Burned Out

[MoonRiver]

The VA, IRS, EPA, Secret Service, illegal immigration, Benghazi, Ebola, terrorism, Iranian nukes, ISIL, jobs, and on and on. It gets to the point where my brain just decides it can't take any more bad news.

Do you think all the bad news is coincidental or is it to desensitize us?

[copperkid3]

No One......and I mean no ONE, is that inept;

they really have to work that hard to bring
about the eventual collapse of this nation.

Desensitization is just one of the after effects.......

Hang in there as long as you can.....it only gets worse from here on out.

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by MoonRiver

The VA, IRS, EPA, Secret Service, illegal immigration, Benghazi, Ebola, terrorism, Iranian nukes, ISIL, jobs, and on and on. It gets to the point where my brain just decides it can't take any more bad news.

Do you think all the bad news is coincidental or is it to desensitize us?

The problem is that we don't have one single defining issue in the news right now. Ebola seemed to be dominating the news a week ago, but it seems to be winding down. So when there is no single issue dominating the news, all issues dominate the news and it's more difficult to wrap your head around it.

[notwyse]

I think it is a deliberate attempt to undermine our nation. Look at what happens here. Trouble in river city...all blamed consistently on current president. Really? Where were these folks who twist all this? Under a rock? Turn off the TV...you will feel better.

[frogmammy]

We wanted to know EVERYTHING. Now we know when someone in Istanbul gets the mumps. We got what we wanted.

Mon

[Shrek]

News has not been news for the past 30 years or so. It is simply a sensationalized ratings sweeps condensed rerun/ongoing soap opera/reality televised daily program intended to garner the most eye locked awe reaction and ratings numbers.

The goals of the media ("independent" web based included) make it an appropriate misinformation source for those with degrees of power at controlling the numbed minds of those who have forgotten or are too young to remember the "believe half of what you actually see and less than that of what you read or hear" concept of information garnering.

I would venture to guess 95% of published news is critically biased through use of fact omission misinformation to its publisher's view regardless of delivery media and internet media news delivery achieves its desired ratings increase awe factor and the secondary factor of misinformation by others attempting to control as many thoughts and minds primarily through oversaturation disguised as instantaneous availability.

Of course this is only my opinion however I found that I was able to eliminate all of my feeling of news burnout years ago by once again subscribing to a spectrum of print newspapers of varied perspective and reading them throughout the day so I could digest what news I read and limiting my exposure to televised "prime network" news programs to once every three days unless there is something I find in my print newspapers that piques my interest sufficiently to veer from my "watch the news every three days as its recycled olds soap opera presentation' schedule.

As far as the internet goes, I refuse to have a news laden homepage and instead use about.blank as my internet start as I review demographic discussion boards as this one or use the net to visit educational reference sites with mainly reliable information based on opinions of those versed on the topics whom I trust of what I am reviewing pertaining to my various interests.


My approach may seem primitive but at over 50 years old by my own opinion I am primitive and my choice helps me from feeling media saturation burned out and I enjoy my daily life more.

Besides the majority of the bad stuff reported as news really has no immediate effect on my daily doings nor can I offer that much to alter the happening if any at all and my burn out avoidance approach to keeping abreast of current affairs is adequate to clarify for me why some I notice are running around in a panicked frenzy or complacently walking along with their The World Will End Next Tuesday sign .

That's my opinion of it all. Think I will drop by the gas station deli for a couple sandwiches for lunch and listen to what some of the locals are ranting about as I read part of one of my daily newspapers.

[mmoetc]

I guess since I grew up learning to hide under a desk in anticipation of a nuclear attack I don't get too worked up about a lot of things. Take a snapshot of the world over most of the last 50 years or so and you can come up with a corollary list of issues.

[Bellyman]

Originally Posted by Shrek

News has not been news for the past 30 years or so. It is simply a sensationalized ratings sweeps condensed rerun/ongoing soap opera/reality televised daily program intended to garner the most eye locked awe reaction and ratings numbers.

...

There's a lot of truth in that! Sensationalized drama at it's finest.

[plowjockey]

Do you think all the bad news is coincidental or is it to desensitize us?

My TV has an OFF switch, as does my radio and laptop..

we are doing it to ourselves. The media is just giving us what we want.

The VA,IRS, diseases, wars etc, have been having problems forever, or at least for many decades.

It is no longer "News", anyway, it it's a sickening ( literally) form of entertainment. how much "breaking news!" do we need anyway.

It's almost like cutting yourself. Obsessing over "news" has no real value, yet for some reason it stimulates our mind and we just cant stop taking it in.

[Shrek]

I enjoy perusing my home delivered local newspaper when drinking my extra cups of coffee at breakfast. Later during the day I review the newspapers I receive in the mail.

[painterswife]

I don't watch the news. Too one note and seldom a balanced complete story.

[BlackFeather]

It's a plot, but by whom?

"Because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold"

Just saying.

[Truckinguy]

The only reason it seems overwhelming is that we get ALL of the worlds news all at the same time in real time. The world isn't any worse off then it ever was except, due to the increase in the population, when bad things happen they impact more lives than they used to.

Imagine minute by minute real time coverage as Alexander the Great swept across most of the known world, slaughtering entire cities and establishing his huge empire. Imagine minute detailed coverage of Mount Vesuvius as it blew up and buried Pompeii. Imagine constant real time coverage of the Plague as it swept across the world killing 1/4 of the population. I'll bet the people who lived in those eras and were affected by those events thought they were living in the end times (and a lot of them were!) It's all perspective.

We live in the best times in history. Don't panic, make your little corner of the world a little better to the best of your ability and when a major event happens we will deal with it as best we can. Get your news from different sources and then form your own opinion. Go outside and look at the beautiful world we live in and appreciate the beauty of Nature. Above all, realize you're not alone. There are people on this forum from all over the world and we are all affected by world events too.

[Lady89]

Elections are coming up and that = a lot a fear mongering on both side
“If u vote for him X will happen” “oh ya well if you vote for him Y will happen”
It is endless

[poppy]

Originally Posted by mmoetc

I guess since I grew up learning to hide under a desk in anticipation of a nuclear attack I don't get too worked up about a lot of things. Take a snapshot of the world over most of the last 50 years or so and you can come up with a corollary list of issues.

Just not true. Yes, there is always some problem somewhere in the news but there has never been a time in my 67 years where this many problems showed up at the same time. I remember when the lead story in the news was about homeless people, usually under republican administrations and ignored during democrat ones. Stories like that wouldn't even be a blip with the myriad crisis and scandals today.

[mmoetc]

Originally Posted by poppy

Just not true. Yes, there is always some problem somewhere in the news but there has never been a time in my 67 years where this many problems showed up at the same time. I remember when the lead story in the news was about homeless people, usually under republican administrations and ignored during democrat ones. Stories like that wouldn't even be a blip with the myriad crisis and scandals today.

Let's take the 1960's. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005251.html. The Berlin Wall, to the Cuban missile crisis, to presidential assination, to civil unrest due to race riots and anti war protests, to Israelis in open warfare, to Russian and Chinese nuclear tests, to thousands of American soldiers dying in foreign jungles, to presidential candidates being killed, to astronauts dying on the launch pad.......... Some pretty big blips.

[poppy]

Originally Posted by mmoetc

Let's take the 1960's. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005251.html. The Berlin Wall, to the Cuban missile crisis, to presidential assination, to civil unrest due to race riots and anti war protests, to Israelis in open warfare, to Russian and Chinese nuclear tests, to thousands of American soldiers dying in foreign jungles, to presidential candidates being killed, to astronauts dying on the launch pad.......... Some pretty big blips.

But back then we had a sense of national purpose. Yea, we had the anti war crowd and some race riots but Americans were largely united when it came to love of country and we had laws that worked to mostly solve those issues. Is it better now? Race is as much an issue, or maybe more so than it was then even though race relations had been on a steady path to improvement until Obama took office. Look at Ferguson, Mo. Russia and China are more threatening now than back then even though both were more cooperative until Obama took office. Israel is constantly at war on some level because they are surrounded by people bent on destroying it. Those enemies largely were kept in line by Israel and the sure knowledge the US would support Israel if need be. That was until Obama took office. He is no friend of Israel and Israel's enemies know it. Obama and his minions have largely corrupted our system. His disregard for our immigration and other laws corrupts society.

[Cornhusker]

Crisis and scandal, the defining points of the Obama era.
Ever notice that a crisis shows up right before an election, gas prices drop and the "news" ignores the scandals?

[mmoetc]

Originally Posted by poppy

But back then we had a sense of national purpose. Yea, we had the anti war crowd and some race riots but Americans were largely united when it came to love of country and we had laws that worked to mostly solve those issues. Is it better now? Race is as much an issue, or maybe more so than it was then even though race relations had been on a steady path to improvement until Obama took office. Look at Ferguson, Mo. Russia and China are more threatening now than back then even though both were more cooperative until Obama took office. Israel is constantly at war on some level because they are surrounded by people bent on destroying it. Those enemies largely were kept in line by Israel and the sure knowledge the US would support Israel if need be. That was until Obama took office. He is no friend of Israel and Israel's enemies know it. Obama and his minions have largely corrupted our system. His disregard for our immigration and other laws corrupts society.

Apparently we remember different 1960's. A united America. Whole neighborhoods burned in those "some race riots". The national guard was called out to quell them and deal with that anti war crowd who were occupying and in one case blowing up campus buildings. Cops bashing heads at political conventions. Russian tanks were across the Fulda gap in Western Europe, not 1000 miles east on the Ukraine border. Missiles were hundreds of miles from our southern cities. Israel was fighting for its life against Egyptian and Syrian tanks, not being harassed by Hamas rockets. We were losing hundreds of young men each month in a foreign jungle. Presidents, would be presidents and other great men were shot down. Yeah, times were better.

[clovis]

There is an easy fix to all of this:

Quit caring about the news.

Sadly, a while back, I basically gave up politics and the news, for the most part.

I still read the Wall Street Journal several times a week and peruse the headlines in a few news spots, like NPR. I don't follow or read 94% of the stories at places like NPR. I am simply following the headline.