You Don't Have to Follow the News
The following is the transcript of my closing editorial from the final episode of my news podcast The Mind Killer. If you like it, don’t subscribe because it’s over!
Now that the greatest and best news show ever made is ending, many of you are probably asking yourselves “where am I going to get my news from?” Here’s my suggestion: don’t. If you aren’t already following the news, don’t bother.
I started a news show because I am a sicko and I enjoy reading about news and politics. It’s fun. It’s engaging. It’s how I enjoy spending my free time. It’s not because it’s actually important to be “well-informed” or to know what’s happening in the world. That is not important. National and international news almost never has much of an effect on your daily life, and when it does have an effect, you’ll hear about it soon enough.
If you’re a sicko like me, or if you have a job where you need to follow the news, or there’s some other reason why you have a particular need to know what’s going on, I’m going to guess that you already have a wealth of other news sources that you follow, so this advice isn’t for you. But if your primary source was, up until now, the Mind Killer podcast, then you’re probably safe to live in blissful ignorance of all the stupid things happening around the world.
Instead of following the news, consider starting a new, more rewarding hobby. I recommend cooking. It’s ridiculously easy to level up your cooking skills so every day you’re eating something more delicious than you could get in most restaurants. Or what about gardening? If you get serious raised beds, you can do it without all the bending over, crouching, and kneeling, which is the worst part. Or watch football! It’s all the tribalism and excitement without any real-world stakes whatsoever. Or do something that’s fun but doesn’t accomplish anything, like video games. Or gooning. I hear the kids are into gooning these days. And that’s probably a better use of your time than paying attention to whatever shitty thing Donald Trump, or our shitty future president, did today.
The only thing being well-informed actually matters for is voting, but as David often reminds us, voting is irrational on an individual level so you don’t have to do that either. But if you want to, it’s usually pretty obvious who the better choice is, and you can figure it out in like 20 minutes by Googling or asking your LLM of choice who is more aligned with your values. And if you still don’t know, follow my blog at livingwithinreason.com. I’m sure I’ll issue some kind of endorsement in major elections. And if not, you can check my tweets or just DM me.
If you actually want to stay well-informed in a way that might make a difference, follow your local news. You might be able to affect things in your town, so that’s where you should spend the most attention if you want your voice to matter. Or don’t, because you probably won’t affect anything there either and most of the time the news just makes people angry.
Either way, you don’t need the Mind Killer! Of course it was an incredible podcast and gave you hours of entertainment and it was the only place for thoughtful analysis of current events, but aside from the Troop Deployment section, I doubt you learned anything that improved your life much. My advice is, if you don’t enjoy following the news, don’t worry about it. Just live your life.