If I don’t take in the news, I don’t know if my civil rights have changed or how much.

If I do take in the news, I get to see exactly how much misery and injustice is happening, and it’s a lot.

My system is:

Rule number 1 - only local-ish facts. If there's a catastrophe in Vanuatu I should not have to care about it. I can't even find the place on a map.

Rule number 2 - only if the information reaches me. That means no "news" allowed. Block that word. When people you care about, in the places that you care about are discussing an issue that they care about, that's your hint to also care about it.

Rule number 3 - if I won't be consulted on the matter, then I don't need to have an opinion on the matter. It doesn't make you a bad person. Your own guilt won't improve others' (current and past) suffering.

I think it's important to mention that there's a worsening effect overall the more we stay connected to all the crap that happens in the world, which is our own desensitisation to it. I believe we need to stay a little away from it so we don't start to see all this as normal.

Also, of course, the negativity bias is brutal. You'll be dragged into it whether you want it or not, better to practice keeping yourself away from it. You'll be reminded of your privileges soon enough =)

The best I've managed is an internal adversarial stand-off between the two impulses.

There is beauty in this world, you just have to look for and appreciate it. Once you find something with awe, it makes up for all the adversity in the world. You just have to accept that. It's called radical acceptance. Fully accepting something without judgement of good or bad. It just is what it is and we all have to find our own ways of dealing with it. Nevertheless, look for beauty.

If it's far away and their actions can't prevent of change it then why do they need to know about it?

Have you seen CPG Grey's Rules for rulers video (I think it's titled "You would be a bad ruler" or something? It details how governments are themselves hemmed in by people who are their "keys to (getting and staying in) power" that agendas are set.

But also the idea of humanity as something other than a hive responding to ambient signals. I don't know how true that is. Have you ever tried and failed to change some inevitability of the world? It doesn't exactly fill you with hope and autonomy.

Stuff just literally happens beyond our control. Find the minimum awareness you need for the news (which its self can be full of half-truths and "maybe" facts) - and then focus your life on your life. Mental health included.

Once you see the details of how it all works you start to just be able to observe it. Hell there are Prime Ministers and Presidents who struggle to be able to effect changes they want. The hive, the pragmatics of power... I mean, shiiit at best these things are about reputation and culture and even that operates on scales beyond comprehension or control.

Bees in a hive, dancing to invisible signals and cues.

While it is certainly true that the world seems to constantly want to enshittify around us - modern news networks have very little incentive to balance that perspective with any actual good news. Their incentive is to keep your eyes on their content for as long as possible - that gets them the most influence and AD money.

And of all the types of News they can show you, it is negative news - or rather ragebait news - that keeps your eyes eyes glued for longest. So guess what they're incentivised to show you most of?

This applies to social media companies too - in fact any company that relies on news to pull you to watch ADs has this incentive, which okky makes the world feel even shittier than it is.

Which is a long way of saying you need to know when to pull yourself back out, appreciate your hobbies and the world around you, because the online world isn't going to do that for you. There's a time and a place to care, but caring about these things you realistically don't have any control over all the time is only going to hurt you more than it inform you.