Political Fatigue.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

This is a thread to vent your frustrations regarding the states of politics within the international community. Understand that it is not a bashing thread against a political movement - it is a thread to explain and liberate yourself of your thoughts on the political sphere that is swallowing us right now, and how the overdose is causing an affliction I've dubbed "Political Fatigue".

1. The rise of political polarization.

Not a day goes by without seeing vigilantes of extreme groups taking a stance or bashing a group in self-righteousness. Whether through gunning down Mosques or smashing down Universities, these individuals are not only intoxicating the political community, they're actively participating to political polarization internationally.

2. The loss of meaning for the action of protest.

Since Trump went in, we've had numerous protests worldwide. But many happened before that, from several groups. Protests used to be a shock movement made to show solidarity through tightly knit community members, taking a stand against something completely outrageous. These were peaceful and hardly ever - if ever - ended in riots.

But with the exponential growth these past few years, it seems that these movements are now simply the action of throwing a collective tantrum scoped out on a large scale. Reading about a protest before, was reading about an outstanding act of solidarity. Today, it feels like reading yet another meaningless movement against something someone is offended about.

3. Fake news, fake news everywhere.

Something else that has been a long time coming ever since the days of gamersgate. Granted, things got better for the video game community in time - new sources rose and old sources died. VG news are now much more reliable and politically atheist -- but not so much for the collective health of our society.

Because of that, opinions pieces are being used as outstanding truth. Subjective truth, mind you, ranging from well known unreliable outlets like The Daily Mail or Mother Jones to mainstream medias like CNN and Fox News. As I've said, while the video game community outgrew it, it seems that the political sphere didn't, resulting in tedious filtering and debunking of news.

Many people always took the time to ponder on the validity of a news article - I personally think many people knew that some outlets had some particular views and catered to their audience in that regard (think Fox News) and so they'd take a wider look to get the full picture.

Today, it's literally impossible to do that. One news goes up, gets debunked by X station, who then gets editorialized by Y and Z mainstream medias, who then gets debunked by A and then the circle never end.

Now, it doesn't help that the government help to spread these stupidities, whether through false terrorism acts or through false studies and reports like that one about campus rape epidemy.

4. Allegations.

Let's talk about these allegations. Another curse that has been devouring the news outlets from the inside are false allegations made from partisans of political communities who wish to smear the other side. While I'm all for transparency, the act has been so abused that it's lost its meaning.

Whenever a new outlet starts with a clickbait title like "X said that Y is Z", then proceed to open the article and read "New allegations made from an anonymous source says that...", I simply close it. The fact that it's considered as a news and worthy of consideration is outrageously disgusting, even more so when you consider last week had 6 false allegations about Trump.

On the other hand, real leaks - read: not allegations - should be encouraged. Government transparency is key and should be protected.

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All of these things makes me want to ignore the whole internet for a while (it's not going to happen, but I like the thought). I purposefully dodge news articles because I know I probably will end up less educated if I spend more time reading allegations of allegations, or flip a table if I get called an alt-right fascist or jobless communist one more time.

What's annoying you through the political sphere? Are you also suffering from political fatigue?

*Reminder: No bashing.*

[GennGreymane]

I link this video to any friends starting political shit on FB

[Independent voter]

Much of what OP has written hasn't changed for years, there were always extremists on both sides, anything will lose it's meaning if you do it all the time and protests are no different.

The rise of fake news was made possible by all the new media outlets. The old media outlets in the US, the giant broadcasters where NBC, ABC and CBS, if that were still the case, just a few media outlets for news there wouldn't be any fake news but now that there are thousands of media outlets, it's much harder to police them and determine which are fake. Not everyone has the time and energy to research every story.

[Al Gorefiend]

Japan's willful ignorance of whaling laws in the Pacific is a fucking crime. Did a whole report of it, literally thousands of pounds of whale meat wastes away inside freezers because the Japanese people as a whole are divided amongst eating whale meat (animal conservation vs. Japanese tradition) and the meat is pretty pricey and apparently the flavor isn't worth the cost.

But because Japan has a huge economy in deep-sea fishing which includes whaling, the reluctance of the government to condemn the practice entirely and leave many whalers jobless explains why nothing much is being done. International whaling laws established a set number of whales of 3 different species (iirc) for Japan to hunt, and it gets reportedly broken each and every year.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

Much of what OP has written hasn't changed for years, there were always extremists on both sides, anything will lose it's meaning if you do it all the time and protests are no different.

The rise of fake news was made possible by all the new media outlets. The old media outlets in the US, the giant broadcasters where NBC, ABC and CBS, if that were still the case, just a few media outlets for news there wouldn't be any fake news but now that there are thousands of media outlets, it's much harder to police them and determine which are fake. Not everyone has the time and energy to research every story.

Yes, about these thousands of media outlets, I always thought it was the task of the bigger outlets reporting on them to filter them? It feels odd to post then retract when something gets debunked.

I do agree that most of that have been happening for a while. Maybe it's just me noticing it more today because I'm literally bathing in politics, or if it just wasn't that polarized before. I have to say, I remember seeing groups at one another's throat, but it didn't feel like it was widespread. It felt more secular.

[Berndorf]

I had political fatigue 3 months ago. At this point I think everyone is suffering from political ptsd.

[Revi]

I'm just tired of people complaining about how bad the state of politics is while simultaneously being a part of the problem.

"I hate how that other side is making things so polarized"
"People need to engage in meaningful dialog and listen to each others concerns, maybe then those who voted differently to me wouldn't all be such racist, sexist bigots/liberal pretentious fruitcakes"
"Fuck the right/left side making fake news, oh and here's this HuffPo/Fox article citing an unknown source proving my suspicion that Trump/Hillary is behind it all".
"I wish we could all just cooperate more and come to a compromise. Unfortunately those people on the other side are proven to be dumb and uneducated and fooled by propaganda. I read that in my newspaper of choice"
"Why can't people just listen to my opinion and consider it based on reason? Listen to yours? No, you support X, I already know what kind of BS you believe"

And on and on. Ugh.

[anyaka21]

I am just completely tired of all the political crap that is happening. All the talk, rhetoric, fake news, real news, Trump did this, didn't do that, etc... It has literally taken over the internet. Hell, you can't even come to this sites General off-topic and at least half the front page of it is Trump stuff. It's getting old and tired.

And for those that think it matters, maybe it does, but maybe the outcome off all this negativity is that it backfires. For example, ever since the riot at Berkeley over Milo Y's forced cancelation, his stock, book sales, etc... have risen. People want to know what the troll wants to say. By blasting Trump over everything, creating fake news 20x a day, reporting the same thing 15x and having 20ppl on Facebook post them all gets old. And it will backfire. People will get sick of it. People are sick of it.

I have an uncle who posts almost 20 posts a day about Trump this, Trump that. Most of which is fake news. I ignore it mainly because he's an uncle and I can't defriend him. And since I mentioned it, Facebook. My god, it's like more than 50% of my news feed is policital crap, most of which is fake, most of which is not posted by friends, but "suggested" posts. Seems like over 70% of your news feed is adds. and 15% is friends posting political stuff, and the other 15% is actually stuff I might want to know about something that happened in someones life. Facebook has become a joke.

[GennGreymane]

Its time to stop!

Its time to stop okay!?!??!!?

All my meme sites are still political as fuck! It just keeps getting worse... THERE IS NO ESCAPE!