Are we going to Hell in a handcart and whose fault is it?

I think it's fine to avoid the news, particularly for your mental health. Makes perfect sense to do so.

the problem is when people avoid it, make no effort to inform themselves at any point then trot along to the polling station and then put their cross next to the Tories because Boris seems like a nice chap or because Bert down the pub told them to (I'm not saying this applies to anyone on his thread. You can of course avoid the news and still keep yourself informed) largely oblivious to how the chancer has actually performed in office.
 
Duffman said:
Never been so anxious about turning on the news;
Energy provision - out of control
CO2 - desperately low levels
Trade agreements- not queuing up
HGV - A petrol stations latest to limit numbers
HGV desperate for a deal to let more non Brits to be allowed in
Hotels and hospitality- desperate for staff
COVID infections rocketing- deaths and hospitalisation rising steeply
UK borrowing higher than expected
Brexit deal unravelling - USA issuing big threats on Irish deal
Soaring cost rises raises real fear of economy stagnating
Fears on food supplies in stores
Lack of pickers - another plea for easier access to migrant Labour
Poverty levels rising and the just coping about to tilt into despair
Billions underpaid to pensioners
Price rises see record rise as food prices soar
Vacancies soar
Furlough ends with fears of staff having new reduced contracts

Are we as a country along with the rest of the world just unlucky?
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You have anxiety about a list of domestic news stories, incl 'vacancies soar' (not enough cheap labour to sustain your consumer paradise).
As Matt Busby said to Alex Ferguson 'if you're bothered by what the papers say, don't read them'.
 
JM14 said:
Essentially pretend none of this is happening and it might go away

Judging by that last statement im guessing you voted for this?
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...and what make me chuckle is these people voted for change, to 'give the establishment a bloody nose', yet here they are accepting that most people won't be better off, some will be worse off and nothing changes. While the elite (The Tories not the pretend 'liberal elite' which isn't really a thing), still get richer.
 
JonnyHistory said:
12 years of rule from people who serve themselves and their donors and a predominantly billionaire owned right wing press. Couple that with some easily targeted Labour leaders (David Milliband would have won that election) and the destruction of the lib dems during the coalition essentially offering little effective resistance or control of narrative and here we are.
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Ed should have but people thought that how you eat a bacon sandwich is a great way to measure strategic leadership qualities. You can't trust people.
 
Who is at fault?*

1st - Brown people, ideally Muslims.
2nd - Foreign worker people, eastern European tradespeople ideally (not Aussie barmaids with nice boobs).
3rd - Jews, again ideally European, not the funny ones in American movies.
4th - Poor people, ideally single mums with loads of kids.
5th - 'Socialists', anyone who isn't an immigrant hating faux Nazi, who doesn't think losing freedom of movement was worth it to get a really dark blue passport, made in France.

* Insert as applicable at the time you want to gain power, control the electorate and dilute civil liberties and working conditions for the great unwashed. All to keep you and your mates from the landed gentry, old Etonians, royal family etc. etc. at the top of the tree with your noses in the trough. A trough filled by taxation of the middle 85% paying for the bottom 10% who can't afford to live, and the top 5% who can.
 
ThirdLeg said:
The most important reality to me is the one in which I exist and experience every day. I don’t need to know that some young woman was murdered walking to her pals house or that our country is responsible for the deaths of many young children in Afghanistan, both news stories friends have sent me today. Humans aren’t equipped to deal with the problems of 7 billion people. 150 maybe.
My reality is this: my family are healthy and thriving, I have a more fulfilling, higher paying job that I did pre pandemic. I couldn’t buy chicken breast in Aldi recently.
It’s not I’m alright jack. It’s just surviving in the modern world. And as the op was someone apparently struggling with it all I think it’s a worthwhile suggestion to maybe take a break from the doom and gloom and bask in the present moment

I am of course aware suffering exists and would rather the trend in living standards was upwards. But what would you have me do about it? I’ll vote for the closest thing to a socialist party available next time around like I did last time and the time before that and so on
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I've never met an 'I'm alright Jack' socialist before :ROFLMAO:
 
BoroMart said:
Ed should have but people thought that how you eat a bacon sandwich is a great way to measure strategic leadership qualities. You can't trust people.
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I think Ed would have made a very decent PM and closer to me politically than his brother. What the press did was pathetic, honestly though, I believe David would have had an easier time in the press though and had a better chance to win than Ed.
 
All those British bridge builders will be sad to hear the news that the GB-NI bridge ( yet another of Bozos madcap schemes) will NOT, I repeat NOT be going ahead.........add it to the list...
 
BoroMart said:
...and what make me chuckle is these people voted for change, to 'give the establishment a bloody nose', yet here they are accepting that most people won't be better off, some will be worse off and nothing changes. While the elite (The Tories not the pretend 'liberal elite' which isn't really a thing), still get richer.
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It was always a BS excuse that. Some people might genuinely have convinced themselves that's why they voted for it, but I'm pretty sure in most cases it's a comforting lie they told themselves because they didn't want to admit the main reason was they were a bit scared of people who spoke in funny accents.

There are any number of chances to "give the establishment a bloody nose" in general and local elections, yet they never get taken. Funny that.
 
HarryVegas said:
This. As I said earlier, I do think the UK has basically had it, but nothing this sh*tty, inept, utterly corrupt government do stops my personal happiness. Life can be great in (almost) whatever circumstances surround us. Every cracked pavement, every broken down corner can contain wonder. You just need to look with the right eyes.
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I think this is how Erimus was responded on the other thread and then was called a simpleton.
 
Must admit the last 18 months have drained me of wanting to know what's going on at the minute. I actively avoid the news, turned off notifications for certain app etc. I still catch the latest as it's virtually impossible not to, but I can't blame anyone for not wanting to constantly know about everything horrible that is going on in the world.

Life can very much feel too much if you're constantly doom scrolling. I've felt that at times and I've had to take myself out of it and shut down from it all. Does that make me selfish?
 
TheYorkshireTerrier said:
Must admit the last 18 months have drained me of wanting to know what's going on at the minute. I actively avoid the news, turned off notifications for certain app etc. I still catch the latest as it's virtually impossible not to, but I can't blame anyone for not wanting to constantly know about everything horrible that is going on in the world.

Life can very much feel too much if you're constantly doom scrolling. I've felt that at times and I've had to take myself out of it and shut down from it all. Does that make me selfish?
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No, it just means you're looking after your own mental health.
 
“Beaming deaths into your pocket” is beautifully put. I also don’t think we’re psychologically equipped to handle it as human beings.

Phones in particular are like a Chinese water torture of anxiety and distraction, having a little internet machine in your pocket which is at you 24/7 and take you away from your lived experience, which is the real world and real relationships around you. It changes your perception of things.

It’s good to be curious about the world but media isn’t designed to make you feel good, we all know that - there’s a million studies on how scary or negative stories get a far more visceral reaction than good news stories, so while these things are happening in the world, and they’re sad and we should care about them, it’s never ever going to be a balanced account of what the real world is actually like. Reminds me of my grandma, who would read the Gazette cover to cover and be convinced that the world outside was horrific, when actually she had a really nice life and nothing bad ever happened to her.

There’s a balance: reading the news once a day or once a week is probably enough. Being able to refresh BBC news and go down social media rabbit holes and debate them ad nauseum on forums for 24 hours a day just isn’t psychologically healthy.

It’s an interesting subject but I know that I’m truly relaxed on the very, very rare occasions when I either break my phone, or go somewhere without wifi, and can focus way more on the real things happening around me - it reminds you that the world is actually full of very nice things and very nice people.
 
It's a shame Sabina Nessa's family and friends can't avoid the news.

She could have been anyone's friend, daughter, sister, mother....

When did we become so uncaring?
 
jonny_greenings_sock said:
“Beaming deaths into your pocket” is beautifully put. I also don’t think we’re psychologically equipped to handle it as human beings.

Phones in particular are like a Chinese water torture of anxiety and distraction, having a little internet machine in your pocket which is at you 24/7 and take you away from your lived experience, which is the real world and real relationships around you. It changes your perception of things.

It’s good to be curious about the world but media isn’t designed to make you feel good, we all know that - there’s a million studies on how scary or negative stories get a far more visceral reaction than good news stories, so while these things are happening in the world, and they’re sad and we should care about them, it’s never ever going to be a balanced account of what the real world is actually like. Reminds me of my grandma, who would read the Gazette cover to cover and be convinced that the world outside was horrific, when actually she had a really nice life and nothing bad ever happened to her.

There’s a balance: reading the news once a day or once a week is probably enough. Being able to refresh BBC news and go down social media rabbit holes and debate them ad nauseum on forums for 24 hours a day just isn’t psychologically healthy.

It’s an interesting subject but I know that I’m truly relaxed on the very, very rare occasions when I either break my phone, or go somewhere without wifi, and can focus way more on the real things happening around me - it reminds you that the world is actually full of very nice things and very nice people.
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Makes me think of this:

1632480056243.png
 
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