#274: News is Noise (How Being an “Informed Citizen” Makes You Evil)

August 13, 2020 — Our teachers and parents drill the idea of being an informed citizen into our heads from an early age, but news consumption isn’t making the world better, it’s poisoning people.

Midway through the summer of 2016, I realized that trying to keep up with the news had inadvertently turned me into a miserable bastard.

This came as a shock because from age five my teachers had preached about the importance of being as “informed citizen” like it was the gold standard of adult life.

Still, I was fresh off a mental breakdown, and it seemed like the right time to…ya know…reassess.

The first of my news sources to go was a web show called The Young Turks. Upon reflection, I realized it was basically Fox News for liberal millennials.

Whoops!

From there, I stopped listening to the 538 Podcast, the NPR Politics Podcast, and even the Up First. Next, I cut out social media news, The Atlantic, and Medium. Which left me with…well, nothing.

No News is Good News

Quitting news is like taking an Uber to the edge of a forest then telling the driver, “Ok, I’ll get out here.”