Hello fellow bees.
I'm exhausted of seeing US politics and world news creep into all the communities in trying to use. I have the vast majority of communities and instances about this blocked for a reason, but no matter how many communities I block it still happens.
I'm not trying to ignore what's going on. I am not feeling the wrath of the privileged at the acknowledge of the suffering of the weak. I devote a specific amount of time each week where I brace myself and gaze upon the horrors so that I can stay informed.
The problems I have with a lot of this is that it seems predominately to be regurgitating the news cycle uncritically. Many posts don't even rephrase the headlines that are purposefully designed to be upsetting.
What I would like is if before someone resposted this kind of thing that they would consider if it's:
Actionable, which is to say it has a clear call to action about the problems it presents.
Significant, which is to say it bears relevance on people's immediate well-being in a way that is not simply a restatement of extant problems.
Useful, which is to say it both represents a useful resource and is presented in a way that makes that easy.
I don't need to see news articles about how 7 out of 10 Republician senators would rather eat a baby than put out a trans person on fire. I know and I don't need to be reminded while trying to find something interesting to read at the bus stop.
If it doesn't do one of the above, I think posting it is contributing to information overload exhaustion that makes people feel so helpless.
At the very least, could we try to keep the stuff restrained to the relevant communities? I already have 10 of the current Beehaw communities blocked because they're either about political news, are dominated by it or represent an undue risk to being suddenly jumpscared by it.
What do you think? Please advise, because I enjoy Beehaw but this is so exhausting.
Thank you for the examples. Chat is chat, and we're probably not going to enact any changes to it.
The humanity and cultures and science posts are both quite relevant and in the appropriate community. School lunches are not really political news and discussion so much as it is highlighting a gap in the system in a particular part of our culture and it is a discussion and reflections upon what we value as a society. A study on psychological toll of literally anything is science, and thus belongs there.
This is a community. We do our best to keep discussions in the relevant places, but there is often broad overlap and unfortunately no way to curate everything for everyone. I understand and vibe with the desire to keep oneself sane in the increasingly hostile world we live in, but I'm not sure there's an amenable solution that doesn't end up catering to you in specific at the cost of the rest of the community. I want to see the articles you posted in both humanity and cultures and science, and I don't think they are more appropriately slated for the politics sub and I suspect others feel similarly because neither were reported for being in the wrong location.
Yeah, I kind of expected as much. I will just continue to block things until I can look at local communities without being triggered by the doom.
Maybe one day we'll be on a platform where posts can be tagged or some other feature can be designed to help everyone keep things tidy and curate what they want to see and don't want to see. Unfortunately, we're just not there yet.