Topic: No to News! News is a no!

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Over the last few months, I've started reading and watching much less news.

Really I now get most of my input from this very forum. I've also gradually reduced and unliked a lot of Social Media sources. I deleted my Twitter account last year and I insta-block people with conspiracies and bullshit and I've started temp-blocking some of my mates straight away now (for a limited time) as soon as they mention Corbyn or 'Left' bullshit.

And I must admit, I feel a lot better for it. I'm not and never have been 'depressed', but I did feel the constant bullshit (Especially from the left and the right) was dragging me down.

In here I can read stuff that's broadly aligned to what I agree with anyway and although I have spent a lot of time trying to understand and talk about 'the other side' - it's just got me fed up.

There is so much of it and so much of it is untrue, biased, twisted and just plain fucked up.

Does anyone else feel like this and am I just 'giving up' because I feel I can't be arsed dealing with it any more?

[Red Beret]

I've binned off most news years ago. Tbf, even looking in here is a bit of a no-no for me - some of the stuff I read just wind's me up no end.

If you're at a point where news makes you feel disempowered and miserable, walk away and just concentrate on feeling good about yourself and your life. Ignore people who say you need to "stay informed ", like it's some kind of civic duty to feel like a sack of crap all the time.

[Andy82lfc]

Over the last few months, I've started reading and watching much less news.

Really I now get most of my input from this very forum. I've also gradually reduced and unliked a lot of Social Media sources. I deleted my Twitter account last year and I insta-block people with conspiracies and bullshit and I've started temp-blocking some of my mates straight away now (for a limited time) as soon as they mention Corbyn or 'Left' bullshit.

And I must admit, I feel a lot better for it. I'm not and never have been 'depressed', but I did feel the constant bullshit (Especially from the left and the right) was dragging me down.

In here I can read stuff that's broadly aligned to what I agree with anyway and although I have spent a lot of time trying to understand and talk about 'the other side' - it's just got me fed up.

There is so much of it and so much of it is untrue, biased, twisted and just plain fucked up.

Does anyone else feel like this and am I just 'giving up' because I feel I can't be arsed dealing with it any more?

The reason I only read the Guardian site these days. Aligns to a lot of things for me, some not but broadly doesn't make me feel I need to smash up an inanimate object everytime I go on there. I dip in the BBC site the odd time to get out of the 'bubble' but less and less now as generally I always find it boils my piss with the constant click bait bullshit. Also things like all this Andrew Tate shit now which they call out in one breath then constantly make stories on every other day fuelling it all. Utter c*nts in my book doing that.

So yeah, here and the Guardian mainly. Oh also kind of like Euronews too as it gives lots of good info that isn't all about the UK. Mainly though I completely agree with you. The less you go on these hate peddling media sites the better. Ignorance is bliss and all that.

[KillieRed]

Unfortunately the level of disinformation is exactly what the peddlers of it want. They want you to distrust everything & become disengaged from social discourse.

The days of turning on your tv news or picking up a newspaper and taking them at face value are long gone. Content is now all opinion, manufactured outrage for clicks, propaganda & downright lies. Social media is much worse.

So, yes, you can disengage but then you have absolutely zero effect on what happens rather than the infinitesimal influence you may have had. You’ll probably be happier though. For a bit.

One thing I have noticed recently are the many posts saying “why aren’t we in the streets?”. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that widespread, mass public protests have lessened since the ubiquity of social media: people don’t know what to trust and their anger is diluted.

[bradders1011]

I and my wife were talking about this the other day. A few years ago the BBC News app sent a breaking news notification probably two or three times a week for things like terror attacks and political resignations. These days it goes twice or thrice a day for things like Ken Bruce leaving Radio 2 and some reality star having a divorce.

I've read The Week magazine for near 20 years now, used to devour it cover-to-cover but now I find myself skipping over most of the UK news and being more interested in what's happening around the world. I don't think it helps that much of the UK news content summarised in it is opinion now: Tories do something, Mail supports it, Guardian says it's what Hitler would have done were he a bit more evil. I can guess that without having to read it and get my blood pressure up.

[Dr. Beaker]

Became a news junky after witnessing the Orgreave scandal first hand. Watched every news broadcast on every station every day for years after - how my gf put up with it I'll never know. Of course it's worse now with 24 hour news and social media. The predictability and inevitability of it all causes a fall off eventually in mental stamina - in a sense you already know what they are going to say, or you know from what they say what actually has happened.

It's a bit like the footy though, if it depresses you find another hobby. If we get beat I switch off as soon as the whistle goes. Don't wallow in the after match shite, get on with something else immediately.

[Bioluminescence]

Social media always had its problems but that got considerably worse with the pandemic. I've removed myself from a lot of it and I use filters, mute and block quite liberally now. But Twitter's latest trick is to land you on the "For You" tab, rather than "Following", and that's clearly engineered in a way that fuels divisions. Even without that we're at a point where it's impossible to have reasonable conversations - the whole thing is mainly about "us vs them" now, and the outgroup is necessary nasty, bigoted, stupid or evil. It's tedious as well as unhelpful.

I try to read news from a variety of outlets but paywalls limit what you can access. Lesser known outlets such as Byline and Unherd have interesting articles, and places like The Conversation or The Atlantic help make sense of a lot of things. I still read The Guardian and the BBC mostly, out of habit I guess. Lucky to have access to the New Yorker through my library, too. A lot of good things around but yeah, you do have to be more cautious and critical these days, and you don't always have the time.

[oldfordie]

Became a news junky after witnessing the Orgreave scandal first hand. Watched every news broadcast on every station every day for years after - how my gf put up with it I'll never know. Of course it's worse now with 24 hour news and social media. The predictability and inevitability of it all causes a fall off eventually in mental stamina - in a sense you already know what they are going to say, or you know from what they say what actually has happened.

It's a bit like the footy though, if it depresses you find another hobby. If we get beat I switch off as soon as the whistle goes. Don't wallow in the after match shite, get on with something else immediately.

Yeah, It's been one thing after another for over 6yrs. from Brexit, Brexit fallout between family and friends, Trump. Johnson, Covid, scandal after scandle. economy turmoil, Storys have been easy for the news media. problem is theres only so many decent political presenters etc. I like watching the nightly next day papers news 30 min coverage, basically the Tory defender v the Labour defender. the decent ones were on all the time so SKY+BBC started putting fresh faces on, people like opportunists like Isabel Oakshot who makes a living spouting populist propaganda, so predictable, as you say you know what they are going to say about the news, will of the people blah blah blah.
It's got to the point were I actually say BYE and switch over when i see the same old faces presenting, forget their names most of the time but I know what the shite they will come out with.
Am fed up with the neutrality argument for the BBC which allows the far right to tell as many lies as they want unchallenged, it's just bullshit, it's one of the reasons we are in this mess in the first place. allowing propaganda to go unchallenged is taking sides only the truth is neutral.
I think people have had enough, they probably loved the excitement of political turmoil at first but things have just gone too far, it's not so much apathy as they still have opinions, it's going to take a long time for the Torys to win the trust of the country again, that's great but the price we pay will be heavy.

[Black Bull Nova]

Am I the only one who is fascinated and concerned (in measures balanced more to the concerned) by those new TV channels (GB News and Talk TV) and the crazed individuals who inhabit their wavelength.


It seems that every crazed loon (Katie Hopkins excepted, probably in secure by now) has now ended up talking shite on these channels, scared stiff of anything 'Woke' or 'new' or 'BBC'. I find it fascinating to watch in much the same way you watch one flew over the cuckoo's nest.


Nigel Frottage, Laurence Fox, Eamon Holmes, Andrew Neil, that Scottish bloke off Coast who seems really unwell and unbalanced (Neil Oliver), John Cleese, Jacob Rees Mogg, Ann Diamond, Mark Dolan, Michael Portillo, Esther Mcshite, Vanessa Feltz, Jeremy Kyle, Trisha Goddard, Alex Salmond, Nadine Dorres for god's sake, Piers Moron and many, many more unknown crazed loons who have appeared from nowhere full of their own self importance.

[Machae]

I hate how YouTube has GB News as one the main feeds on their front page (and no, it's nothing to do with my browsing views on youtube)

I'm not signed in and the history isn't saved/stored. There's probably a fair few who do watch it from UK in order that they're always there

[Riquende]

Dedicated thread:

https://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=348876.0

[shank94]

I had 2K followers on twitter. I was glad to able to interact with more people, only to realize it just exposed me to higher amounts of stupidity that is prevalent in the world. Facebook went first, Twitter next and Instagram at the end. The only social I still have is Linkedin and you crap in the comments there as well. I don't read the news nowadays unless it's a major disaster, everyone has an agenda.

I would hide Youtube comments if possible because you can see the dirt there as well.

[So… Howard Philips]

Am I the only one who is fascinated and concerned (in measures balanced more to the concerned) by those new TV channels (GB News and Talk TV) and the crazed individuals who inhabit their wavelength.


It seems that every crazed loon (Katie Hopkins excepted, probably in secure by now) has now ended up talking shite on these channels, scared stiff of anything 'Woke' or 'new' or 'BBC'. I find it fascinating to watch in much the same way you watch one flew over the cuckoo's nest.


Nigel Frottage, Laurence Fox, Eamon Holmes, Andrew Neil, that Scottish bloke off Coast who seems really unwell and unbalanced (Neil Oliver), John Cleese, Jacob Rees Mogg, Ann Diamond, Mark Dolan, Michael Portillo, Esther Mcshite, Vanessa Feltz, Jeremy Kyle, Trisha Goddard, Alex Salmond, Nadine Dorres for god's sake, Piers Moron and many, many more unknown crazed loons who have appeared from nowhere full of their own self importance.

I always thought Michael Portillo was relatively sane, unlike the rest of the named cavalcade of fools.

[Nobby Reserve]

Am I the only one who is fascinated and concerned (in measures balanced more to the concerned) by those new TV channels (GB News and Talk TV) and the crazed individuals who inhabit their wavelength.


It seems that every crazed loon (Katie Hopkins excepted, probably in secure by now) has now ended up talking shite on these channels, scared stiff of anything 'Woke' or 'new' or 'BBC'. I find it fascinating to watch in much the same way you watch one flew over the cuckoo's nest.


Nigel Frottage, Laurence Fox, Eamon Holmes, Andrew Neil, that Scottish bloke off Coast who seems really unwell and unbalanced (Neil Oliver), John Cleese, Jacob Rees Mogg, Ann Diamond, Mark Dolan, Michael Portillo, Esther Mcshite, Vanessa Feltz, Jeremy Kyle, Trisha Goddard, Alex Salmond, Nadine Dorres for god's sake, Piers Moron and many, many more unknown crazed loons who have appeared from nowhere full of their own self importance.

Look at the funding sat behind these.

All either super-rich individuals or 'private equity'/hedge funds' (funds run by super-rich individuals). All 'libertarians', all with questionable tax practices and links to 'secrecy jurisdictions'

GB News - majority owned & funded by Legatum Ventures (an investment fund based in Dubai, run by a NZ Billionaire, who's had accusations of links to Russia), with another major shareholder being a British multi-millionaire who publicly supported Brexit and gave £100k to the Vote Leave campaign.

Talk TV - A Murdoch company, enough said


They want to sow discord and fan the flames of a 'culture war' that they have created (yet blame the 'woke left' for starting)

[Only Me]

Am I the only one who is fascinated and concerned (in measures balanced more to the concerned) by those new TV channels (GB News and Talk TV) and the crazed individuals who inhabit their wavelength.


It seems that every crazed loon (Katie Hopkins excepted, probably in secure by now) has now ended up talking shite on these channels, scared stiff of anything 'Woke' or 'new' or 'BBC'. I find it fascinating to watch in much the same way you watch one flew over the cuckoo's nest.


Nigel Frottage, Laurence Fox, Eamon Holmes, Andrew Neil, that Scottish bloke off Coast who seems really unwell and unbalanced (Neil Oliver), John Cleese, Jacob Rees Mogg, Ann Diamond, Mark Dolan, Michael Portillo, Esther Mcshite, Vanessa Feltz, Jeremy Kyle, Trisha Goddard, Alex Salmond, Nadine Dorres for god's sake, Piers Moron and many, many more unknown crazed loons who have appeared from nowhere full of their own self importance.

Haha that’s mad - I was literally going to post something identical.

I got my first iptv sub sorted last week and got access all these channels for the first time.

It’s utterly fucking mad. It’s like an alternative universe of white weirdos getting all riled up about the maddest shit.

I can’t stop watching it. There was a quiz show on the other night called “That was the woke that was”. Batshit crazy, saved only by the gravitas and presence of the broadcasting behemoth that is Lizzy fucking Cundy.

Tonight’s programmes had Frottage followed by Rees Mogg, then that Fat Australian bellend who used to do the soaps round up on This Morning.

It’s like a media studies O level group has been given complete control of a network. Mind boggling.

[Nobby Reserve]

Isn't that '30p Lee' whopper on there now, too?

[Black Bull Nova]

Neil Oliver is the one that worries me most, he seems to have gone from someone well informed on Scottish Seaweed and Guillemots to a full blown conspiracist who believes Liberals are after his soul. There's a touch of David Icke in his eyes and a conviction in the way that he speaks that probably would worry the likes of Piers Moron (if he is capable of worry) and Jeremy Clarkson. Rees-Mogg would probably see him as a potential storm trooper. As for former spouse Cundy, I did not think it was possible to sink any lower than Jason Cundy but apparently it is, what a household that must have been.

[Elmo!]

Neil Oliver is the one that worries me most, he seems to have gone from someone well informed on Scottish Seaweed and Guillemots to a full blown conspiracist who believes Liberals are after his soul. There's a touch of David Icke in his eyes and a conviction in the way that he speaks that probably would worry the likes of Piers Moron (if he is capable of worry) and Jeremy Clarkson. Rees-Mogg would probably see him as a potential storm trooper

He was dodgy even when he was doing history programs, with a very skewed take on things.

[Black Bull Nova]

He was dodgy even when he was doing history programs, with a very skewed take on things.

Yes, always had the look of someone who had forgotten to take his medication. Hair never appeared to grow or shorten?

[filopastry]

Amazing how the likes of Russell Brand have happily jumped on board with the populist right conspiracy bullshit train, but I suppose there is cash for this sort of nonsense these days.

Nobby, interesting to see the alleged Russian links of GB News, would certainly explain why they have been happy to push the anti-vax bullshit that is not that widespread even in the current populist Tory party

The likes of GB News isn't really news though its just editorialising BS, equally though I do find it a bit dangerous to just read news aligned with my own views, I do like to be exposed to some kind of balance rather than just living in an echo chamber

[Black Bull Nova]

Amazing how the likes of Russell Brand have happily jumped on board with the populist right conspiracy bullshit train, but I suppose there is cash for this sort of nonsense these days.

Nobby, interesting to see the alleged Russian links of GB News, would certainly explain why they have been happy to push the anti-vax bullshit that is not that widespread even in the current populist Tory party

The likes of GB News isn't really news though its just editorialising BS, equally though I do find it a bit dangerous to just read news aligned with my own views, I do like to be exposed to some kind of balance rather than just living in an echo chamber

Always useful to understand what the crazed loons who have learned to type think, forewarned is forearmed and it saves having to hang around public bars in places like Basildon or Nuneaton. These are channels designed to provide a home to stories like the Essex pub and it's 'Golliwog' display.

[KillieRed]

He was dodgy even when he was doing history programs, with a very skewed take on things.

One of my colleagues used to teach him, said he was a Tory nob way back then too.

[Black Bull Nova]

Loon

[Yorkykopite]

Amazing how the likes of Russell Brand have happily jumped on board with the populist right conspiracy bullshit train, but I suppose there is cash for this sort of nonsense these days.

Was it really "amazing"? And is it commerce that accounts for his current madness?

Wasn't there always something very dodgy about the way he argued. Sure, he sometimes arrived at conclusions that were attractive to the left. But his logic and his way of reasoning and his scant knowledge of history were deeply troubling. I can see why he has turned into a full-blown conspiracy nut. He was always a likely candidate.

[filopastry]

Was it really "amazing"? And is it commerce that accounts for his current madness?

Wasn't there always something very dodgy about the way he argued. Sure, he sometimes arrived at conclusions that were attractive to the left. But his logic and his way of reasoning and his scant knowledge of history were deeply troubling. I can see why he has turned into a full-blown conspiracy nut. He was always a likely candidate.

To be fair he's not one I ever paid much attention to, so I kind of missed that, but it is funny how the nuttier populists will jump left to right without too much difficulty

[carling]

Amazing how the likes of Russell Brand have happily jumped on board with the populist right conspiracy bullshit train, but I suppose there is cash for this sort of nonsense these days.

I used to like Russell Brand's channel years ago, even if I didn't agree with everything he said.  It was a shame watching him slide into all the conspiracy nonsense, but it's clear he's in it for the cash - I don't think he believes half the stuff he is implying.  He's constantly pushing his subscriber numbers and he's very aware of his target audience.

[lobsterboy]

Neil Oliver latest is ranting about billionaires and the government oppressing us when he works for said billionaires and alongside said members of that government on GB "News"
The morons nod and murmur virtually, like he is some kind of sage or prophet.
Its dangerous stuff though, its breeding some proper idiots with very warped views.

[slotmachine]

its breeding some proper idiots with very warped views.

Jim Davidson and Matt Le Tissier say hi