I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people’s accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failures
– Earl Warren
When you read, listen to or watch the news, how’s it make you feel? Hopeless? Depressed? Like an asshole? So why do we do it?
Reading the news doesn’t make you more informed, it actually makes you more blind to the truth. What matters are the reasons, the underlying and historical causes for the world events that happen, not the actual events. Reading books that were written over a period of time, that don’t have to satisfy advertisers or political interests and that are much more balanced and measured in their reporting, is the far more effective way to try to understand the world.
The news doesn’t create understanding, tolerance or open-mindedness , if anything, it does the exact opposite –it breeds and encourages ignorance, prejudice and a shit ton of fear.
And on the other hand, while sports are of little or no consequence, sports can unite with much greater force than the shit that’s reported on the news.
This is Mr Money Mustache’s approach to what bullshit the news is.
I should mention that while the news is a useless way to learn about the world, learning about the world itself is very useful. But this is best done by reading books – and maybe the odd scientific blog or journal or other periodical. I do still read most of the Economist every week or two, for example. The facts about the world don’t change on a daily basis, so by focusing on these slower and more well-researched sources of information, you filter out the noise and end up with the stuff that’s really worth learning.
This is the only website I look at every day, and it’s all the news I need, and actually’s more accurate than the actual news.