either learn more about the world or just DO something about it, and that’s where we’re having the biggest problems right now, people are not DOING things. When we were less connected, we had stronger communities. I was there 3000 years ago, I’ve seen it.
To an extent, I agree. But sticking our heads in the sand and ignoring events around us doesn’t make them go away either. We just need to sift a lot of it out, but find key ones to change
There’s also a pretty wide gulf between “staying informed about the world while bettering your life and creating family and community” and “burying your head in the sand” and “sitting inside and doomscrolling for every validating perspective on every issue until you look around and you’re 40 and never had a date.”
This comic isn’t telling us to ignore the news. It’s telling us to not engage with incendiary media personalities, like Megyn Kelly. Their entire strategy is to piss people off, because an angry viewer is an engaged viewer. Whenever someone posts something awful that Kelly or someone like her said, they’re actually helping that media personality. The only way to defeat them is to not engage.
We should always engage with current events and the news, but be media literate enough to spot the trolls.
Yes, keep your bliss. She says things so hateful they made Charlie Kirk look tame. Sometimes people will post on Lemmy about some of the hateful shit she says and then I get downvoted for explaining that they’re helping her brand.
There is a Tipping Point in that strategy though. Because eventually if every single person who knows she’s full of shit ignores her then the only people that listen to her are people that believe her. And they don’t see anyone saying anything else so clearly she’s right. That’s the conclusion they’ll draw. And of course the number of people that believe that will just keep growing . There has to be some pushback.
Really, the outrage dealers have such a corrosive effect on public discourse that it is probably better to remain completely uninformed than to be informed through them.
Plant a tree. Volunteer at your local food pantry. I am a full believe in tackling smaller problems more local to you. Trying to tackle the world’s problems will only end up with you feeling angry and sad all the time.
Agreed. I think of that scene from the end of The Truman Show: the viewers are transfixed, Truman is trying to break free from the set. Then, the show goes off the air, and a viewer at home says, “Alright. What else is on?”
That’s how I feel about the outrage-bait now. Like so many businesses built their castles on beach sand that they’re inevitably getting washed away. How did they not see that coming?
We should all aspire to be Steve Jones.
Yup. Steve created a community, he stayed healthy, he cared about the things that mattered to him the most… and fuck anyone who thinks that’s somehow more harmful than scrolling every night until you fall asleep, listening to streamers rant about politics or the latest video game patches.
The most important thing you can do to make both the world better and your own experience of it better is to challenge yourself and be social. We are hardwired to have social connections and without them, we slip into apathy and hate and despair. Even if you’re deep off the far edge neurodivergent spectrum, you need people, you need friends or family or a future with others to look forward to.
When you care about your life and the people around you, you will have more pressure to get off your damn ass and either learn more about the world or just DO something about it, and that’s where we’re having the biggest problems right now, people are not DOING things. When we were less connected, we had stronger communities. I was there 3000 years ago, I’ve seen it.
But all the interesting people are in the computer, the same place as the bad stuff is.
I bet interesting people are walking past where you live RIGHT NOW*
*unless you live in a diving bell in the Atlantic ocean.
To an extent, I agree. But sticking our heads in the sand and ignoring events around us doesn’t make them go away either. We just need to sift a lot of it out, but find key ones to change
There’s also a pretty wide gulf between “staying informed about the world while bettering your life and creating family and community” and “burying your head in the sand” and “sitting inside and doomscrolling for every validating perspective on every issue until you look around and you’re 40 and never had a date.”
This comic isn’t telling us to ignore the news. It’s telling us to not engage with incendiary media personalities, like Megyn Kelly. Their entire strategy is to piss people off, because an angry viewer is an engaged viewer. Whenever someone posts something awful that Kelly or someone like her said, they’re actually helping that media personality. The only way to defeat them is to not engage.
We should always engage with current events and the news, but be media literate enough to spot the trolls.
Id ask who Megyn Kelly is, but the context tells me I should just keep my bliss
Yes, keep your bliss. She says things so hateful they made Charlie Kirk look tame. Sometimes people will post on Lemmy about some of the hateful shit she says and then I get downvoted for explaining that they’re helping her brand.
There is a Tipping Point in that strategy though. Because eventually if every single person who knows she’s full of shit ignores her then the only people that listen to her are people that believe her. And they don’t see anyone saying anything else so clearly she’s right. That’s the conclusion they’ll draw. And of course the number of people that believe that will just keep growing . There has to be some pushback.
“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play”
Is this from War Games?
It is.
Really, the outrage dealers have such a corrosive effect on public discourse that it is probably better to remain completely uninformed than to be informed through them.
Plant a tree. Volunteer at your local food pantry. I am a full believe in tackling smaller problems more local to you. Trying to tackle the world’s problems will only end up with you feeling angry and sad all the time.
Agreed. I think of that scene from the end of The Truman Show: the viewers are transfixed, Truman is trying to break free from the set. Then, the show goes off the air, and a viewer at home says, “Alright. What else is on?”
That’s how I feel about the outrage-bait now. Like so many businesses built their castles on beach sand that they’re inevitably getting washed away. How did they not see that coming?