this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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Where did you go on Reddit? The only place back there I really trusted was AskHistorians and 20 years ago is not really breaking news. Everywhere else I had to sort through crap for myself.
~~If you really want to understand the world, you'll actually have to study it.~~
Edit: It's interesting I still got upvotes, since OP correctly points out that wasn't well worded.
What I'm trying to say is that news with no bias is pretty much a unicorn, and one you can't identify at a glance. And I don't even mean just political bias, a lot of important stuff is boring or otherwise unsuitable for the news cycle. Adding a layer of social media people on top doesn't automatically make it better.
What does that even mean? If I want to understand the world I need to study it?
Lol, wtf? I'm looking for current events. What level of prerequisite historical knowledge would I need where I could bipass what is happening right now all over the world?
And shit... All of Reddit is bad except askhistorians? What?
So, if I understand you correctly, your advice is that I shouldn't trust news and I should study the world? What source should I use to study? Are all sources bias? I'm fucking confused
Clearly they're saying you should hop in a hot air balloon and travel around the world spotting breaking news with your own eyes.
That would be lit, but my point was more like "news varies from deliberate lies to true but necessarily skewed content". Reddit is a great way to get a mix of the whole spectrum with no context.
Honestly, this entire thread has been a bit of an eye opener for me
Oh wow hope you learned something!
Yeah, okay, in hindsight that wasn't as elegant as I was hoping. More to come.
Edit:
This was about news in specific. Reddit's great if you want help with your electronics project, but for political analysis it's not so great. There's way, waaay too many people pushing something or other for reasons other than empirical correctness.
AskHistorians is moderated extremely tightly by PhDs and requires a source for everything, so it's about as good as it gets. I understand that's not what you asked for, but it's the closest thing I could think of. I'm honestly wondering what subreddit you were using for news - I feel like I've seen questionable discussion on all of them that I've encountered.
I also use things like r/UkrainianConflict for the latest news from that event - with the GIANT caveat that you have to understand the subject matter well enough to tell when OP is full of shit, or passing along shit. That one in particular is infested with people that think a nuclear first strike is a sane and justifiable tactic for NATO with no negative repercussions, which hopefully you can see is insane.
As for what you should study, pretty much all the social sciences help. If you can afford travel that's great, but that's not everyone and it's possible to fuck that up too. Occasionally knowing other sciences will help; like when someone tells you the sun is causing climate change.
News reading is just figuring out your real situation in a world full of liars both deliberate and accidental. You either dissect the lies yourself or you have to find someone you trust. Random Redditors aren't the right answer even if they can be part of the puzzle.
You should ask more questions and give less answers.
Oh, I ask plenty, too. Check my post history. I count 4 full posts in just the last month.
I'm sorry if I'm coming across as a know-it-all.