How many here like politics and read news articles?
I feel like I waste a lot of time reading news articles and stuff about world politics, war, and things that may not benefit me instead of spending more time learning how to make games. Do you spend lotsa time on news articles? I was the pron, movies, and games guy but as I get older I find myself wanting to read more and more news articles. v:poly127:
Replies
I think its far better to focus on what you can change and sort of take news and politics with some healthy cynicism.
The greatest crooks wear suits, lying behind white teeth to your face ;')
I mainly listen to NPR on the morning and on the way home from work and I have the AP on twitter plus various sources. Most news doesn't bug me unless I look at the comments.
Else I had some fun watching The Young Turks on Youtube and reading Techdirt.com, but I must say that I get depressed and don't want to live in this world anymore when I do. Some of the things you hear about what people do or says makes you realize that, it's not just in movies, but those kinds of people actually exist in the real world.
Also, some thing i hear from our politicians.....i found it's better if i rather not hear them.
So, at the end of the day, at least here, it doesn't really even matter any more, who runs the country, meaning, what i do, or how i vote, doesn't really achieve anything, therefor, it's better to spend that time for something better, even playing games is far more productive (at least you can call it a research).
So yeah, i mostly stopped watching politics, but i do read news in general (just not political :P).
While I don't generally pay much attention to the news i feel that, knowing what they are doing is most beneficial to my and others well being.
I feel a lot of the states people are just using DB's quoted approach.
I feel that is where most of the problem is, then you get the people who speak out about what they are doing and why they feel the need to "protest" or cause a riot.
Then someone passes them and thinks they are a loony, yet they took the above approach before knowing the story at all, or else they would know why, besides reading there signs, (if they made any).
I for one want to get rid of this government business as a whole globally(possibly huge discussions ahead because of this) but really, we are ignoring them now till someone states 'oh we are going to war again', well shit.. now if you have kids and they decide on a draft (not like they need to but who knows why they would want this) then your all into what is going on.
In a small way i feel we've "leveled up", as a society as a whole but not really any further than we've been. We just 1-up'd on the tech and allowed anyone to bang anyway else if they mutually agree and not really on society as a whole. Money is the problem yet no one is trying to find a solution, as we've said we would all do this if we weren't getting paid for It.
So make it real for a moment, take money out of that equation (Yes play pretend really, really hard) now do you still feel that way? Or would your kids, wife, other interests take over?
I think everyone right about now in one way or form hates money, even people who are well off might be in that situation now.
Everything is about money and i don't know about anyone else but i feel like i am around primitives when i see how we act with money in our lives, i don't see a progressing society that is bent on progressing further to evolve, yet i feel we are all stagnated. I blame the government that governs us, of-course they don't like if we bring this up because they've failed and they know what might happen if one person actually got through to anyone else and the cyclone progresses. All there pieces of paper, lions & tigers & bears oh my...
In all seriousness this is what should be said but i too just ignore this bs because really are we going to do anything about it? nope which is why no one would speak out about anything because it is in the same category as asking someone how they feel.
Do you really want to know, do you really freaking care?
NO.
I just wanted to vent.
If you judge me for this, idc i think that is silly i am just filling a topic that would otherwise become useless and at least this information can be absorbed by someone who might remotely feel the same why i do.
Btw, i have a job, just not a 3D game one, like i used to, just in-case someone plays the it is because your broke card on me.
Cover your bases. :poly136:
There needs to be incentives in place, that are in line with what is best for society, and voters, or else this will keep repeating.
I don't want to paint all of them in a bad light, since I'm sure there are many that stand up for for the belifes they ran on and stand up for there people. But the majority go where the money is.
and in that regard, it seems pointless and a waste of time. get back to art i recommend.
But like Brygelsmack said, it doesn't hurt too much to at least know about recent events.. just don't really get into it and try to do in-depth research and all that - takes too much time and nothing will change. Also, I will never get paid for discussing politics but I will get paid if I make awesome art.
To quote George Carlin: "It's bullshit and it's bad for ya".
Also, listen to MM.
You don't want to be the person who sits there trying to find a way to bend almost any discussion toward politics. Nothing worse than being out all night with the guy that just won't stop throwing political hand grenades, derailing almost every conversation. Even if I agree with the guy, it gets old. "We where talking about Star Wars, stop talking about upcoming midterm elections".
In our industry our social circles tend to be those we work with and a quick way to ruin a working relationship is to start squabbling over politics. If there is a well established framework of debate and acceptance, in the friendship, then great. But often if you're just getting to know someone, its easier to just avoid the subject rather than try to build that necessary framework so that discussion can happen without it having horrific consequences in your personal and work life.
You still need to be able to work with them and that can be hard to do once politics gets involved. Balance is very much appreciated and it seems like once people start down that road they don't turn back until they burn out on the subject.
I don't watch TV, I don't read newspapers, and most of my internet feed stuff is games, art, technology. This is because most news is temporary and will be out of vogue next month. A team will win at sportsing, and lose the next time they sports. Celebrities tweet twatty things on a daily basis. The tide comes in and goes out but nothing really changes.
What I feel is important to filter out the big things that matter, and read up. Gather information from different places rather than one news outlet, and form your own opinion based on different viewpoints. Look beyond the most often mentioned numbers. For example, healthcare budget has gone up under Obama, sure, but only due to inflation; the GDP percentages are stable. (at least, when I checked last year). Women get paid less than men? Sure, but that's largely due to the position they're holding, and the (perfectly valid) choice to have kids and sacrifice a year or more of their career.
In short: news is trivial matter, and you should keep an eye out for things that carry weight.
This works for me just fine. Used to go to work and read the paper every morning on the way in, get there and be fuming at some of the crap that I'd read about.
Now that I've cut that routine out completely, sure I may have to catch up on certain events that I may have not heard about when around others, but I'd rather have a happy mind than to know about everything going on and be a miserable git