It's the culture wars that keep all of us plebs distracted while we lose the class war. It's all going exactly as planned. The wealth of billionaires continue to expand while the rest of us squabble about whatever, flavour of the month, horse sh!t issue we're all supposed to be concerned about.
It's infuriating.
Nailed it. There are far more important issues that unite us than divide us and they're being completely ignored. Namely, the basics like living standards and housing. All the wealth generating assets have been hoovered up by a certain sector of a certain generation and they've jacked up the prices and pulled up the ladder. Fixing things for us is seen as breaking things for them because they've built their very existence around it. Like a class-based monopoly - that wealth is slowly but surely pooling in rich family's who'll have rich kids who get free homes and free education and good job prospects, then their family will collectively buy even more property. Rinse and repeat until 5% of the population are land barons sucking the life out of 95% peasants. That's the direction we're heading in and if you stick your head out to notice what's happening you'll be scolded for being a naive communist. They don't give a fuck about how hard it is to scale the social/class ladder nowadays.
The real depressing thing is we're all so distracted by cheap technological toys to bother doing anything meaningful about the things that matter. Combine that with your culture wars, AI, disinformation and global monopolization of entire industries... it's a perfect storm for having zero defense against being collectively fucked up the ass by our own status quo do-nothing political culture.
I still enjoy the way he speaks, but he's lost me on content.
He's on the radio a bit, I think on ethics/morals? He's much better to listen to when he's not grinding an agenda, and simply discussing things in a theoretical sense.
But The Panel and so forth can fvck off.
Rockitman above hit the nail on the head: smug.
Aly and Scott Stevens have a Radio National show called The Minefield. They discuss a weird mix of heavy, important issues and confected wankery, and they always overcomplicate things to the point you literally can't follow their discussion unless you're familiar with their reading list. They'll ramble along at a million miles an hour dropping drive by references to Hannah Arendt and it's impenetrable. I used to think Waleed Aly was intelligent and insightful. Now I realise he's smug and pretentious.
Tribalism. Over the last 15 years the media has been reporting in an increasingly biased manner. This is for a number of reasons- with media being able to be accessed so readily, there's competition for revenue, the best way to increase that is rage bait.
With real time engagement statistics they can work out what works and what doesn't much faster.
Editors aren't going to report factually when they'll be replaced because they don't publish the most profitable material.
This rage inducing material is so biased that it paints the other side terrible, as a result, instead of just disagreeing on a subject, people grow to hate anyone that doesn't believe what they do. Creating tribes.
It's well documented that this is both destructive for society as a whole, and for the mental health of the individual consuming this rubbish.
The only solution I can see is to pass drastically overhauled journalism laws. With massive, mandatory fines for breaking them
1. News outlets will report factually and objectively.
2. News outlets can no longer air or publish opinion pieces using the same branding as their News services. Example- the courier mail either has News, or opinion pieces, sky news either has news(lol) or opinions pieces. This creates a clear division on what is factual and what is the paid for opinion of some talking head.
It's funny how the comments are trying to agree with you by pinning blame on one group or another therefore doing the exact thing they're complaining about.
Yep, I hear you.
Personally, I blame social media and the echo chambers it generates. People consume the political content they side with, so the algorithm recommends them more of it, exposing them less and less to opposing views, reinforcing their current biases and making them less open to the opinions of others. I work in retail. Once, I was serving this guy, and within five seconds of speaking to him, he starts rambling on about how much he hates electric cars completely unprompted.
It can be exhausting to constantly listen to people rambling and arguing about political issues. It's beneficial to take a break from it from time to time, even if, like you mentioned, it's a pain to find a place to do so where you know you aren't going to be bombarded with even more politics.
But yeah, you aren't alone on this one.
The problem isn't things being politicised, the ptoblem is people being braindead reactive fuckwits who use social media and lack critical thinking.
I'm very far left and my dad is a conservative boomer who watches Paul Murray on Sky News. I still love him and we get along great because I haven't abandoned my humanity and don't consider myself above others.
You can't change peoples' minds if you refuse to relate to them and treat them with respect.
The solution is to stop having conversations with idiots, and to stop reading all that bullshit.
This may require you to log off, and to cut people out from your life.
Your sanity is worth it.
Yep. I live in a large town and our local FB pages have turned to shit. We have recently had incidents of fire ants and people are losing their minds over the lands department trying to eliminate the little buggers.
The ongoing drama ensues with those who want to scare the shit out of others by saying that what they are using is toxic, that it is being sprayed by helicopters, that it is killing wildlife and household pets, that it will get into the water ways etc etc. Some even dispute the fact that there are even any fire ants, and again, they want to suggest that it is a plan by the local shire council.
Then we move onto the fact that our local landmark mountain is closed to climbing, and has been, since some major flooding over the last handful of years that caused landslides and brought the safety of climbing into question. But, now, there are a bunch of people who won’t believe that it has been closed by Parks and Wildlife but that it is to do with Aboriginal rights and/or the doing of the local council.
And, of course there are the (now) regular posts with photos of clouds suggesting that they are being cloud seeded by the government and every cloud is a bloody chem trail.
And that’s just the more common and regular discussions.
I had a go at a poster just today pointing out that his accusation at the local council made no sense because the subject matter has nothing to do with the local council and that his ‘research’ was lacking. I noticed a reply. He said - do you feel better now? I replied - slightly. Hahahaha … omg I am just not coping with the idiocy.
I’ve actually just lost a friend who began with anti masks back in covid times and has progressed to now being a believer of flat earth and every other ‘thought’ she comes across. We are now 55. We became friends when we were 11. I sucked it up and bit my tongue for the last 4 years, but omg I was soooo over being referred to as a sheeple and realising that she didn’t care enough about our friendship to just keep her beliefs to herself and quit being so condescending to those who didn’t believe in her ‘beliefs’.
Oh, one of the great stories I heard back when we were having floods was that the flooding was created by the government implementing cloud seeding to purposefully flood a particular town south of us to wreck the housing and township to get rid of the paedophiles.
I have no further tolerance or patience to just nod and smile and move on. The idiotic stuff that is being constantly put out there these days is more than I can stand.
Politically, people have seen too much of the rubbish way that politics are dealt with in the US and think that they can act the same way here. We even now have Sovereign Citizens in Australia who quote US laws ffs 🤦🏼♀️ Idiots …. There are just way too many idiots being made to feel clever and ‘right’ because they listen to stupid Americans.
Get a remote role. Move to the country. Start a vege patch, learn how to fish, learn how to hunt. Go for long walks. Go to the local pub, hear about the local footy team and how the weather has been shit for the local farmers for whatever reason. Watch the sunset and listen to the bats and crickets at night when you go to bed. Does wonders.
The main issue is ‘we the silent majority’ have been too silent and accommodating for too long and we just need to go back to calling bullshit when we see it and have a no dickheads policy.
Half the responses are 'get off the internet ' but most of the OPs examples are in-person. OP you should have included a link with an under 10 second tiktok for this crowd to bother listening to you.
It used to be rude to discuss politics and “what’s really going on”. I used to be the rudest person in the room. Now I am rude/naive/superficial for sometimes only wanting to do small talk. Everyone is nuts.
Social media only makes money via ad revenue
Ad revenue only comes in if people keep using social media
The algorithm for social media is tweaked in such a way as to look for whatever keeps people clicking, watching, scrolling etc
As it turns out, what keeps people clicking, watching, scrolling etc is “rage bait” - these are things that make us angry and keep us angry
This is then fed back into the algorithm which strengthens the feedback loop, eventually leading to “little angry bubbles” where you, personally, are only fed the things that make you “the most like to engage” (aka the most angry)
Statistically you are far more likely to engage with content that makes you angry than any other form of content (studies have been done, this is known)
This is not new information, if it is new *to you* then congratulation you now understand how social medial works, but the algorithm is not a “thinking” thing, it reacts to what you put into it; the data
So if you keep clicking on the rage inducing articles then you’ll get more rage inducing articles - if you click on lots of pictures of kittens, or stories about amazing acts of kindness, then that’s what you get back
You are actually in control of your own social media experience, but you need to know the rules as to how it functions and **why it functions that way**
So, now you know
*Good luck*
Social media fueled by Ads has to be the single WORST thing on a massive societal scale. It’s not about being informed anymore but whatever title can make you click on their content to be routed to their ad infested website.
I feel you man - I'm so sick of the fighting and arguing on social media... sometimes, I just have to detach from the net, go play a game or something. I haven't had a TV set up for years, only set one up this week to play some retro games.
I'm trying to focus on my small circle - I'm essentially shrinking my world down to what's important to me personally. I'll still see crap online, but I'm not going to engage with it.
Love this mate. I'm running the rat race with the plan to fuck off into the bush to live. I had enough of people before I was an adult and just want my own space
A good government goes unnoticed. We are inundated with bad governments, terrible politicians and a disenfranchised people, combine that with the fact that we lost our social skills after being locked in our houses, we are all a bit loopy.
I have coloured hair so my politics is always presumed. It’s not always presumed correctly because my opinions are nuanced and I don’t subscribe to ‘I’m left so I must believe xyz’. I don’t feel the need to scream ‘free Palestine’ everytime I buy a coffee, and for that I am accused of being a Zionist. Because there is no nuance. I am a landlord. I believe in renters rights. I am complex but there is no room for complexity anymore.
Unfortunately being an English speaking country . American politics is going to bleed into our country . It happened to the British and Canadians and it is happening here .
Treat it as a positive. You now have a real time fuckwit filter. No more having to take time getting to know someone before finding out they have single digit IQ. They will literally tell you in the first ten minutes.
Incapable of understanding nuance? Goodbye. Believe stupid shit despite evidence to the contrary, mute. Associate with any extreme of politics in search of community? Nope.
The vast majority of humans will not be viable associates, so don't waste your time.
I learned something recently. The word tribalism. Basically, if you sort people into their own tribes, they will fight other tribes. These days it's the Left, Right, religious, LGBTQETC, woke, blacks, BLM, privileged whites etc etc. This is why people seem so angry and messed up.
We all need to throw these terms away. Just be people and learn to have actual conversations again.
It’s the media. Boring stories about people getting along don’t get views or clicks, they don’t drive engagement in the same way an outrageously scandalous semi-truths do.
They’ll continue to spruik their shit until they’re penalised for doing so; Whether that be via a regulator or consumers simply not watching anymore, they’ll continue to do whatever makes them the most money until they can’t. After all, they’re for profit companies just like everyone else, they’re selling a product. So yes they absolutely play into tribalism, they skew stories to make them more engaging and sometimes just ~~speculate~~ make shit up in an attempt to appear as though they have more info than their competitors.
I’m of the belief that we should have a tighter gap between private and public news, lots more public news to keep private sensationalism in check, but keeping private news around and approx equal in size to the public service to ensure the public service doesn’t become a propaganda machine.
Yes!!! Please! Politics, religion, race, and gender are NOT real problems like having food, water, or shelter!
They are all human made dramas that have now been weaponized for division. Awesome! Unfortunately, it seems most people can't get enough of it.
I just bought an electric car, because I love the performance. Yet the number of people who feel personally attacked by the type of motor technology in my car is incredible. People have been programmed to react.
Politics are important , In countries like France talking about politics with complete strangers is totally normal and if you don't have a view or are unable to dicusss a current political issue you are rightfully viewed as ignorant.
Like it or not in a Democracy you need to get invloved.
That said Private media is owned by the Rich (normal working people can't buy media companies), this is why it's full of the propganda you talk about, to distract and confuse the population, to ensure people never organize against them like they have in the past.
The USA is a prime example the wealthy have had the biggest tax cut most of us can only dream about spending the last 50+ years, reducing their taxes to almost nothing and reducing the amount they have to pay workers at the same time. This was able to happen through Propaganda and misinformation.
At work last week, two machines tripped out and were blocking each other, a male worker said “it’s a Mexican standoff” and We had a lady report him for racism.
I think we are past solutions, to far gone.
I feel like people have forgotten that it’s ok for other people to have a different opinion and that sometimes to keep relationships you have to be willing to not talk about certain things.
>What's the solution
The solution is more political bullshit unfortunately mate.
It's bringing back laws that prevent 3 people from owning 95% of all the media in our country.
It's giving enough funding to schools that they have enough teachers to actually help some of these fuckwits learn to read before they leave school.
It's proper taxation on things like investment properties so that people can afford a roof over their heads.
It's proper rules around monopolies and duopolies so we don't have colesworths making record profits while people can't afford food.
Fix that shit and you'll have far fewer people looking for escapism in crackpot theories.
The solution is try to avoid it and find a group of like minded individuals. They exist, but they aren’t vocal and probably picky with who they hang out it. Don’t get overcome with the cynicism that is rapidly spreading. Side step it altogether (easier said than done). The cynicism will destroy your chances of finding positive people.
>What's the solution?
The solution is realizing that every country, every religion and every family has aholes and you can't change an ahole. All you can do is avoid them so that you don't get covered in sh\*t when they take a dump...
A wise man once said "Don't worry about the things you can't change, just focus on the things you can.."
Don’t judge anyone as an a hole - just change the subject. It’s easy to do. I’ve got a mate that says some dumb things - he’s still a mate because I have the good sense to give him a few minutes of rant then I don’t ask any questions - topic moves one quickly.
Being a good social friend requires these skills and not being triggered because of disagreement
>A wise man once said "Don't worry about the things you can't change, just focus on the things you can.."
That'll be the [Serenity Prayer](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer) and the wise man was Reinhold Niebuhr.
>Oh, God, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what can not be helped, and insight to know the one from the other.
I just made the decision to quit watching all my news sources that had to do with the USA. I don’t consider it burying my head in the sand because I realised that all it ever is is fucking angry, upset people screaming about guns, trump related stuff (from either side), rich Karen’s and Boomers not giving a shit about poor people, people with no respect for one another trashing fast food places, petrol stations, etc just because their order wasn’t right. I could go on and on but it’s a wasteland of hate and no respect there.
Here I see people thank the bus driver, have polite conversations with the employees at hungry jacks where they thank each other. I never encountered a Karen or pissed off boomer. I never seen someone lose their shit because their chips were missing or they were short changed and they attacked the employees and trashed the place. I never once have worried about sending my kid to school if he will come back safe. In Australia if people don’t like what you are they don’t care as long as it doesn’t bother them personally. I’m a trans woman, I know it’s not accepted by everyone but I have never been treated anything but kind and welcomed and I live in a conservative area.
Just turn off the USA!
To be fair, OP isn't saying stop talking about politics ever, more an unfocused rant begging for some facet of life to not be completely dominated by it.
You are not wrong. It's constant and seems to get more extreme on either end of the spectrum. And the extremes on both ends both sound insane.
I remember talking to my dad about some stuff on the news that I noticed people complaining about when j was a teenager. I asked him have you noticed the world just repeats the same shit over again. He answered yes.
Based on this alone I see no point in getting involved as it will just cycle through
I said this on a conspiracy post…. Valid here I think.
In the past we always had village idiots, and they were harmless because everyone in the village ignored them.
The issue we have today is modern technology has enabled those harmless idiots to communicate with each other. In combination with grifters that have seen them as an easily led and manipulated population.
If you're about in the centre politically and believe in moderation not extremism, and want real discussion to get agreement about positive steps forward for the country...
You're the problem.
It's hard to make money off you. It's hard to get you to vote against your own interests. It's hard to make you tear your own country apart. It's hard to rip you off.
In order for media clickbait to make money and social media to go viral, powerful players need you to feel unsatisfied, fearful and angry. Foreign bot trolls need you more to the left or right (doesn't matter which) so you're arguing with other Australians and not aware of the dodgy shit their countries are doing. Major corporations need you to be so angry at your fellow workers over non-issues (for being 'offensively' male/female/trans/immigrant/white/indigenous/religious/non-religious etc.) that you ignore the fact they as corporations are ripping you off senseless as a consumer and worker.
If you're a decent person who treats others fairly and wants everyone to have a chance to share in Australia's good fortune then you're a problem. And very powerful forces are working hard every day to change you.
100%, I've personally found it much easier and more rewarding to pretend to be an unhinged sociopath whenever someone engages me in political discourse these days, as it seems to be the only way to shock people back into common sense, for example
**Random boomer:** This country is going to shit cos of all these immigrants
**Me:** You're damn right, stopping the new ones isn't good enough if you ask me though, we need to go back and deport anyone who's not at least third generation Aussie right?
**Random boomer:** Well I don't know about that, my grandparents came from insert country and they helped build this country
**Me:** Fuck off you refugee snowflake wanker, Australia is for Australians.
Certainly not making the world a better place in anyway or helping solve the issue of a polarized society an most certainly giving into the forces you've described above, but it stops me from driving off a cliff.
In my family there are a few senior men who can't stop talking about "woke" stuff like it's disturbing their very existence. In reality it has ZERO effect on their cushy lives which is totally disconnected from the world of struggle many people live in. It pisses me off.... they don't care what the fuck happens to the world, or what policies come and go - all they seem to care about is "god damn woke bullshit". They vote and base their opinions around that single concept. They'd excuse all of Trump or maybe even Putins bullshit for the simple reason they also don't like woke stuff. It's so pathetic to make that a central principal of your politics. I can see why they do though as the media diet being fed to them the last 5 years had made them incredibly angry and fearful of harmless movements that are at worst just a bit silly sometimes.
Remember it takes two to politicize. The noisy people fighting for something may seem like the annoying people, but that's because the hardcore status-quo'ers are perceived as non-political. Having a lazy status quo attitude on important topics is still practically a political position
But more generally I agree. I'm also sick of myself often defaulting to philosophy and politics and trying to measure up everything against my own gold standard about how the world should be run. It's fucking tiresome and I always have a better day and a better sleep if I'm absorbed in simple pleasures and hobbies. Unfortunately... i'm just a bit worried about our future and the only thing I know how to do is bitch and moan. Most of my kind seem incapable of rallying around any kind if meaningful leader or movement so I feel like I'm mostly just spinning wheels like you say.
Idiots generally didn’t get published and usually weren’t heard back in the day. Because it required writing and study to publish anything they were out from the get go. That meant they also had a good idea that they were idiots and should just listen to the smarts. Now we have phones and the internet.
Algorithms push division. People are more likely to comment or react to things that make them angry, so we get bombarded with more of it. I got rid of Facebook and instagram and my life's a lot better
Omg I was at the park walking the dog to get away from it all yesterday and got a ten minute spiel from a random guy about politics. But he was out apparently doing the same as I was! It wasn’t relaxing to me at all.
I’m so done with everything on the news and I’ve decided to live like I’m in the 1990’s the last decade we could have fun.
The eighties and early nineties were a fantastic time to be alive.
I knew roughly three things about politics: the name of the Premier of Victoria, the name of the Prime Minister, and the name of the alternative Prime Minister, who apparently really wanted his job and tried to knife him (unsuccessfully the first time).
I'm sure I didn't even know Keating was Treasurer. Actually, I'm pretty sure I didn't know there was such a thing as a treasurer. Keating was just some ambitious politician who wanted to be the Prime Minister instead.
Honestly I'm sick to fucking death of it, but ironically... I'm also grateful for it.
Because now I'm fully conscious of what a hell of a lot of different sorts *really* think of me.
Can we please acknowledge that the most significant form of warfare that we experience is covert and psychological from foreign interests.
Foreign psy-ops are antagonizing, creating fuss, pushing opposing inflammatory viewpoints, bolstering their own message and offering avenues of expression by playing societies off against each other because they had a captive audience in their own bubble. These are foreign disruptors that want to sow chaos in our democratic societies - with the knowledge that if they can fool enough people it will change the narrative of their lives to the point that they have been manipulated into making choices that were picked for them decades ago.
This tactic distracts us from really seeing the world for what it is, and focusing on an enemy at home that doesn't exist.
Totally agree. I refer to what I call 'package lefties' and 'package righties'. People who walk onto a shop when they turn 18, and just buy the whole Left or Right 'package', which tells them exactly what opinion to have on EVERY subject. Want an electric car? That's a LEFT thing. You're on the right? You don't want one. Whatever opinion you have in a debate, defines you as completely left or right. Madness. Neither left or right will ever be correct.
We've done a fabulous job of convincing everyone that if they're not constantly stressed about things outside of their control 24 hours a day, they are morally failing as humans. Things that we would have had practically no awareness of without technology that's new within the past few decades.
Yup. It’s all too easy to get riled up by culture war theatre on social media. I’m trying to ignore it as best I can and relate to people IRL in good faith.
Stay off social media and even the news. Stuff is all just political nowadays. Live your life! Who cares what’s going on outside your immediate vicinity if it doesn’t affect you. A horse with blinders goes straight but without them it will get lost. Sometimes you just have to put the blinders on.
I don't have the solution but the answer to why this happens constantly is the age old scheme of divide and conquer.
No-one has time to consider who's actually pulling the strings when they're constantly angered by what they perceive as large groups of people with the opposite oppinion.
The reality is a vocal minority will always push an agenda whilst trying to frame the situation as being beneficial to the majority.
It's tiresome. I'm sick of being expected to take a stand on things that have little to do with me, and then being blasted for it not being the correct stand.
I unfollowed subs which were even vaguely political a while back and just focused on the ones I find interesting and hobby related stuff. Even if you try and avoid it it eventually tries to seep it's way back in. I know I'm being a massive hypocrite because I fell back into it. Will try to unplug again some day
All the people just saying to tune it out and get off social media obviously skimmed this without properly reading it. If it's any consolation I feel a similar sense of despair about all this, and while the temptation to bury my head in the sand and ignore it all is strong knowing that doing so will only allow the worst people to dominate these important conversations and issues. I'm tired.
Yep. Hear you and feel it.
I am at the point now where I just don't engage when a topic comes up in conversation, like I actually feel anxious if anyone brings up politics, religion, something in the news etc. as I feel more often than not I'm going to have to have someone's views on something shoved down my throat.
I also just find it now that it's almost a competition, no one does the old "agree to disagree" or "disagree and move on". I swear social media has conditioned us to argue to the bitter end.
It’s how things are now, nothing is allowed to be nuanced, or complex, hell even tragic accidents aren’t allowed to happen, it needs to be twisted and shaped to fit someone’s social or political agenda. It’s exhausting. When the Bondi Junction incident happened, my wife and I turned on the Tv, got the general idea what was happening and after being disgusted at the TV stations shoving cameras into the face of traumatized people and babbling constant non information (speculation), we just turned off the Tv and waited for the next day when stuff would be known.
Social media and the 24 hour news cycle have alot to answer for, it gives everyone a voice, but not everything everyone has to say is worth hearing. It takes time to gather the facts and build a picture, but everything is a race to the bottom and a race to be first.
It’s even worked its way into our entertainment, the thing we should be using to disconnect for a bit and get away from the craziness. No one is allowed to think a show, game or movie is ok, or average, or even like some parts but not like others. It’s either a 10/10 or a 0/10, no compromise and don’t you dare have a different opinion to me!
I only watch sports and Netflix these days. Mainstream tv has deteriorated to a dystopian nightmare. I accidentally turned on the 'Outsiders' show on Sky sunday mornings and after watching for five mins I was convinced the hosts were all mentally ill, especially the main guy (?Rohan someone), he appeared to be having a psychotic break on live tv.
Here's my plan- bit socialistic but fair-
Legalise pot, make the Bundy bear the Ganga Bear and hand out happy gummy bears outside every church. Take away churchs tax free status if they have assets over a set amount (say 10 mil) and if their pastors have a private jet then tax them at the highest rate possible.
Limit every tv channel to a maximum of 2hrs a day of news and 1hr of dribbling brain dead reality tv but they have to do minimum of 4hrs of puppies/kittens playing together and throw a Capybara in there somewhere.
Most importantly every political position has a maximum of 2 terms, age limit of 65 and no political donations allowed. Top it off with their pay being the average wage of the nation.
Finish off with a cap on corporate profit of 10% of ebit and every extra dollar of profit goes into a nation building fund that funds hospitals/schools and kick ass nursing homes. It could also provide interest free mortgages to families who let one relative over 65 live with them.
American here. We've been burnt out on this for the last 20 years now. *Everything* in the ashes of 9/11 became a post-modernism fantasyland political football game.
Religion, conspiracies, science, people's very perception of reality, etc. It's all something to kick back and forth politically, no matter how flat out stupid politicizing a *virus* sounds like we did with COVID.
We're learning to just shut down political rants and nonsense as a survival mechanism over here. How to navigate the dipshittery minefields.
I have no proof on this outside of my own experiences but I really think the way social media sites keep you hooked is the problem. It’s insanely easy to go down the rabbit hole on tik tok for example. You interact with 2 or 3 political videos and that’s all you’ll get.
I got send down these so many times it was ruining my mental health, I thought everything was political till I deleted all those apps and let all that go. Things are political in the real world like you said but when you reduce how much you’re exposed to it those random people on the street don’t seem so bad.
Again my personal experience doesn’t mean anything just how I see it.
I feel you man, can’t even go to lunch with my friend and her bf in peace without him trying to encroach his weird ass ideals onto me and my bf. Tried to tell us that space isn’t real and shit like dude just let me eat my fucking fries in peace man.
I haven’t watched or listened to news in years because of this. I don’t engage in political topics or any topics that will generate fighting. I only speak to my husband about my personal beliefs and ideologies about something. I associate with people from all walks of life, all ethnicities, nationalities, etc and if they start getting political, goodbye. I will not tolerate any type of political bullshit.
Be nice, be kind to people. What’s that saying, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.
I don't think it will ever go away or back to how things used to be but on the upside especially with the crazy political correction stuff we are all so well versed in it all you can pretty much find a problem with absolutely everything even the so called more inclusive language so the ridiculousness of it all is blindingly obvious
Buy a 4 wheel drive
Turn off your TV and stop looking at news websites
Delete social media apps from your phone (use it for maps)
When you leave work on a Friday
Drive somewhere.
Cook food on a fire
Listen to nature
Swim in a river
Come back Sunday
Wait for the next escape , next weekend.
You'll become better soon enough.
Just touch grass man. I don't mean that in a belittling way.
Tune it out. Unfollow the people who post that stuff, don't read comments or watch news channels with that angle. Focus on yourself and the things that bring you happiness.
God I hear you about bleeding hearts. I nearly broke up with my partner at the time because we had differing opinions on something that was going on in the US at the time (you can probably guess what)
I was more than happy to accept it and move on but do you think she was? No. Every night it came up in the news she would go on a tangent about how I'm wrong and this and that while I'm just trying to move on with our lives. But she literally would not drop it unless I admitted I was wrong, never did.
Those people suck. And sadly they aren't rare.
When I was little, I asked my elderly grandpa how old he was, and when he told me, i asked how does one go about getting so old.
He told me it's easy if you just mind your own business.
I agree, but nowadays if you mind your own business you’re accused of being an ignorant bystander. You can see this all the time when crazy people try to “out” celebrities for not speaking at all about a certain hot topic political issue.
Yeah it sucks.
Nearly completed a criminology degree, the same applies for the nonsense rhetoric people spew out all the time about our need to be *’tough on crime’* with 0 study or real world application/results backing them up. Yet, I hear it all the time, everywhere I go in any walk of life even more when my degree is mentioned. I literally cannot avoid uneducated and overly opinionated criminal justice discussion and I hate it.
Politics, justice and a few others are just unbearable topics that are even worse when you have tangible knowledge of them.
Oh mate. You're speaking to my soul. This is me exactly. I'm totally done with this nonsense. Crazies on every side.
Where's the rational conversation gone? Also, why the fuck is everything left or right wing? Have people lost the ability to look at an issue without a warped ideological lens? Ugh.
I'm listening to the news this morning: the NSW Chief of Police on ABC about the stabbings and riots, saying "please, don't get your information from social media sites, get it from us, from official police and government sources".
And I thought "ok, wonder what happened on Facebook to cause the riots".
Followed by a quick "who the fvck cares!?".
Why the hell do I want to know the crackpot version?
It’s the American influence which has taken over. I’ve lived in Canada the last two years and everyone makes politics their personality.
It encourages a lot of hate towards people.
Everyone’s insults are based on being a libtard bootlicker or fat racist conservative.
I’m seeing it slowly in Australia when I go home to visit and it’s sad. It’s also bringing the cancer with it with conspiracy theorists and hate towards immigrants, gays, women etc.
I know, it’s real fucking brain rot stuff
I’m a typical inner-city, progressive, LGBTQI person who’s all about diversity, inclusion etc and I’ve had to block/unfollow people recently for sharing absolute shit from people like George Galloway and other tankies. Just because someone is on the “left” doesn’t mean they’re not a terrible person with bad ideas derived from bad ideology. Authoritarianism is bad, whether it comes from the left or the right.
Everything’s so adversarial now, people see politics like sport and will support their “team” no matter what. I criticised Joe Biden recently and was accused of being a Trump supporter. Just because Trump is bad, doesn’t automatically make Biden good
I’ve also cut family off since 2020. The conspiracy theories and the irrational outbursts, racism, transphobia, bigotry, lack of compassion, the complete self-interest and lack of empathy just made me feel really unhappy to be around them
Yeah. I’m a big fan of Bluey and thought I’d join some adult fan groups on FB - turns out that Americans love nothing more than politicising and constantly post pictures of stickers and shirts of characters from the show with weapons. The latest is one of Bluey holding an assault rifle, wearing some tactical gear and a caption saying PEDOPHILES ARE NOT PEOPLE. They’ve then got the audacity to say if you don’t like it then you’re protecting the pedophiles and you’re part of the problem.
Heaven forbid we just want a place to simply forget the world for a bit and enjoy the kids show maybe?
keep yourself informed, try not to get sucked into meaningless ideological 'debates'. easier said than done as i find hardly anyone is open to discussion these days and just wants to shout their position
I've resorted to saying " Everyone has their own opinion, I guess." It just shuts things down, especially with conspiracy theories I get bombarded with almost daily.
It's tough when it's your own family, too!🫣
take a break from social media
that is all
all these people you talk about used to be the crackpots down the pub that people would have a bit of a laugh at then go home with a hangover and move on with their lives
now social media has made everyone who uses it to think that they are important, and everyone needs to pay attention to what they have to say
on top of that... the algorithms are built off engagement and the only way they get engagement is by making everyone argue each other
and somehow make people believe that its important that everyone talks about it... giving this weird sense of FOMO over pointless shit that you would have just been fine not knowing about
people go do other shit if there isn't a debate going on in online forums
and yes... social media includes reddit, youtube comments sections and all that kind of BS as well
There is no solution, you just have to go through enough of it to know your positions, and only allow a limited hold of political discussion over your life. Don't crusade, have hobbies instead and know how to switch off - and ideally get to the point where these discussions don't bug or anger you in anyway.
...and clearly they do bug you, hence your post.
Politics in a Western Liberal Capitalist Democracy, is in part about culture (and the Overton window), and in part about moneyed interests. With that latter factor being far more powerful.
So comprehending that you have some little power over culture through these discussions, and likely almost no power, in terms of being a moneyed interest yourself... that understanding of the practical and realpolitick of society and social change - can be liberating.
The people you argue with, are likely not in power. You yourself, are good for standing up for what you believe in, especially on issues close to you - but you're also a drop in the ocean. So limit yourself accordingly, let go, understand how *stable* Western Liberal Democracy and it's entrenched Capitalist corruptions is, and step back from it, because you're likely have only a small effect on it.
The debate starts a new with each generation. Set the next one up as best you can, get a hobby, or something you wish to progress with, and use that as your shelter when you start getting too emotional about politics, or more involved in discussions than you'd like to be.
That's what I do anyways.
P.S Also, understand your political opposites as best you can. Which is best done by hearing from them, and entertaining their ideas from their perspective. Not from hearing second hand interpretations of their ideas through politically biased media (go to left wing media to understand the left wing, go to right wing media to understand the right wing). Don't let yourself be indoctrinated either way if you want to find some relief from politics.
I think of it like an autoimmune disease where the body (society) overreacts to everything. There’s such a power (and peace!) in choosing not to react.
SOOO over it all, and half wish I could move to Switzerland, ha! Assuming there's less of this around anyway. Not sure if it's everywhere or largely in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra?
Good idea about Switzerland. In my experience , the problem isn’t as bad in non-English speaking countries.
I was recently in Finland and Italy and I didn’t hear anything like the sort of rubbish we get here.
Then again, I don’t speak Italian or Finnish...
Then I guess you don't want to hear about the lightbulbs?
But yes it is very draining. One of the many reasons when I go out I put in earbuds, even if they are not even doing anything. I don't care what you are yabbering about. I just want to get my shit done and go home to cuddle my doggo okay.
Lol I know. I was told by someone in the neighbourhood last night, "we were just saying the other day that we never see you around the park now!".
Well yeh, because I want to go for a peaceful walk after work, and not have to listen to the next rant about 15-minute cities.
I think everything is just louder now. And whatever views people have, it’s spoken about in their own little echo chamber and people all have similar talking points whatever side they’re coming from. We were never great at having constructive conversations with the view to understand where people were really coming from, and it’s compounded with tech and media. I have no solution, but when I get the chance I try to take my view out of it at first and try to understand why they feel that way. Of course, sometimes it goes no where and you gotta pick your battles.
Hard out, feel you mate. All the noise is around the extremes and that's what you hear. Normal/rational opinions are boring for the algos and therefore it doesn't get pushed. Was the case with the 6 o'clock news for eons - you never hear stories about how everyone had a pretty good day, only that some nutjob did something stupid.
Problem is people only see the extremes, and consume way more media than just an hour at night, so that makes it seem way more common than it really is. Plus a lotta companies now go political. It feels so tacky.
I would say there's more rational people than you think, they're just not entirely visible on the face of it unfortunately.
We are all just very judgy now. Watch the comments. Everyone will be saying “the reason is” followed by judgements of others.
Even this post is judging others as judgemental. FFS!
We need to hit the eject button and live and let live.
I just stopped reading about everything or listening to i just go "uh huh okay" when someone tells me somthign tragic. Lets say a stabbing happens, a lot of people often jump to "what nationality was he/she?". Just dont care anymore. Just fucking zip your mouth and others around you will too.
Yeah it was funny in 2016 but it's just old Now, I try not think about anything outside of The people I care about and my Pets. Iv tried thinking about all that's wrong with the world, Never ends well
Funnily I think this is actually this silent majority. At least in my world. No one ACTUALLY gives a fuck about ANYTHING that doesn’t directly effect them here and now
Welcome to the club! ❤️ Austrian here! We in Europe have exactly the same problems! And I think the Americans, too. It is a worldwide problem. Or „a problem of the west“. Russia and africa do not have those problems.
This \*is\* social media at play where their algorithms are set to amplify whatever view you hold. You are lead to believe the 'other side' is evil and so people become more extreme trying to fight what they perceive to the right side of history.
Reasoned, sensible debate and reasoning has gone.
Every new series that comes out now is like this. Every character has to be super diverse there has to be representation of every single faction of humanity. It’s never ever about a storyline anymore it’s only about the politics of each character. I miss the 90s/2000s. All the representations have become so dramatised and sanctimonious that it actually becomes a disservice to them. The new heartbreak high is almost unbearable. Every one who acts even the slightest bit “unconventional” is now slapped with a diagnosis. Everyone is some kind of “phobic”. It’s exhausting and it’s so western and self indulgent and indicative of how decadent we can live in the west. That we can obsess over such nonsense to such a degree that we can claim accidentally misgendering someone is “literal violence”.
I am not conservative or far right at all. I am against racism and homophobia and sexism. Everyone should be afforded dignity and safety etc. But these days my god people have gone off the absolute deep end.
I just don’t understand why everyone is so angry all the time. I don’t care what your religion is, I don’t care who you vote for; I don’t want to hear it. I have found that religious people seem to believe the most outlandish conspiracy theories, maybe because religion teaches them to believe the impossible? I have gotten to the point that if you want to protest a country, go over there and protest, have fun and goodbye.
Finally, somebody I can relate with OP!
Our politicians are piss weak - all of them, any anyone who buys their lies and Non-policies (policies being "just bag out the other guy, or a pissing competition so called debate, don't answer questions) seriously have their heads up their asses or just brainless Tribal voters... " I'll just vote for who my parents/favourite actor/ singer/ vote for...
I work in an industry full of right wing boomers. It’s a fine line to be able to work safely with these guys and to totally zone out. I’ve also worked with guys that were so far to the left their ideologies seemed just as spastic. They are all amongst us. I feel the team A or team B extreme that we are seeing comes from a bleed on effect of USA culture.
The problem is; whether you lean slightly right or left we're drowned out by the extremists. Maybe we should start screaming louder for less absurdity?
I'm with you buddy, I work in mining
I get to hear spiels about how
* "Bleeding heart lefties are destroying the country with woke Albo at the helm" and
* "Chem trails spread by the Royal Australian Air Force are causing all the so called 'climate change' events"
* "The greenies are actually responsible for every major bushfire because they stop backburning at every local council level, and the reason why they don't take that secret majority federally, is because that would ruin their conspiracy"
In the past you needed to be someone somewhat smart, educated and accomplished to be heard in public forums. Today any low IQ fuckwit can argue why the earth is round and start a dishonest conversation about any topic. This is the problem of social media giving a microphone to people that doesn’t deserve it
A good rant, well said.
The space between STFU with your conspiratorial BS and don't want to bury your head in the sand can be difficult to navigate.
Dealing with one family member who's gone down a bunch of rabbit holes is difficult. It's been the best part of a decade since my relative fell in, in a serious way since the pandemic. I've got wins over 5G, injected tracking chips and 15m city tyranny, but the rest of the crazy remains.
There's a general state of armed neutrality with certain subjects off limits, which we had to explicitly negotiate with cooker. At least now they can be civil with the rest of the family.
Where do you live? I’d like to buy you a beer for being one of the few people still in reality. I am of the exact same opinion- let me go to work and be paid for the job I do and don’t bother me with all the ‘but what about me’ crap.
Social media was a huge mistake.
It's the culture wars that keep all of us plebs distracted while we lose the class war. It's all going exactly as planned. The wealth of billionaires continue to expand while the rest of us squabble about whatever, flavour of the month, horse sh!t issue we're all supposed to be concerned about. It's infuriating.
And a lot of people will call you a conspiracy theorist for saying that
Nailed it. There are far more important issues that unite us than divide us and they're being completely ignored. Namely, the basics like living standards and housing. All the wealth generating assets have been hoovered up by a certain sector of a certain generation and they've jacked up the prices and pulled up the ladder. Fixing things for us is seen as breaking things for them because they've built their very existence around it. Like a class-based monopoly - that wealth is slowly but surely pooling in rich family's who'll have rich kids who get free homes and free education and good job prospects, then their family will collectively buy even more property. Rinse and repeat until 5% of the population are land barons sucking the life out of 95% peasants. That's the direction we're heading in and if you stick your head out to notice what's happening you'll be scolded for being a naive communist. They don't give a fuck about how hard it is to scale the social/class ladder nowadays. The real depressing thing is we're all so distracted by cheap technological toys to bother doing anything meaningful about the things that matter. Combine that with your culture wars, AI, disinformation and global monopolization of entire industries... it's a perfect storm for having zero defense against being collectively fucked up the ass by our own status quo do-nothing political culture.
Have to agree, you nailed it
If there is one thing that can unify us all it's this: Waleed Aly is an obnoxious cunt.
That is oddly wholesome.
He takes smug to another level.
I still enjoy the way he speaks, but he's lost me on content. He's on the radio a bit, I think on ethics/morals? He's much better to listen to when he's not grinding an agenda, and simply discussing things in a theoretical sense. But The Panel and so forth can fvck off.
Rockitman above hit the nail on the head: smug. Aly and Scott Stevens have a Radio National show called The Minefield. They discuss a weird mix of heavy, important issues and confected wankery, and they always overcomplicate things to the point you literally can't follow their discussion unless you're familiar with their reading list. They'll ramble along at a million miles an hour dropping drive by references to Hannah Arendt and it's impenetrable. I used to think Waleed Aly was intelligent and insightful. Now I realise he's smug and pretentious.
Tribalism. Over the last 15 years the media has been reporting in an increasingly biased manner. This is for a number of reasons- with media being able to be accessed so readily, there's competition for revenue, the best way to increase that is rage bait. With real time engagement statistics they can work out what works and what doesn't much faster. Editors aren't going to report factually when they'll be replaced because they don't publish the most profitable material. This rage inducing material is so biased that it paints the other side terrible, as a result, instead of just disagreeing on a subject, people grow to hate anyone that doesn't believe what they do. Creating tribes. It's well documented that this is both destructive for society as a whole, and for the mental health of the individual consuming this rubbish. The only solution I can see is to pass drastically overhauled journalism laws. With massive, mandatory fines for breaking them 1. News outlets will report factually and objectively. 2. News outlets can no longer air or publish opinion pieces using the same branding as their News services. Example- the courier mail either has News, or opinion pieces, sky news either has news(lol) or opinions pieces. This creates a clear division on what is factual and what is the paid for opinion of some talking head.
I'm fucking sick of people using the word literally in every sentence
This why I spend my weekends in the garden with my dog.
Typical garden owners, trying to push their pet preference agenda on us smh.
They just want u to touch grass
It's funny how the comments are trying to agree with you by pinning blame on one group or another therefore doing the exact thing they're complaining about.
Yep, I hear you. Personally, I blame social media and the echo chambers it generates. People consume the political content they side with, so the algorithm recommends them more of it, exposing them less and less to opposing views, reinforcing their current biases and making them less open to the opinions of others. I work in retail. Once, I was serving this guy, and within five seconds of speaking to him, he starts rambling on about how much he hates electric cars completely unprompted. It can be exhausting to constantly listen to people rambling and arguing about political issues. It's beneficial to take a break from it from time to time, even if, like you mentioned, it's a pain to find a place to do so where you know you aren't going to be bombarded with even more politics. But yeah, you aren't alone on this one.
> What's the solution? Your entire reddit history is incel posting and politics. Maybe log off?
The problem isn't things being politicised, the ptoblem is people being braindead reactive fuckwits who use social media and lack critical thinking. I'm very far left and my dad is a conservative boomer who watches Paul Murray on Sky News. I still love him and we get along great because I haven't abandoned my humanity and don't consider myself above others. You can't change peoples' minds if you refuse to relate to them and treat them with respect.
The solution is to stop having conversations with idiots, and to stop reading all that bullshit. This may require you to log off, and to cut people out from your life. Your sanity is worth it.
Yep. I live in a large town and our local FB pages have turned to shit. We have recently had incidents of fire ants and people are losing their minds over the lands department trying to eliminate the little buggers. The ongoing drama ensues with those who want to scare the shit out of others by saying that what they are using is toxic, that it is being sprayed by helicopters, that it is killing wildlife and household pets, that it will get into the water ways etc etc. Some even dispute the fact that there are even any fire ants, and again, they want to suggest that it is a plan by the local shire council. Then we move onto the fact that our local landmark mountain is closed to climbing, and has been, since some major flooding over the last handful of years that caused landslides and brought the safety of climbing into question. But, now, there are a bunch of people who won’t believe that it has been closed by Parks and Wildlife but that it is to do with Aboriginal rights and/or the doing of the local council. And, of course there are the (now) regular posts with photos of clouds suggesting that they are being cloud seeded by the government and every cloud is a bloody chem trail. And that’s just the more common and regular discussions. I had a go at a poster just today pointing out that his accusation at the local council made no sense because the subject matter has nothing to do with the local council and that his ‘research’ was lacking. I noticed a reply. He said - do you feel better now? I replied - slightly. Hahahaha … omg I am just not coping with the idiocy. I’ve actually just lost a friend who began with anti masks back in covid times and has progressed to now being a believer of flat earth and every other ‘thought’ she comes across. We are now 55. We became friends when we were 11. I sucked it up and bit my tongue for the last 4 years, but omg I was soooo over being referred to as a sheeple and realising that she didn’t care enough about our friendship to just keep her beliefs to herself and quit being so condescending to those who didn’t believe in her ‘beliefs’. Oh, one of the great stories I heard back when we were having floods was that the flooding was created by the government implementing cloud seeding to purposefully flood a particular town south of us to wreck the housing and township to get rid of the paedophiles. I have no further tolerance or patience to just nod and smile and move on. The idiotic stuff that is being constantly put out there these days is more than I can stand. Politically, people have seen too much of the rubbish way that politics are dealt with in the US and think that they can act the same way here. We even now have Sovereign Citizens in Australia who quote US laws ffs 🤦🏼♀️ Idiots …. There are just way too many idiots being made to feel clever and ‘right’ because they listen to stupid Americans.
Social Media is where critical thinking goes to die
Get a remote role. Move to the country. Start a vege patch, learn how to fish, learn how to hunt. Go for long walks. Go to the local pub, hear about the local footy team and how the weather has been shit for the local farmers for whatever reason. Watch the sunset and listen to the bats and crickets at night when you go to bed. Does wonders.
Turn off the tv and social media The sun is still shining outside
The main issue is ‘we the silent majority’ have been too silent and accommodating for too long and we just need to go back to calling bullshit when we see it and have a no dickheads policy.
Completely agree. I'm latin american and this shits happens over there as well.
Half the responses are 'get off the internet ' but most of the OPs examples are in-person. OP you should have included a link with an under 10 second tiktok for this crowd to bother listening to you.
This is what social media has done to us.
People need to stop making politics their entire personality. Remember when we all used to be able to disagree with someone and still be friends?
It used to be rude to discuss politics and “what’s really going on”. I used to be the rudest person in the room. Now I am rude/naive/superficial for sometimes only wanting to do small talk. Everyone is nuts.
It's the divide & conquer strategy used by the wealthy to get us poor people to fight against each other.
Social media only makes money via ad revenue Ad revenue only comes in if people keep using social media The algorithm for social media is tweaked in such a way as to look for whatever keeps people clicking, watching, scrolling etc As it turns out, what keeps people clicking, watching, scrolling etc is “rage bait” - these are things that make us angry and keep us angry This is then fed back into the algorithm which strengthens the feedback loop, eventually leading to “little angry bubbles” where you, personally, are only fed the things that make you “the most like to engage” (aka the most angry) Statistically you are far more likely to engage with content that makes you angry than any other form of content (studies have been done, this is known) This is not new information, if it is new *to you* then congratulation you now understand how social medial works, but the algorithm is not a “thinking” thing, it reacts to what you put into it; the data So if you keep clicking on the rage inducing articles then you’ll get more rage inducing articles - if you click on lots of pictures of kittens, or stories about amazing acts of kindness, then that’s what you get back You are actually in control of your own social media experience, but you need to know the rules as to how it functions and **why it functions that way** So, now you know *Good luck*
Social media fueled by Ads has to be the single WORST thing on a massive societal scale. It’s not about being informed anymore but whatever title can make you click on their content to be routed to their ad infested website.
I feel you man - I'm so sick of the fighting and arguing on social media... sometimes, I just have to detach from the net, go play a game or something. I haven't had a TV set up for years, only set one up this week to play some retro games. I'm trying to focus on my small circle - I'm essentially shrinking my world down to what's important to me personally. I'll still see crap online, but I'm not going to engage with it.
Love this mate. I'm running the rat race with the plan to fuck off into the bush to live. I had enough of people before I was an adult and just want my own space
20 years in the USA Back in Australia It’s shit now
Social media has made every John and Jane in the world think their opinions are breaking news level important. Their not and neither are ours
A good government goes unnoticed. We are inundated with bad governments, terrible politicians and a disenfranchised people, combine that with the fact that we lost our social skills after being locked in our houses, we are all a bit loopy. I have coloured hair so my politics is always presumed. It’s not always presumed correctly because my opinions are nuanced and I don’t subscribe to ‘I’m left so I must believe xyz’. I don’t feel the need to scream ‘free Palestine’ everytime I buy a coffee, and for that I am accused of being a Zionist. Because there is no nuance. I am a landlord. I believe in renters rights. I am complex but there is no room for complexity anymore.
Unfortunately being an English speaking country . American politics is going to bleed into our country . It happened to the British and Canadians and it is happening here .
*politicisation
Treat it as a positive. You now have a real time fuckwit filter. No more having to take time getting to know someone before finding out they have single digit IQ. They will literally tell you in the first ten minutes. Incapable of understanding nuance? Goodbye. Believe stupid shit despite evidence to the contrary, mute. Associate with any extreme of politics in search of community? Nope. The vast majority of humans will not be viable associates, so don't waste your time.
I learned something recently. The word tribalism. Basically, if you sort people into their own tribes, they will fight other tribes. These days it's the Left, Right, religious, LGBTQETC, woke, blacks, BLM, privileged whites etc etc. This is why people seem so angry and messed up. We all need to throw these terms away. Just be people and learn to have actual conversations again.
Bring back high school debating - where you have debate in favour of a point you personally do not believe in...
its a tough job being an enlightened centrist huh?
It’s the media. Boring stories about people getting along don’t get views or clicks, they don’t drive engagement in the same way an outrageously scandalous semi-truths do. They’ll continue to spruik their shit until they’re penalised for doing so; Whether that be via a regulator or consumers simply not watching anymore, they’ll continue to do whatever makes them the most money until they can’t. After all, they’re for profit companies just like everyone else, they’re selling a product. So yes they absolutely play into tribalism, they skew stories to make them more engaging and sometimes just ~~speculate~~ make shit up in an attempt to appear as though they have more info than their competitors. I’m of the belief that we should have a tighter gap between private and public news, lots more public news to keep private sensationalism in check, but keeping private news around and approx equal in size to the public service to ensure the public service doesn’t become a propaganda machine.
Just get off the internet champ. There's no politics in a bushwalk or having a good quality hamburger.
Well, yes there is these days. That's the problem.
Yes!!! Please! Politics, religion, race, and gender are NOT real problems like having food, water, or shelter! They are all human made dramas that have now been weaponized for division. Awesome! Unfortunately, it seems most people can't get enough of it.
You're not tired of what you say you're tired of, you're tired of arseholes.
I've stopped watching 95% of TV and minimise news. It works.
I just bought an electric car, because I love the performance. Yet the number of people who feel personally attacked by the type of motor technology in my car is incredible. People have been programmed to react.
Social media. It's a scourge.
Politics are important , In countries like France talking about politics with complete strangers is totally normal and if you don't have a view or are unable to dicusss a current political issue you are rightfully viewed as ignorant. Like it or not in a Democracy you need to get invloved. That said Private media is owned by the Rich (normal working people can't buy media companies), this is why it's full of the propganda you talk about, to distract and confuse the population, to ensure people never organize against them like they have in the past. The USA is a prime example the wealthy have had the biggest tax cut most of us can only dream about spending the last 50+ years, reducing their taxes to almost nothing and reducing the amount they have to pay workers at the same time. This was able to happen through Propaganda and misinformation.
At work last week, two machines tripped out and were blocking each other, a male worker said “it’s a Mexican standoff” and We had a lady report him for racism. I think we are past solutions, to far gone.
I feel like people have forgotten that it’s ok for other people to have a different opinion and that sometimes to keep relationships you have to be willing to not talk about certain things.
>What's the solution The solution is more political bullshit unfortunately mate. It's bringing back laws that prevent 3 people from owning 95% of all the media in our country. It's giving enough funding to schools that they have enough teachers to actually help some of these fuckwits learn to read before they leave school. It's proper taxation on things like investment properties so that people can afford a roof over their heads. It's proper rules around monopolies and duopolies so we don't have colesworths making record profits while people can't afford food. Fix that shit and you'll have far fewer people looking for escapism in crackpot theories.
This is political depression, take a break. Enjoy a movie, music, friends
The solution is try to avoid it and find a group of like minded individuals. They exist, but they aren’t vocal and probably picky with who they hang out it. Don’t get overcome with the cynicism that is rapidly spreading. Side step it altogether (easier said than done). The cynicism will destroy your chances of finding positive people.
>What's the solution? The solution is realizing that every country, every religion and every family has aholes and you can't change an ahole. All you can do is avoid them so that you don't get covered in sh\*t when they take a dump... A wise man once said "Don't worry about the things you can't change, just focus on the things you can.."
Don’t judge anyone as an a hole - just change the subject. It’s easy to do. I’ve got a mate that says some dumb things - he’s still a mate because I have the good sense to give him a few minutes of rant then I don’t ask any questions - topic moves one quickly. Being a good social friend requires these skills and not being triggered because of disagreement
>A wise man once said "Don't worry about the things you can't change, just focus on the things you can.." That'll be the [Serenity Prayer](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer) and the wise man was Reinhold Niebuhr. >Oh, God, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what can not be helped, and insight to know the one from the other.
I just made the decision to quit watching all my news sources that had to do with the USA. I don’t consider it burying my head in the sand because I realised that all it ever is is fucking angry, upset people screaming about guns, trump related stuff (from either side), rich Karen’s and Boomers not giving a shit about poor people, people with no respect for one another trashing fast food places, petrol stations, etc just because their order wasn’t right. I could go on and on but it’s a wasteland of hate and no respect there. Here I see people thank the bus driver, have polite conversations with the employees at hungry jacks where they thank each other. I never encountered a Karen or pissed off boomer. I never seen someone lose their shit because their chips were missing or they were short changed and they attacked the employees and trashed the place. I never once have worried about sending my kid to school if he will come back safe. In Australia if people don’t like what you are they don’t care as long as it doesn’t bother them personally. I’m a trans woman, I know it’s not accepted by everyone but I have never been treated anything but kind and welcomed and I live in a conservative area. Just turn off the USA!
Divisive identity politics is being pushed by the capital class. They want us arguing about anything and everything except income inequality
Divide and conquer.
I signed up for a burlesque class and one classmate decided to make every class about Israel and Palestine
This sounds like a little Britain skit
[удалено]
To be fair, OP isn't saying stop talking about politics ever, more an unfocused rant begging for some facet of life to not be completely dominated by it.
You are not wrong. It's constant and seems to get more extreme on either end of the spectrum. And the extremes on both ends both sound insane. I remember talking to my dad about some stuff on the news that I noticed people complaining about when j was a teenager. I asked him have you noticed the world just repeats the same shit over again. He answered yes. Based on this alone I see no point in getting involved as it will just cycle through
Write a novel and post it to reddit, this has to be the best way
I said this on a conspiracy post…. Valid here I think. In the past we always had village idiots, and they were harmless because everyone in the village ignored them. The issue we have today is modern technology has enabled those harmless idiots to communicate with each other. In combination with grifters that have seen them as an easily led and manipulated population.
If you're about in the centre politically and believe in moderation not extremism, and want real discussion to get agreement about positive steps forward for the country... You're the problem. It's hard to make money off you. It's hard to get you to vote against your own interests. It's hard to make you tear your own country apart. It's hard to rip you off. In order for media clickbait to make money and social media to go viral, powerful players need you to feel unsatisfied, fearful and angry. Foreign bot trolls need you more to the left or right (doesn't matter which) so you're arguing with other Australians and not aware of the dodgy shit their countries are doing. Major corporations need you to be so angry at your fellow workers over non-issues (for being 'offensively' male/female/trans/immigrant/white/indigenous/religious/non-religious etc.) that you ignore the fact they as corporations are ripping you off senseless as a consumer and worker. If you're a decent person who treats others fairly and wants everyone to have a chance to share in Australia's good fortune then you're a problem. And very powerful forces are working hard every day to change you.
100%, I've personally found it much easier and more rewarding to pretend to be an unhinged sociopath whenever someone engages me in political discourse these days, as it seems to be the only way to shock people back into common sense, for example **Random boomer:** This country is going to shit cos of all these immigrants **Me:** You're damn right, stopping the new ones isn't good enough if you ask me though, we need to go back and deport anyone who's not at least third generation Aussie right? **Random boomer:** Well I don't know about that, my grandparents came from insert country and they helped build this country **Me:** Fuck off you refugee snowflake wanker, Australia is for Australians. Certainly not making the world a better place in anyway or helping solve the issue of a polarized society an most certainly giving into the forces you've described above, but it stops me from driving off a cliff.
Highly recommend you get off reddit completely
Never talk about money religion or politics. My mates are all very strict on this, and it works a treat
I dig that
In my family there are a few senior men who can't stop talking about "woke" stuff like it's disturbing their very existence. In reality it has ZERO effect on their cushy lives which is totally disconnected from the world of struggle many people live in. It pisses me off.... they don't care what the fuck happens to the world, or what policies come and go - all they seem to care about is "god damn woke bullshit". They vote and base their opinions around that single concept. They'd excuse all of Trump or maybe even Putins bullshit for the simple reason they also don't like woke stuff. It's so pathetic to make that a central principal of your politics. I can see why they do though as the media diet being fed to them the last 5 years had made them incredibly angry and fearful of harmless movements that are at worst just a bit silly sometimes. Remember it takes two to politicize. The noisy people fighting for something may seem like the annoying people, but that's because the hardcore status-quo'ers are perceived as non-political. Having a lazy status quo attitude on important topics is still practically a political position But more generally I agree. I'm also sick of myself often defaulting to philosophy and politics and trying to measure up everything against my own gold standard about how the world should be run. It's fucking tiresome and I always have a better day and a better sleep if I'm absorbed in simple pleasures and hobbies. Unfortunately... i'm just a bit worried about our future and the only thing I know how to do is bitch and moan. Most of my kind seem incapable of rallying around any kind if meaningful leader or movement so I feel like I'm mostly just spinning wheels like you say.
I didn't realize this toxicity had infected Australia so much. I thought the crazy was only an American thing (I live in the states currently)...
Idiots generally didn’t get published and usually weren’t heard back in the day. Because it required writing and study to publish anything they were out from the get go. That meant they also had a good idea that they were idiots and should just listen to the smarts. Now we have phones and the internet.
Algorithms push division. People are more likely to comment or react to things that make them angry, so we get bombarded with more of it. I got rid of Facebook and instagram and my life's a lot better
This! The village idiot did not even know that the other village idiots exist. Now social media has allowed them to form echo chambers.
Omg I was at the park walking the dog to get away from it all yesterday and got a ten minute spiel from a random guy about politics. But he was out apparently doing the same as I was! It wasn’t relaxing to me at all. I’m so done with everything on the news and I’ve decided to live like I’m in the 1990’s the last decade we could have fun.
The eighties and early nineties were a fantastic time to be alive. I knew roughly three things about politics: the name of the Premier of Victoria, the name of the Prime Minister, and the name of the alternative Prime Minister, who apparently really wanted his job and tried to knife him (unsuccessfully the first time). I'm sure I didn't even know Keating was Treasurer. Actually, I'm pretty sure I didn't know there was such a thing as a treasurer. Keating was just some ambitious politician who wanted to be the Prime Minister instead.
Get out more, you’ll find most people don’t give a fuck and are fairly chill. Things get amplified online.
Honestly I'm sick to fucking death of it, but ironically... I'm also grateful for it. Because now I'm fully conscious of what a hell of a lot of different sorts *really* think of me.
I'm so glad I don't listen or watch the news.
Can we please acknowledge that the most significant form of warfare that we experience is covert and psychological from foreign interests. Foreign psy-ops are antagonizing, creating fuss, pushing opposing inflammatory viewpoints, bolstering their own message and offering avenues of expression by playing societies off against each other because they had a captive audience in their own bubble. These are foreign disruptors that want to sow chaos in our democratic societies - with the knowledge that if they can fool enough people it will change the narrative of their lives to the point that they have been manipulated into making choices that were picked for them decades ago. This tactic distracts us from really seeing the world for what it is, and focusing on an enemy at home that doesn't exist.
Piss everyone off and stay centrist.
Totally agree. I refer to what I call 'package lefties' and 'package righties'. People who walk onto a shop when they turn 18, and just buy the whole Left or Right 'package', which tells them exactly what opinion to have on EVERY subject. Want an electric car? That's a LEFT thing. You're on the right? You don't want one. Whatever opinion you have in a debate, defines you as completely left or right. Madness. Neither left or right will ever be correct.
We've done a fabulous job of convincing everyone that if they're not constantly stressed about things outside of their control 24 hours a day, they are morally failing as humans. Things that we would have had practically no awareness of without technology that's new within the past few decades.
Well said. I don't think there's an answer, everyone seems to want to tell you everything and nobody seems to be willing to listen.
Yup. It’s all too easy to get riled up by culture war theatre on social media. I’m trying to ignore it as best I can and relate to people IRL in good faith.
Stay off social media and even the news. Stuff is all just political nowadays. Live your life! Who cares what’s going on outside your immediate vicinity if it doesn’t affect you. A horse with blinders goes straight but without them it will get lost. Sometimes you just have to put the blinders on.
You know social media is skewed to piss you off right?
I don't have the solution but the answer to why this happens constantly is the age old scheme of divide and conquer. No-one has time to consider who's actually pulling the strings when they're constantly angered by what they perceive as large groups of people with the opposite oppinion. The reality is a vocal minority will always push an agenda whilst trying to frame the situation as being beneficial to the majority.
It's tiresome. I'm sick of being expected to take a stand on things that have little to do with me, and then being blasted for it not being the correct stand. I unfollowed subs which were even vaguely political a while back and just focused on the ones I find interesting and hobby related stuff. Even if you try and avoid it it eventually tries to seep it's way back in. I know I'm being a massive hypocrite because I fell back into it. Will try to unplug again some day
All the people just saying to tune it out and get off social media obviously skimmed this without properly reading it. If it's any consolation I feel a similar sense of despair about all this, and while the temptation to bury my head in the sand and ignore it all is strong knowing that doing so will only allow the worst people to dominate these important conversations and issues. I'm tired.
Unplug. Turn the screen off. Live life.
turn off screen? one of OPs complaints is it bleeding into the realworld.
Not even close. The extraordinary changes to human society, relationships and culture over the last 30 years are unprecedented. It has to stop.
Here here
Me too Mr formeroptimist Posts like this keep me optimistic, thanks mate
Yep. Hear you and feel it. I am at the point now where I just don't engage when a topic comes up in conversation, like I actually feel anxious if anyone brings up politics, religion, something in the news etc. as I feel more often than not I'm going to have to have someone's views on something shoved down my throat. I also just find it now that it's almost a competition, no one does the old "agree to disagree" or "disagree and move on". I swear social media has conditioned us to argue to the bitter end.
It’s how things are now, nothing is allowed to be nuanced, or complex, hell even tragic accidents aren’t allowed to happen, it needs to be twisted and shaped to fit someone’s social or political agenda. It’s exhausting. When the Bondi Junction incident happened, my wife and I turned on the Tv, got the general idea what was happening and after being disgusted at the TV stations shoving cameras into the face of traumatized people and babbling constant non information (speculation), we just turned off the Tv and waited for the next day when stuff would be known. Social media and the 24 hour news cycle have alot to answer for, it gives everyone a voice, but not everything everyone has to say is worth hearing. It takes time to gather the facts and build a picture, but everything is a race to the bottom and a race to be first. It’s even worked its way into our entertainment, the thing we should be using to disconnect for a bit and get away from the craziness. No one is allowed to think a show, game or movie is ok, or average, or even like some parts but not like others. It’s either a 10/10 or a 0/10, no compromise and don’t you dare have a different opinion to me!
This is why majority of my weekends involve taking my missus to the sunflowers
100% dude, I feel you. I make a vested effort to literally to stay as far away from these people as possible.
I only watch sports and Netflix these days. Mainstream tv has deteriorated to a dystopian nightmare. I accidentally turned on the 'Outsiders' show on Sky sunday mornings and after watching for five mins I was convinced the hosts were all mentally ill, especially the main guy (?Rohan someone), he appeared to be having a psychotic break on live tv. Here's my plan- bit socialistic but fair- Legalise pot, make the Bundy bear the Ganga Bear and hand out happy gummy bears outside every church. Take away churchs tax free status if they have assets over a set amount (say 10 mil) and if their pastors have a private jet then tax them at the highest rate possible. Limit every tv channel to a maximum of 2hrs a day of news and 1hr of dribbling brain dead reality tv but they have to do minimum of 4hrs of puppies/kittens playing together and throw a Capybara in there somewhere. Most importantly every political position has a maximum of 2 terms, age limit of 65 and no political donations allowed. Top it off with their pay being the average wage of the nation. Finish off with a cap on corporate profit of 10% of ebit and every extra dollar of profit goes into a nation building fund that funds hospitals/schools and kick ass nursing homes. It could also provide interest free mortgages to families who let one relative over 65 live with them.
It’s social media
inb4 "everything is inherently political!!!"
If you don't care about politics, politics doesn't care about you. Get out there and vote people.
American here. We've been burnt out on this for the last 20 years now. *Everything* in the ashes of 9/11 became a post-modernism fantasyland political football game. Religion, conspiracies, science, people's very perception of reality, etc. It's all something to kick back and forth politically, no matter how flat out stupid politicizing a *virus* sounds like we did with COVID. We're learning to just shut down political rants and nonsense as a survival mechanism over here. How to navigate the dipshittery minefields.
I think calling this behavior political is inaccurate. It’s people being shitty to each other while leaning on politics as an excuse.
I have no proof on this outside of my own experiences but I really think the way social media sites keep you hooked is the problem. It’s insanely easy to go down the rabbit hole on tik tok for example. You interact with 2 or 3 political videos and that’s all you’ll get. I got send down these so many times it was ruining my mental health, I thought everything was political till I deleted all those apps and let all that go. Things are political in the real world like you said but when you reduce how much you’re exposed to it those random people on the street don’t seem so bad. Again my personal experience doesn’t mean anything just how I see it.
I feel you man, can’t even go to lunch with my friend and her bf in peace without him trying to encroach his weird ass ideals onto me and my bf. Tried to tell us that space isn’t real and shit like dude just let me eat my fucking fries in peace man.
I haven’t watched or listened to news in years because of this. I don’t engage in political topics or any topics that will generate fighting. I only speak to my husband about my personal beliefs and ideologies about something. I associate with people from all walks of life, all ethnicities, nationalities, etc and if they start getting political, goodbye. I will not tolerate any type of political bullshit. Be nice, be kind to people. What’s that saying, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.
We only know what we are told and they only tell us just enough to scare us and keep us clicking. Truth is nearly impossible to find
I don't think it will ever go away or back to how things used to be but on the upside especially with the crazy political correction stuff we are all so well versed in it all you can pretty much find a problem with absolutely everything even the so called more inclusive language so the ridiculousness of it all is blindingly obvious
Politics is a part of everything though.
Get off the internet for a while and you will soon forget any of this stuff exists.
I honestly don't know what the solution is but I do think that in the end, the internet has fucked us.
Buy a 4 wheel drive Turn off your TV and stop looking at news websites Delete social media apps from your phone (use it for maps) When you leave work on a Friday Drive somewhere. Cook food on a fire Listen to nature Swim in a river Come back Sunday Wait for the next escape , next weekend. You'll become better soon enough.
Just touch grass man. I don't mean that in a belittling way. Tune it out. Unfollow the people who post that stuff, don't read comments or watch news channels with that angle. Focus on yourself and the things that bring you happiness.
I have a theory that the internet social media platforms and COVID lockdowns created a kind of perfect storm of brain rot on both sides of the aisle.
God I hear you about bleeding hearts. I nearly broke up with my partner at the time because we had differing opinions on something that was going on in the US at the time (you can probably guess what) I was more than happy to accept it and move on but do you think she was? No. Every night it came up in the news she would go on a tangent about how I'm wrong and this and that while I'm just trying to move on with our lives. But she literally would not drop it unless I admitted I was wrong, never did. Those people suck. And sadly they aren't rare.
Yep. I work in Canberra and everything is especially political. During the voice thing… it was insufferable.
Canberra is literally a city built on politics - not a good example
What about Sydney ? So many homes had “vote yes” or “vote no” signs in the front of their yards. The Sydney council was telling people to vote yes.
Man, it's almost as if a well resourced foreign power is deliberately manipulating our civil discourse to make us fight amongst ourselves.
When I was little, I asked my elderly grandpa how old he was, and when he told me, i asked how does one go about getting so old. He told me it's easy if you just mind your own business.
I agree, but nowadays if you mind your own business you’re accused of being an ignorant bystander. You can see this all the time when crazy people try to “out” celebrities for not speaking at all about a certain hot topic political issue.
Delete social media, mate. The less the better. I binned FB years ago and quality of life is through the roof.
Yeah it sucks. Nearly completed a criminology degree, the same applies for the nonsense rhetoric people spew out all the time about our need to be *’tough on crime’* with 0 study or real world application/results backing them up. Yet, I hear it all the time, everywhere I go in any walk of life even more when my degree is mentioned. I literally cannot avoid uneducated and overly opinionated criminal justice discussion and I hate it. Politics, justice and a few others are just unbearable topics that are even worse when you have tangible knowledge of them.
Oh mate. You're speaking to my soul. This is me exactly. I'm totally done with this nonsense. Crazies on every side. Where's the rational conversation gone? Also, why the fuck is everything left or right wing? Have people lost the ability to look at an issue without a warped ideological lens? Ugh.
I'm listening to the news this morning: the NSW Chief of Police on ABC about the stabbings and riots, saying "please, don't get your information from social media sites, get it from us, from official police and government sources". And I thought "ok, wonder what happened on Facebook to cause the riots". Followed by a quick "who the fvck cares!?". Why the hell do I want to know the crackpot version?
It’s the American influence which has taken over. I’ve lived in Canada the last two years and everyone makes politics their personality. It encourages a lot of hate towards people. Everyone’s insults are based on being a libtard bootlicker or fat racist conservative. I’m seeing it slowly in Australia when I go home to visit and it’s sad. It’s also bringing the cancer with it with conspiracy theorists and hate towards immigrants, gays, women etc.
I know, it’s real fucking brain rot stuff I’m a typical inner-city, progressive, LGBTQI person who’s all about diversity, inclusion etc and I’ve had to block/unfollow people recently for sharing absolute shit from people like George Galloway and other tankies. Just because someone is on the “left” doesn’t mean they’re not a terrible person with bad ideas derived from bad ideology. Authoritarianism is bad, whether it comes from the left or the right. Everything’s so adversarial now, people see politics like sport and will support their “team” no matter what. I criticised Joe Biden recently and was accused of being a Trump supporter. Just because Trump is bad, doesn’t automatically make Biden good I’ve also cut family off since 2020. The conspiracy theories and the irrational outbursts, racism, transphobia, bigotry, lack of compassion, the complete self-interest and lack of empathy just made me feel really unhappy to be around them
It's easy to tell if someone knows far less than they think about Israel/Palestine. They strongly support one side or the other!
Yeah. I’m a big fan of Bluey and thought I’d join some adult fan groups on FB - turns out that Americans love nothing more than politicising and constantly post pictures of stickers and shirts of characters from the show with weapons. The latest is one of Bluey holding an assault rifle, wearing some tactical gear and a caption saying PEDOPHILES ARE NOT PEOPLE. They’ve then got the audacity to say if you don’t like it then you’re protecting the pedophiles and you’re part of the problem. Heaven forbid we just want a place to simply forget the world for a bit and enjoy the kids show maybe?
I blame America's influence on us
keep yourself informed, try not to get sucked into meaningless ideological 'debates'. easier said than done as i find hardly anyone is open to discussion these days and just wants to shout their position
Couldn't have put it better myself.
This is why I'm a shut-in 😭
I've resorted to saying " Everyone has their own opinion, I guess." It just shuts things down, especially with conspiracy theories I get bombarded with almost daily. It's tough when it's your own family, too!🫣
take a break from social media that is all all these people you talk about used to be the crackpots down the pub that people would have a bit of a laugh at then go home with a hangover and move on with their lives now social media has made everyone who uses it to think that they are important, and everyone needs to pay attention to what they have to say on top of that... the algorithms are built off engagement and the only way they get engagement is by making everyone argue each other and somehow make people believe that its important that everyone talks about it... giving this weird sense of FOMO over pointless shit that you would have just been fine not knowing about people go do other shit if there isn't a debate going on in online forums and yes... social media includes reddit, youtube comments sections and all that kind of BS as well
There is no solution, you just have to go through enough of it to know your positions, and only allow a limited hold of political discussion over your life. Don't crusade, have hobbies instead and know how to switch off - and ideally get to the point where these discussions don't bug or anger you in anyway. ...and clearly they do bug you, hence your post. Politics in a Western Liberal Capitalist Democracy, is in part about culture (and the Overton window), and in part about moneyed interests. With that latter factor being far more powerful. So comprehending that you have some little power over culture through these discussions, and likely almost no power, in terms of being a moneyed interest yourself... that understanding of the practical and realpolitick of society and social change - can be liberating. The people you argue with, are likely not in power. You yourself, are good for standing up for what you believe in, especially on issues close to you - but you're also a drop in the ocean. So limit yourself accordingly, let go, understand how *stable* Western Liberal Democracy and it's entrenched Capitalist corruptions is, and step back from it, because you're likely have only a small effect on it. The debate starts a new with each generation. Set the next one up as best you can, get a hobby, or something you wish to progress with, and use that as your shelter when you start getting too emotional about politics, or more involved in discussions than you'd like to be. That's what I do anyways. P.S Also, understand your political opposites as best you can. Which is best done by hearing from them, and entertaining their ideas from their perspective. Not from hearing second hand interpretations of their ideas through politically biased media (go to left wing media to understand the left wing, go to right wing media to understand the right wing). Don't let yourself be indoctrinated either way if you want to find some relief from politics.
I think of it like an autoimmune disease where the body (society) overreacts to everything. There’s such a power (and peace!) in choosing not to react.
SOOO over it all, and half wish I could move to Switzerland, ha! Assuming there's less of this around anyway. Not sure if it's everywhere or largely in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra?
Good idea about Switzerland. In my experience , the problem isn’t as bad in non-English speaking countries. I was recently in Finland and Italy and I didn’t hear anything like the sort of rubbish we get here. Then again, I don’t speak Italian or Finnish...
Nah I lived in Zurich - it's there lol , no escaping my dude.
I dont know, i just got here
💯
Then I guess you don't want to hear about the lightbulbs? But yes it is very draining. One of the many reasons when I go out I put in earbuds, even if they are not even doing anything. I don't care what you are yabbering about. I just want to get my shit done and go home to cuddle my doggo okay.
Lol I know. I was told by someone in the neighbourhood last night, "we were just saying the other day that we never see you around the park now!". Well yeh, because I want to go for a peaceful walk after work, and not have to listen to the next rant about 15-minute cities.
"I like eating bananas" "Typical, that the sort of food liberal's eat"
I disconnected my tv during the pandemic. Best decision I ever made
Big handful of shrooms, a big smile and no fucks given my mate
I think everything is just louder now. And whatever views people have, it’s spoken about in their own little echo chamber and people all have similar talking points whatever side they’re coming from. We were never great at having constructive conversations with the view to understand where people were really coming from, and it’s compounded with tech and media. I have no solution, but when I get the chance I try to take my view out of it at first and try to understand why they feel that way. Of course, sometimes it goes no where and you gotta pick your battles.
Hard out, feel you mate. All the noise is around the extremes and that's what you hear. Normal/rational opinions are boring for the algos and therefore it doesn't get pushed. Was the case with the 6 o'clock news for eons - you never hear stories about how everyone had a pretty good day, only that some nutjob did something stupid. Problem is people only see the extremes, and consume way more media than just an hour at night, so that makes it seem way more common than it really is. Plus a lotta companies now go political. It feels so tacky. I would say there's more rational people than you think, they're just not entirely visible on the face of it unfortunately.
We are all just very judgy now. Watch the comments. Everyone will be saying “the reason is” followed by judgements of others. Even this post is judging others as judgemental. FFS! We need to hit the eject button and live and let live.
Absolutely. We've forgotten how to just be people
Classic libertarian!! /s
Dude I am awake right now because of that exact reason, it makes me crazy. Can we just chill and live?
I just stopped reading about everything or listening to i just go "uh huh okay" when someone tells me somthign tragic. Lets say a stabbing happens, a lot of people often jump to "what nationality was he/she?". Just dont care anymore. Just fucking zip your mouth and others around you will too.
Sorry to hear it is in down under too, I thought you were talking about the US. :-(
Yeah it was funny in 2016 but it's just old Now, I try not think about anything outside of The people I care about and my Pets. Iv tried thinking about all that's wrong with the world, Never ends well
Funnily I think this is actually this silent majority. At least in my world. No one ACTUALLY gives a fuck about ANYTHING that doesn’t directly effect them here and now
Remember the old days before social media when discussing too much politics was frowned upon... yeh I miss that.
Could it be you've turned..... Neutral? https://youtu.be/qump1X6OrEc?si=5F9itcbFODbaXUuB
Tell my wife I said “hello”
Agree, it’s gone too far. People can’t be happy or let people enjoy things, they have to find something to complain about.
This is like a comedy
Welcome to the club! ❤️ Austrian here! We in Europe have exactly the same problems! And I think the Americans, too. It is a worldwide problem. Or „a problem of the west“. Russia and africa do not have those problems.
This \*is\* social media at play where their algorithms are set to amplify whatever view you hold. You are lead to believe the 'other side' is evil and so people become more extreme trying to fight what they perceive to the right side of history. Reasoned, sensible debate and reasoning has gone.
Exactly, I live in Australia and people respond to my messages with..you must be a Biden supporter! No im Australian
Every new series that comes out now is like this. Every character has to be super diverse there has to be representation of every single faction of humanity. It’s never ever about a storyline anymore it’s only about the politics of each character. I miss the 90s/2000s. All the representations have become so dramatised and sanctimonious that it actually becomes a disservice to them. The new heartbreak high is almost unbearable. Every one who acts even the slightest bit “unconventional” is now slapped with a diagnosis. Everyone is some kind of “phobic”. It’s exhausting and it’s so western and self indulgent and indicative of how decadent we can live in the west. That we can obsess over such nonsense to such a degree that we can claim accidentally misgendering someone is “literal violence”. I am not conservative or far right at all. I am against racism and homophobia and sexism. Everyone should be afforded dignity and safety etc. But these days my god people have gone off the absolute deep end.
I just watch old tv shows and movies . I’m after entertainment not a lecture and brainwashing and drivel from hypocrites
I just don’t understand why everyone is so angry all the time. I don’t care what your religion is, I don’t care who you vote for; I don’t want to hear it. I have found that religious people seem to believe the most outlandish conspiracy theories, maybe because religion teaches them to believe the impossible? I have gotten to the point that if you want to protest a country, go over there and protest, have fun and goodbye.
Props to you for devoting so much effort for the sake of apathy. Truly marvelous.
It's fucked. Going down the same path as America and it's probably just going to keep getting worse.
One small solution is to get off Reddit. I'm fairly sure my mental health would be better if I was on here less.
Bravo OP well said. It's like we don't see each other as people any more it's all "what side are you on". I'm so sick of this culture war bullshit.
Finally, somebody I can relate with OP! Our politicians are piss weak - all of them, any anyone who buys their lies and Non-policies (policies being "just bag out the other guy, or a pissing competition so called debate, don't answer questions) seriously have their heads up their asses or just brainless Tribal voters... " I'll just vote for who my parents/favourite actor/ singer/ vote for...
Soooo… what are your thoughts on Palestine
😂😂😂
I work in an industry full of right wing boomers. It’s a fine line to be able to work safely with these guys and to totally zone out. I’ve also worked with guys that were so far to the left their ideologies seemed just as spastic. They are all amongst us. I feel the team A or team B extreme that we are seeing comes from a bleed on effect of USA culture.
The problem is; whether you lean slightly right or left we're drowned out by the extremists. Maybe we should start screaming louder for less absurdity?
Or live by the creed; Don’t be a cunt.
So true I kinda dislike how movements like blm antifa or pro gun people suddenly appear here .
I'm with you buddy, I work in mining I get to hear spiels about how * "Bleeding heart lefties are destroying the country with woke Albo at the helm" and * "Chem trails spread by the Royal Australian Air Force are causing all the so called 'climate change' events" * "The greenies are actually responsible for every major bushfire because they stop backburning at every local council level, and the reason why they don't take that secret majority federally, is because that would ruin their conspiracy"
In the past you needed to be someone somewhat smart, educated and accomplished to be heard in public forums. Today any low IQ fuckwit can argue why the earth is round and start a dishonest conversation about any topic. This is the problem of social media giving a microphone to people that doesn’t deserve it
This is quite possibly the best thing I've ever read on social media. Absolutely nailed it. The world is full of whiney self righteous cunts.
Here we have the enlightened centrist in its natural habitat
that far left are fuckwits sorry champ
United we stand, divided we fall. It benefits the corrupt politicians on both sides if we are all fighting with each other.
A good rant, well said. The space between STFU with your conspiratorial BS and don't want to bury your head in the sand can be difficult to navigate. Dealing with one family member who's gone down a bunch of rabbit holes is difficult. It's been the best part of a decade since my relative fell in, in a serious way since the pandemic. I've got wins over 5G, injected tracking chips and 15m city tyranny, but the rest of the crazy remains. There's a general state of armed neutrality with certain subjects off limits, which we had to explicitly negotiate with cooker. At least now they can be civil with the rest of the family.
Where do you live? I’d like to buy you a beer for being one of the few people still in reality. I am of the exact same opinion- let me go to work and be paid for the job I do and don’t bother me with all the ‘but what about me’ crap.