Is there any way to denationalize, cut back on, dicussion of every trivial news story?

[reformist2]

While it may be entertaining to talk about every little quirky thing that happens in the world,
in the end I can't help but thinking that it amounts to so much idle gossip. Not that gossip is
horrible, but too much of it ends up crowding out the more important issues that we ought to
be paying attention to, both nationally and locally. Especially locally - I think local news items
are the biggest victims of this.

So maybe as a new year's resolution, we might do well to try to cut back on discussion/gossip
on 'news' items that really don't impact us personally, and have no real national significance.

[brooklynite]

1. Don't stop there...give us the list.

Which stories ARE we allowed to comment on and which are too trivial for you?

[el_bryanto]

2. I don't think that's very likely - it gets to the question of why people post here?

I know for myself it's a variety of reasons, some noble, and some not so noble.

If a story doesn't mean anything to you you can usually tell from the Title - but it might well mean something to someone else.

Bryant

[reformist2]

22. It's a general observation. Here we are at a messageboard that hints at politcal action, and yet...

... an inordinate amount of our time seems to be spent on nit-picky stories such as who was forced to take
his hat off at what steakhouse in Tennessee, just to use a recent example.

[Skidmore]

3. It is extremely difficult, I think, to determine what is worthy of discussion here

including local stories. That bridge closing between NY and NJ was also at first a local story but has implications at a national level. What I am in favor of is a realistic assessment of news and not reading nefarious and cosmic level conspiracies so readily by divination and insisting that individual filling in the blanks constitutes truth. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't but when it doesn't, you rarely find people coming back to retract or set the record straight.

I reserve judgment until I see some proof.

[djean111]

4. There really is no "we" at DU except in regard to supporting Dem candidates.

Everything else, IMO, is totally voluntary, just don't click on things you find annoying or insignificant.
I do think many many local occurrences can have eventual national significance - what laws are people breaking, what are the police doing, how has ALEC permeated the legal system, how has fracking slid into communities, what are the consequences. Nothing happens in a vacuum, and what happens locally affects how people vote at times, and lets us be aware of creeping fascism at other times.

[pinboy3niner]

5. No. nt

[LWolf]

6. Sure.

People have to decide that there's something more interesting in their lives to talk about, and that they aren't addicted to the news. "Staying informed" doesn't mean staying plugged in 24/7 and watching, listening, and reading every single story, let alone having to discuss those stories ad nauseum.

[sendero]

7. "denationalize"?

WTF?

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. A Princess Bride Moment

denationalize
diːˈnaʃ ə n(ə lʌɪz/Submit
verb
1.
transfer (a nationalized industry or institution) from public to private ownership.
"an attempt to denationalize the state monopolies"
2.
deprive (a country or person) of nationality or national characteristics.
"a state that had been largely denationalized within the European Community"

[pinboy3niner]

11. "My name is Inigo Montoya...prepare to be denationalized, trivial news story!"

[searchingforlight]

8. I was contemplating this subject a couple of days ago.

When I read your post my first thought was that you were addressing the 24 hour news channels. I do think there is a place for news that is reported in a simple form without all the added "human interest" and "speculation". More like the 10 minute segments of old. "The facts, ma'am. Just the facts".

I believe DU is different. We come here to have discussions about things that we hear, see and think. I believe the subjects have been segmented so that one can choose to get involved or not. All should be on the table. It is like a cocktail party. If you join one group of people and you don't like the discussion, you move on. I don't like or agree with everything I read but I think it is beneficial to see what others are thinking and incorporate or discard the information as I filter it.

[Orrex]

10. Funny that you should mention gossip

2. Gossip is our moral scorecard. In the Public Goods Game, free riders don't just make more money than cooperators. They can tank the whole game, because everybody becomes less cooperative as they watch free riders profit at their expense. In some game versions, however, a technique called "pro-social punishment" is allowed. You can pay a small amount of your own money to make sure that a free rider loses money for not cooperating. When this happens, cooperation picks up again—because now it is being enforced.

From this interesting discussion.

[SecularMotion]

12. School shootings are not trivial news stories

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4188136

[Iggo]

13. Wow!

School shootings are trivial if they're not in my neighborhood?



First time I've seen that tried.

[pinboy3niner]

17. Nice catch

It helps to know what this thread is REALLY about.

[Eleanors38]

19. Last night: NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS extensive coverage on...

anti-bacterial soap.

[Scuba]

14. Tip: You don't have to read ALL the posts!

[RC]

15. What may be trivial to you, may be of vital importance to me.

Let me decide what I want to know about and what to skip over.
I am getting more than a little annoyed at people that have so little self control that they want to force their compensation remedies on everyone else. I don't have that problem. Let it all hang out and let everyone else pick and choose what they want to read. DU is too diverse to censer it down for the few, or the one.
You live in one place and I live in another, a thousand miles away. Something happens here. You don't care, so what? Don't read it.
But the guy across the street from you may care, because he used to live here, or still has family here, or is just interested in happenings like what just happened. That is what is wrong with your proposal.
Censorship?

[patricia92243]

16. Go to the group for your state. You will get local news for your area that impacts you

personally.

Also, if you are not interested in a thread, it can be deleted/blocked.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Some of us do not post local stories on DU anymore

If there is a disaster in my county, people can read it on CNN, even though I will be writing the story for the local paper. I will not post the articles, or links to those stories.

The problem the OP has is that DU has an unwritten editorial policy, and original posts have also mostly gone the way of the dodo. This has made this place increasingly a news aggregator, and not even a good one at that.

I miss the DU where we discussed stuff, that is increasingly gone. I missed the DU where we also discussed local stories that were actually of national importance quite possibly. Hell, I am sitting on one of those right now, and there will be no link from me here.

[polichick]

20. Thought police? No thanks. Just skip what you don't want to read.

[Tikki]

21. I guess we could add: irrelevant, repetitive, gossipy...to the jury system here..

I have learned from news items posted here from all over the place…some have no lasting meaning
in my scope of existence..some have.



"That's The Way of the World…."…FLIPPER
Tikki

[wildbilln864]

23. why do you hate democracy? n/t