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DanArmak comments on Brainstorming for post topics - Less Wrong Discussion

21 Post author: NancyLebovitz 31 May 2014 03:08PM

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Comment author: DanArmak 31 May 2014 06:32:21PM 11 points [-]

I endorse this approach. Ever since high school (so for about 12 years), I have deliberately stayed ignorant of all politics local to my country and of local news. I absolutely never watch or read the news, and I rarely find myself discussing these topics with my friends.

News and politics are designed to generate outrage and promote anti-rationalism and epistemic dark arts. They also strongly select for bad and depressing news, and for non-representative surprising incidents. On the other hand, the value from my knowing about the news is very small (e.g. in terms of changing my behavior).