r/politics • u/theindependentonline The Independent • 1d ago
‘Exhausted’ Americans are tuning out politics, according to TV ratings and new poll
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ap-poll-americans-exhausted-politics-b2670238.html772
u/HeyJerf 1d ago
Seems like Everyone’s bored of the reality tv politics. We can read articles with “here’s how” and “here’s why” at the end that are only there to piss us off I guess.
Editorialized news is dumb.
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u/AMetalWolfHowls 1d ago
I’m not bored, I’m angry at being lied to so that networks and other outlets can sell advertising. FOX did it from the start, but we’ve seen everyone else roll into that model.
On top of that, we have big names giving equal attention to fake scandals when real scandals are happening.
Why would a real news organization give airtime to the “Biden crime family” stories based on demonstrably false claims like it was serious? They don’t talk about the Kushner deals with the same vitriol.
As a former journalist, journalism is 99% dead. There are occasionally good stories out there (ProPublica is especially good, and the Atlantic comes through every six months) but the vast majority of “news” is attention-thieving, AI-generated, ad-revenue-maximizing garbage.
It’s awful, and it exists in this state because people stopped caring.
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u/SpangleDam2 1d ago
Kushner took $2B from the Saudi Government right after Trump lost last time. Not once did I see any articles on this obvious bribe for turning over stolen Intel. All you heard about was Biden's son not properly owning a gun. Fuck Journalism.
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u/drivesme 1d ago
Will not be watching the inauguration. I hope many do not so he gets really low ratings.
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u/kloiberin_time Missouri 21h ago
If Trump would have visibly shit himself live on stage during the debate, the lead story would be about skid marks found in Biden’s tighty whiteys.
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u/Cormetz 1d ago
Also the daily "TRUMP WANTS TO _______" when he isn't even president yet is just exhausting. He's just trolling everyone with the dumbest things possible and everyone is reacting to it (all this crap about Canada and Greenland).
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u/thrawtes 1d ago
It would be easier to just go with "yeah the POTUS is a silly head, don't listen to anything he says" if the dude hadn't already literally been in charge once and actually done a bunch of crazy shit.
A monkey got ahold of a knife and stabbed a bunch of people. We got it away from him but now he has it back and he's dancing around with it.
Is he trolling us? Absolutely. Can we afford not to pay attention? Nope.
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u/ImpossibleQuail5695 1d ago
It’s not “don’t listen,” it’s more putting it into context. “Today, more nonsense from dotard, this time trying to bring back imperial America. Our panel is here, not to discuss what he said, but to suss out what he’s trying to gain from saying it.”
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u/like_a_wet_dog 1d ago
[discussion leader gets an alert on their phone]
"I'm sorry, team, I must take this. Hello? [pause to listen] Ok. No, we were... of course, I'm sorry. Thank you."
[turns to camera]
"We, and all moral and thinking people, are outraged he used those words. That's what's really at play here, he knows what he wants to do is good for America, but Americans keep getting caught up in his tone. Carl, what do you think of Trump's confidence in the face of his shortsighted critics?"
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u/hollylettuce 1d ago
Eh, as someone who does study politics. In autocratic countries, most people do just tune out political news. When you do not have a say in how the government operates, then you just don't pay attention. This is a bad thing that governments obviously take advantage of, but do understand that it is a form of self care. Reading about your despotic government is extremely mentally taxing at best. Politics in healthy democracies is mentally taxing, but people engage with it because they have a stake in it. When you don't have a stake and the government is just awful 24/7 , people just tune out.
I think people tuning out trump and politics in general can be seen in a somewhat similar light. Trump is an extremely mentally taxing person to listen to. Every day, he says something new that is awful. His opponents can only handle so much disgust before they go to focus on their hobbies. His supporters tune him out because tuning out his bullshit makes it easier to support him. This can apply to other unsavory aspects of our government right now. I don't envy the journalists who have to read and listen to him and his cronies everyday. They literally have to be paid to do that. The fact people still try to pay attention is proof not all is lost at least.
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u/MoreRopePlease America 14h ago
If the "news" would actually try to educate people on what's going on and why it's important, then I would tune in more. There's no excuse for people not knowing what tariffs are at this point. There's no excuse for the inundation of "trump's policy ideas are horrible" stories that came out in the days after the election, when before the election nobody was trying to warm the electorate.
I vote. I feel helpless and scared. AOC losing the committee vote is discouraging. I'm disappointed Luigi got caught.
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u/currentmadman 1d ago
You forgot about the total lack of solutions from people who are supposed to do something about it.
“No, no we can’t shoot the monkey. Yeah we know he tore off that off that kids face like he was grabbing a wet wipe but those drunks ogling nearby teenage girls thinks he’s funny.”
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u/fractalfay 1d ago
You can still be informed by reading AP News and Reuters, without the editorializing. We’ve now spent 10 years with Trump as the main character; if you’re breathing, you’re either convinced he’s a complete piece of shit, or worship at his throne. There’s not really anyone sitting in the middle, so do you really need more examples of ways he talks about being a piece of shit, which acts as smoke and mirrors to the shitty actions happening behind the scenes?
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u/nod_23 1d ago
Can we afford not to pay attention?
to cable news? Absolutely. Corporate run media and the Corporate owned DNC have now given us Trump twice. you'll have to forgive me for not caring about their drop in advertising revenue. yes, i know they were excited for big ratings/donations post Trump's election. no, i don't care that they aren't getting it.
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u/Radibles 1d ago
Bigger issue is widespread giving up from fatigue. Good luck ever getting anything that independent media ever dreams about fighting for which is usually pretty electorally ambitious when Americans have given up from exhaustion
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u/nod_23 14h ago
watching MSNBC and CNN doesn't "get things done." in fact quite the opposite. their purpose is to manipulate public opinion for their wealthy overlords. on top of that while you are sitting around watching tv you aren't doing anything.
organize locally in your community and work towards goals. seeing action will keep you motivated. changing your facebook profile picture and watching cable news won't get anything done. it will just lead to more exhaustion.
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u/Konukaame 1d ago
everyone is reacting to it
I hate how "news" these days is centered around reactive hot takes.
No details, little actual analysis or expertise, just people reacting to the outrage of the day or manipulative ragebait headlines.
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u/fractalfay 1d ago
I say this on reddit like a broken record, but I think it will be worth it: AP News and Reuters. The two unbiased news wires in the US of A. Get the information, skip the hyperbole and non-stories that get inflated to keep you in a constant state of anxiety. I feel so much better since I committed to these two sources and The Guardian.
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u/raptorbpw 1d ago
Yep. I don’t give a fuck what he says on the daily. It’s his way of demanding our constant attention, and he wants that more than anything else.
All I follow now are actual policies. What is actually being done and how do we respond to it etc
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u/gringledoom 1d ago
Yep, I’ve just been mostly ignoring it. The things he’s saying are all awful, but there’s no point investing much energy in a reaction until we know what things he’s actually going to do first. They can only do a finite number of things at once, and the more things they try to do at once, the more they’ll just hamstring themselves with it.
And some of the bad things are going to hurt his voters more than they’ll hurt me, so the extent of my reaction will be a faux-puzzled “but you voted for that?”
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u/Ernesto_Bella 1d ago
The worst are the X person “raged” or “seethes” any time they disagree with something.
Or the X person said Y and the internet isn’t having any of it. Which the. Just quotes random Twitter comments.
This sub is absolutely full of these posts.
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u/ConsciousReason7709 Nevada 1d ago
He is so transparent. He says all this crazy shit just to distract from the truly awful things he wants to do and the truly awful cabinet picks that he has put out there. The mainstream media is still stupid enough to take the bait. 🤦🏼♂️
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u/True-Surprise1222 1d ago
The media still hasn’t caught on to how baited they are or they are just actively a part of this symbiotic relationship idk. Dems fall for it too.
“We got him this time”
Sure.
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u/ImpossibleQuail5695 1d ago
This is the way. They promise the flood the zone, they put out all sorts of nonsense, and the media says: “Golly, that would rival the Louisiana Purchase.”
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u/Mattractive 22h ago
Trolling implies a level of understanding. The media has hyperfocused on him since 2016, no changes there. He's got the dumb confidence, the kind that won't just sell you snake oil but also mud pies and mountain oysters. He forms the tiniest connection between A and B, then fixates on it like he's on the spectrum.
Windmills. Electric motor shark attacks. Bleach in the body. Mexico will build our wall for us.
The dude is an unhinged, untreated alzheimers patient. Greenland and all this other shit are the most recent curvatures on his incredibly long and public spiral.
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u/svrtngr Georgia 1d ago
The most fitting end for the reality TV show President is an America that tunes out of the reality show.
It's not the ending I would have liked (you know, cause the crimes, and I am not condoning or suggesting violence), and the damage done will be catastrophic. But it feels like the ending we deserve.
A society that milks outrage for profit ends up canceling itself due to low ratings.
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u/whatproblems 1d ago
but we just voted in the guy that’s al about reality tv politics. we had a chance people to shut him up but now we gotta listen to his idiocy for 4 years
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u/TheAltOption 1d ago
The only hope I have is that he croaks about 6 months before midterms. Let the infighting due to the power vacuum destroy them in our next election.
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u/Subliminal_Kiddo Kentucky 1d ago
He won by 1.6% of the vote and didn't even reach the 50% mark. So a huge chunk of the American public voted against him. If 10% of those voters who didn't go for Trump and regularly watch cable news decide that they're burned out and are going to take a break, that's devastating for ratings. Cable is dying, what a decade ago would have been considered abysmal ratings for a cable network are now considered good, they can't afford to lose anymore viewers.
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u/Neglectful_Stranger 1d ago
but now we gotta listen to his idiocy for 4 years
No we don't? Don't listen to cable news or post on political subs and you can go a while without hearing about him.
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u/esoteric_enigma 1d ago
The problem is those people are leaving editorialized news and going to social media instead. Getting your news from social media is 10x worse than getting it from TV.
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u/mars_titties 1d ago
Getting people to tune out of politics is the authoritarian playbook. Degrade the media, ratchet up distrust and cynicism, convince people there’s no point engaging, and just openly admit you’re corrupt but that’s ok because all politicians are corrupt and at least you’re going to hurt the people you don’t like. Fall in line and let daddy wet his beak, there’s no point resisting
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u/True-Surprise1222 1d ago
“The dems owned Trump read how!!!”
Like idc. The Dems didn’t own Trump. Oh they trolled him on Twitter? Great. Really making me want to donate. I’m sure Trump is just so upset as he umm gets away with every felony and moved back to the white house after Dems got absolutely shelacked by one of the most disliked people in the world.
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u/yParticle 1d ago
It's by design: saturate the news with crazy political stunts and when the real evil stuff starts you'll already be tuned out.
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u/sounddude 1d ago
While watching the news coverage of Steve Bannon’s initial appearance in federal court on Monday, I kept thinking about his 2018 confession to the acclaimed writer Michael Lewis. His quote is like a compass that orients this crazy era of American politics. “The Democrats don’t matter,” Bannon told Lewis. “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”
That’s the Bannon business model: Flood the zone. Stink up the joint. As Jonathan Rauch once said, citing Bannon’s infamous quote, “This is not about persuasion: This is about disorientation.”
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u/graphemeral 1d ago
Garry Kasparov explains that this is actually the Putin model of propaganda, too. You don’t have to control every aspect of the narrative if you can overwhelm people with too many narratives to make sense of.
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u/sounddude 10h ago
Yup, but the ultimate goal is to control every aspect of the narrative, that is the ends which justify the means of flooding the media zone with shit.
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u/JennJayBee Alabama 1d ago
Deciding that you won't be tuning in to the 24-hour news networks or constantly listening to podcasts is not the same thing as tuning out. I can stay informed just fine by checking Ground News in the morning and watching comedians at night. I also check in on reddit.
What I don't need is hourly updates on whatever dumb shit Trump just said or tweeted. I'll find out eventually. Meanwhile, I have audiobook smut and crochet projects to fill in the gaps.
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u/yParticle 1d ago
I would hazard most people are already doing that or their personal variant thereof. The daily crazy still filters through though.
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u/Violaine1973 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’d like to cut out Reddit in 2025. Hoping a combo of Ground and Morning Brew will give me the brief tl:dr’s I need to keep up with the apocalypse.
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u/JennJayBee Alabama 1d ago
I've absolutely loved Ground News for the few months I've been using it. That was a nice swap from WaPo.
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u/kyleb402 1d ago
Yep exactly. Get everyone so fed up with all the crazy bullshit that they won't be paying attention when Republicans and their rich oligarch friends rob them blind and give the money to themselves.
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u/Cool-Acid-Witch1769 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yep. Republicans , more specifically as well their politicians , are bad people. Stop pretending. Their entire party formed out of the ashes of the confederacy they have been traitors from day 1 of their existence. Their name GOP “good ol’ party” in and of itself by name is claiming superiority and “conservatio” aka , not changing. They are all bigots racists liars and greedy bast*rds. You can pretend it’s not a left vs right issue all you want but who voted for these demons? Republicans. Conservatives. They stand for nothing but “conserving” the status quo and stealing money from the poor whom they thrive off of. That’s why so many uneducated people and conservatives like him. Because he gives them someone to look down apon instead of looking at the real problem within themselves or within trump.
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u/Maxievelli 1d ago
I don’t like the GOP either but this is just blatant historical revisionism and wrong. The “Grand Old Party” was so named in 1875 due to their defense of the Union (Gallant Old Party is the 1875 name). Their party turned the confederacy into ash and on day 1 of their existence they were running Abraham Lincoln who is the greatest American president in my book.
I completely agree with you that they are horrible now and their voters tend to be historical revisionists that insist the civil war was somehow not about slavery. They stand for nothing now and have fallen far. But they did not start off that way.
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u/deadsoulinside Pennsylvania 17h ago
Pretty much how I felt that it slipped pass many people that under Trump/DeVos they allowed the sale of a for profit college (Art Institutes) to a company who only ever managed a mega church previously (Dream Center Holdings). Of course the college got shut down afterwards after they stole federal money from the students and fell into a receivership to try to get those stipends that were owed sent to the students.
Many students ended up being on the hook to pay for their loans when the college shut down in the middle of their degree with credits that were not worth anything as during the time some of the schools lost their accreditation too, but they were illegally at that point, collecting student loans (you have to be accredited to receive loans)
Biden had to forgive those loans under the fraudulent school acts that were already in place that the republicans could not block.
Despite the fact that I am on reddit and other social media, it seemed even I tuned it out as I found out the hard way when I needed my transcripts in 2020 and had to fight to get them. It was only during that time, did I realize this school collapsed in 2018.
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u/ConsciousReason7709 Nevada 1d ago
I know that I’m sick of politics. I keep up with it because I feel that it’s important, but after spending years telling people how worthless Trump and Republicans are and then seeing America elect them again, I’m just at the point where I’m almost done with it all.
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u/Spiritual_Bug6414 1d ago
I spent 4 years keeping up with his insanity last time. Every day it was something horrible. And just nobody seemed to give a shit. I can’t deal with another four years of that, I’ll keep up somewhat but I’m tuned out more than in at this point
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u/ConsciousReason7709 Nevada 1d ago
I mean, I’ll still vote whenever I can, but I just don’t have the power, influence, or money to make a difference outside of that. That’s why I’m not going to get pissed off at every little Trump atrocity like I did the first time.
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u/Spiritual_Bug6414 1d ago
It’s just not healthy to torture yourself like that. At least I learned something from the last time.
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u/Dariath 1d ago
Same boat for me. I’m already exhausted thinking about the mental toll it’s gonna take. I remember watching him screw over the Kurds and wonder why no one else was livid like me.
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u/_DCtheTall_ 1d ago
If it helps, creating fatigue over the news is straight out of the authoritarian playbook. I know it is hard, but by staying informed and seeking info from many different ethical sources, you are actively resisting authoritarianism even in that small way.
Stay strong! Do not let them make us stop paying attention. We are in this!
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u/Significant_Banana35 1d ago edited 1d ago
I‘m feeling you. But please don’t give up, it‘s so important to stay informed these days, closing your eyes won’t help anyone. It’s this vicious circle of lethargy/apathy that made Trump even possible. I also need some breaks from news as so much crazy stuff is happening, but that makes it even more important to realize what is happening. Meaning, take breaks when you need it, but please don’t shut your eyes completely, this makes it only easier for people like Trump to succeed. All the best!
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u/ConsciousReason7709 Nevada 1d ago
I’ll still vote, but keeping up with all of Trump‘s bullshit just makes me angry and life is too short to be pissed off all the time. My vote is the only power I really have.
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u/montty712 1d ago
No, it is not important to be informed. America flunked a very important test on November 5. An authoritarian regime will take office in January. The authoritarian do not surrender power peacefully. That’s all we need to know. The rest is noise. Call me when the armed revolt starts.. if there is no armed revolt, then democracy will not be restored.
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u/Ok-Arugula687 1d ago
Challenge and reject the assumption that tuning out #MSM is tuning out politics.
Sounds like someone wants to sell our attention to advertisers, doesn't it?
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u/Independent_Dog_4406 1d ago
This benefits republicans. They want you exhausted and tuning them out. They don’t want engaged voters. Easier to take things from you when you’re not paying attention.
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u/whatproblems 1d ago
idk i don’t need to be engaged to know im never voting for them ever
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u/HelpUs0ut 1d ago
Our engagement doesn't even matter. They're gonna do whatever the hell they want.
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u/AffordableDelousing 1d ago edited 1d ago
Well, those are in a position to, please obstruct and play interference as much as possible.
For the rest of us, the best we can do is to vote in the midterms and be vocal about all the bad shit, to friends and family who might not otherwise be aware.
Those in power need to know that some lines can't be crossed, and maybe there will come a time where people need to hit the streets here soon, to protest and make that known.
Given the very narrow margins in Congress, if we make them feel the heat, we might be able to stop things from getting too far before midterms.
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u/mjzim9022 1d ago edited 1d ago
There's a key distinction here I think. I'm not "tuning out" though I am not rewarding NYT and WaPo with panicky news subscriptions like in 2016 and like they wanted me to do now after they courted the results of the most recent election. No I'm steeling myself for a long fight and not making the same mistake twice, and I'm not going to reward bad journalism and I'm not going to get my blood pressure high with panicky news consumption anymore.
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u/No_Stretch_3122 1d ago
This is why I keep trying to stay current even though I hate hearing about him.
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u/hipsterobot Oregon 1d ago
I hear that. but honestly it is getting difficult to balance out staying current with safe guarding mental health.
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u/ThirdFloorNorth Mississippi 1d ago
Same. I paid attention every single day of his first four years. The toll it took on my mental health can not be overstated.
I'm 38. I'm tired. I'm just trying to batten down the hatches and take care of the things I can directly control.
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u/SoHereIAm85 19h ago
Same. I read that papers and Time and all that even as a teenager, but at this point I’m so done. The writing quality and content is trash compared to even the 90s, and I feel entirely hopeless as far as my vote or any other change.
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u/static_func 1d ago
What’s your reasoning there? Afraid you’re gonna start voting Republican if you stop tormenting yourself?
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u/Virian 1d ago
Why, though? It’s not like you can change anything until the next election.
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u/Subliminal_Kiddo Kentucky 1d ago
Just because you're not watching cable news doesn't mean you're completely tuned out. It's now easier than ever to pay attention to legitimate news stories. If anything, turning everything Trump says or does into sensationalist journalism is itself extremely unhealthy, especially since Trump has learned to play the game and intentionally says/does ridiculous things to take attention from the actual horrible shit he's up to or distract from a loss/humiliation. Case in point, all the news stories about Trump buying Greenland, or invading Panama, or making Canada the 51st State. None of that is going to happen, but Trump knows it grabs headlines and it's effectively killed the reporting about Trump's failure in strong-arming Republicans into raising the debt ceiling and forking a shutdown or how big of an influence Musk is having on Trump's actions.
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u/SamplePerfect4071 1d ago
It also means their dumbass talking points spread slower and their interference on scandals is less effective
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u/AntoineDubinsky 1d ago
It does and it doesn't. They've learned to control the news cycle, and therefor the conversation, through constantly generating outrageous headlines that ultimately distract us from the real issues. You can pay attention without following "the news."
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u/tauofthemachine 1d ago
Dangerous. All Repubs have to do is crank up the volume again, and Americans will give them what they want for Peace and quiet.
Musk certainly knows this now.
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u/kvlt_ov_personality 1d ago edited 1d ago
Truthfully, I don't even know why I've stayed subscribed to this sub. Some worry that something big/important will happen? But if something eventful related to this presidency happens, what does it matter whether I'm informed about it or not? I get sucked into so many negative conversations in this sub, it really isn't worth the hit to my mental health.
Fascists and crooks are in the driver's seat, and most of my fellow citizens either wanted it or don't care. I already know what their plans are. I'm not sure what keeping up with all of their unpunished crimes accomplishes for anyone.
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u/saintandrewsfall 1d ago
I told my conservative buddy (who may not be for much longer)…this country is so fucking stupid and morally bankrupt that I don’t care anymore. And when you elect a criminal as well as the good, participating people stop caring about their country or fellow man, we’re truly fucked.
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u/Dredly 1d ago
This is exactly what Republicans want... ignorant morons vote the same way every time.
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u/Jasonicca 1d ago
Yes. Its a strategy. Its not only about voting the same way, its about becoming pacified and accepting a state of disempowerment.
The firehose of lies, outrageous statements, slogans, threats, complaints etc. is an attempt to wear us down.
Look at the Russian population if you want to see the outcome.
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u/no_one_lies 1d ago
I’d give more credit to the media themselves than the Republicans for generating broad stroke apathy across the population.
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u/thro-uh-way109 1d ago
I don’t see the point in clicking and tuning in when my peers aren’t even going to bother to show up on Election Day. It’s not worth the headache when others won’t even do the bare minimum to prevent this all.
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u/MawsonAntarctica 1d ago
I understand, but the discourse is designed to turn people away from politics. You may be done with it but it ain’t finished with you.
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u/mjzim9022 1d ago
We aren't turned from politics so much as we aren't feeding the media ecosystem that wanted our panic dollars again and so courted this election result
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u/carissadraws 1d ago
Respectfully, at this point does tuning out matter when a lot of the people who do so already know how harmful Trump is gonna be to America?
If you have people who know better willingly tune out but also are knowledgeable enough to know which future candidates support human rights and which ones do not; I don’t think that’s gonna be as beneficial to republicans as you think it might.
It’s only dangerous for morons who DONT know how bad Trump is to tune out, and if anything said tuning out is just a way to make media companies hurt more so they realize there’s consequences to whitewashing fascism while also fearmongering everything Trump is gonna do
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u/Sure_Quality5354 1d ago
Because I like many other redditors here follow the news closely, understand whats going on and know when to spot bullshit. The problem isnt people like us. Its the people who dont read the news and just see some facebook article saying that trump will undo inflation and they believe it without question. Those people are the ones ruining this country
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u/Nordominus 1d ago
Half the news is “X May Have Broken the Law” or “Here Why X Could Be in Trouble”. Great. Let me know if anything happens.
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u/Latetothegame29 1d ago
Why should any of us give the media any attention after their cowardly, incompetent coverage of candidates. I’ll never watch the news again.
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u/TR_Pix 1d ago
Nothing new. Most people know the sartre quote about anti-semites knowing they are full of shit, but there's the second part of it;
"If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past."
When they can't hide it anymore they lose interest in discussing.
And since vice-president Trump is making it so the right wing can't hide it anymore, suddenly they feel politics is so boring, can't we change the channel? Oh, must we talk about it?
It's happened when Bolsonaro was was elected here in Brazil. The right commemorated up until the point he started fucking it up, at which point they changed to say "oh you are so irritant to be talking politics all the time"
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u/chill_winston_ 1d ago
The magas are like that here too. They’ve spent the last nine years being absolutely awful to everyone and since the election they’re all going “I can’t believe you all are letting politics ruin friendships.” It’s so stupid and disingenuous.
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u/joshpennington 1d ago
I turned off cable news once they called it for Trump and never looked back. Most of my news now comes from Reddit
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u/mvw2 1d ago
Not exhausted.
Rather, there's nothing FOR the common people.
This election and ALL of the legislation that happens the next 4 years is going to only be for corporations, ultra wealthy, and certain foreign nations.
EVERYTHING coming out right is is anti-public. It's not for us. None of this is for us. So why should we care about any of it?
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u/moocat55 1d ago
What are we supposed to do? America voted and put a felon in office who's going to destroy this country. I didn't want this, can't stop it, so why the fuck do I have to listen to the inavoidable suffering and sobbing from the filth that voted him in. The overwhelmingly white, Christian filth.
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u/Ace_Bearbus-73 1d ago
I’m going to lie, I stopped watching the news after the election. It’s been cathartic and calming. When my Fox News cultists in-laws rant, it’s satisfying to say I have no idea why you’re so angry.
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u/flirtmcdudes 1d ago edited 1d ago
Supreme Court and everyone else basically decided to allow Trump off with no criminal charges, and half the country wanted him back in there.
No point in getting worked up over this shit anymore when the system isn’t working to hold people accountable. It’s all a charade and legacy media supported Trump the entire time as if he should have been a candidate at all... Why would we want to watch the news now? It’s a joke
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u/elpatoantiguo 1d ago
What matters is finding sources that present you with information and avoiding the shit that doesn’t add value. I want to know if Trump is doing something he shouldn’t be when he is president. What I don’t give two shits about is Joe Scarborough yelling about it or Fox & Friends finger-fucking each other on camera while squealing about not knowing the difference between a Mexican and a Brazilian.
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u/Potential-Bee3866 1d ago
We're tired of the Trump show.
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u/Jagermonsta 1d ago
No shit. We’ve already seen the trump show and was complete shit the last time. The reboot is going to be dumber and more fucked than the last. For my own personal mental health I’m turning it all off and focusing on the small things in life I enjoy.
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u/space_coder America 1d ago
I suspect it has more to do with not wanting to take responsibility for voting for an idiot criminal for President.
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u/Avante-Gardenerd 1d ago
What were fucking exhausted about us that he has done so much shit and has faced zero repercussions. It's such fucking bulkshit!
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u/GyspySyx 1d ago
Sick of Trump's face and bullshit. Just wake me up when he's dead so I can dance in the street.
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u/EvilandLovingit 1d ago
I'm a European, after trump win then I also tuned out. It's like watching the rape scene in Shawshank Redemption. I fast forward through that part.
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u/NoCoffee6754 1d ago
Not just news channels but anything that even remotely relates to current news even as comedy. Stopped watching John Oliver, Seth Meyers, and even SNL. I need time away to stop thinking about how messed up our country is and how many absolute idiots I’m surrounded by every day.
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u/Saul_T_Bauls 1d ago
Why would I watch news that tries to normalize this shit and who pumps out negativity to feed to us like pink slime. The "news" is the pink slime of information.
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u/hertzgraphics 1d ago
Could also be non trump voters don’t want anything to do with what is about to come so ignorance is bliss?…
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u/shadowknows2pt0 1d ago
And that’s the result they want so that all their past, present, and future criminal acts go unnoticed and unpunished so that they can rob us blind.
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u/Stonkasaurus1 1d ago
We know where it is going. We lived it for four years and it is already worse now somehow before Trump is even in power. I am sorry to say people don't need that level of negativity in our lives so we are turning it off in favour of cat videos.
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u/Back_one_more_time 1d ago
I was a political junkie for years. Since the election i haven't watched the news or watched anything on TV that has to do with politics.
I'm disgusted by America, its politics, our dumb citizens, the media, lying politicians, and the constant propaganda we're fed.
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u/Mr-A5013 1d ago edited 1d ago
Exhaustion is a part of the problem, but the real thing that is killing cable news is social media and streaming. The majority of people who watch Fox News are around 70, but most people get their entertainment from streaming these days. Far fewer people will flip on the News because there is nothing better on to watch.
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u/katie0873 1d ago
Wake me when people in politics (or those paying them) doing shitty things means they actually get legit consequences. Reporting on things that repeatedly end in nothing-burgers or maybe even underreported because it won’t benefit news shareholders is getting old. Let’s go back to the days when the news was non-profit, please.
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u/MsAndDems 1d ago
Americans are fucking stupid. Elect a guy you need to watch closely, only to do the exact opposite
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u/bryanvangelder 1d ago
Were speed-running reruns of world historys greatest fuckups. I feel like i can predict the news at this point
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u/SmilinBuddha969 1d ago
Like everything else in the Trump brand, his presidency has been over-marketed. No surprise people are tired of it. It’ll be interesting to see how America responds when he doesn’t deliver on anything and blames everybody else for the failing nation he created.
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u/AtlasShrugged- 1d ago
That would be me. I’m so over it all for now
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u/war_story_guy I voted 1d ago
I sure did for this sub. Have RES filter trump elon and musk and god damned if this place isn't readable again. Even if each page is like 8 posts idc, got my sanity back.
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u/YesterShill 1d ago
What's the point in getting invested in politics if dipshit voters are just going to elect rapists and conmen.
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u/alfrocks 1d ago
For me, I have to comb through like 5 sources daily to get an understanding of what is happening locally and nationally. After the election, I don’t want to see or hear Trump & Musk’s faces. So I’ve slowed down reading the “news”.
Probably will have to retune since things will get so bad in the near future. sigh
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u/OldKingClancey 1d ago
Unfortunately this is what the politicians want.
Make everyone so apolitical and apathetic that they don’t raise a hand to protect themselves, everyone sucks so what’s one brand of suck going to do differently than the other brand of suck?
If you ignore the politicians, you ignore how fucking awful most of them are and that’s how they stay in power
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u/Artistic-Cannibalism 1d ago
I really can't blame them, even the most outrageous bit of fiction seems to be more sane than reality these days.
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u/artfulpain 1d ago
I've been trying to be engaged for so long and come January 20th. I'm checking out. It's going to be hard but I can no longer engage until the midterms and the next primary.
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u/carissadraws 1d ago
I’m done with news media in 2025. At this point I’m only gonna be looking at the NYT for their cooking content.
If I do look for news stories involving politicians it’s gonna be just once during the midterms so I know who to vote for and once during the dem primaries. Other than that I really do not give a crap
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u/TheSmilesLibrary 1d ago
Like why doomscroll while over half the nation either buries its head in the sand or is cheering on the dismantling of our rights and our democracy.
The only thing that matters in America is money, specifically the money of those in power
Not healthcare, not freedom of speech, not having our kids murdered in schools or having them get a decent education, not the people busting their ass every fucking day to keep this country running, not a living wage, not getting dinosaurs who can’t even do their jobs without handlers helping them out of office, not child rapists, not regular(just as fucked up) rapists, not us getting our fucking government sold bits and chunks to foreign interests and highest bidders, not our social and welfare programs, not promoting inclusion in a nation of all cultures, not fighting fascism, not our Supreme Court so corrupt that they can buy to force agendas, not all the women who are dying who can’t receive proper healthcare
And after seeing all that, how can you be anything other than exhausted and hopeless.
No one is going to rise up, there will be no revolution, we the people of the United States of America will watch in apathy as our nation dies a slow and quiet death because
No one cares
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u/SellaraAB Missouri 1d ago
I just don’t want to deal with it unless I have to. I can’t follow every insane thing that’s going to happen, the daily shock of worse news than I expected. It’s bad for me. I’ll keep up to date on the broad strokes but we are locked into this situation for the next two years. Also, the mainstream media is dead to me after how they handled this election:
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u/BoobsrReal105 1d ago
I have. I just started watching the local news for a half hour. But as soon as I hear his voice or they talk about him. I change the channel. When you read Reddit it’s all about him.
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u/GreyBeardEng 1d ago
By design, MAGA wants you exhausted so will check out and they can do what they want.
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u/Shionkron 1d ago
That’s how Putin rules. Lie lie and lie some more to get the population so sick of politics they checkout.
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u/OhHowINeedChanging Utah 1d ago
(scroll scroll scroll… See Trump face, read ridiculous headline bait… SCROLL SCROLL!)
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u/turb0_encapsulator 1d ago
And yet somehow the majority voted for Trump and his all-drama-all-the-time politics. Make it make sense.
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u/tears4fears 1d ago
I am. I’ll vote come mid terms but i can’t handle the constant that’s been going on since before trump was elected the first time
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u/Pickle_ninja 1d ago
It's your game to fuck up Republicans. Don't say we didn't warn you when the leopard comes for your face.
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u/FoatyMcFoatBase 1d ago
Mission accomplished. Now he can really start to screw over Americans.
1/3 of the peoples couldn’t be bothered to vote.
Now wear down the 1/3 who voted against him
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u/MichaelPFrancesa 1d ago
there's only so many ti mes you can be battered with the same shit over and over. eventually you get fatigue
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u/fractalfay 1d ago
There’s an important distinction to make here. People are tuning out getting info about politics from television — not tuning out politics. The UHC executive shooting is still a headline, and is very much a political moment — it just differs from the bullshit storm they would like us to be upset about right now. If major media hadn’t run a race to fellate the dead CEO, and hadn’t behaved like an enabler of election-related disinformation, I’m sure people wouldn’t find them so exhausting right now.
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u/hackingdreams 1d ago
Turns out, everyone's fucking sick of FailurePOTUS and that's all the media wants to talk about, to the point that they got him re-elected. Fuck forbid there be any actual information in the media instead of talking heads screaming at each other, and headlines making up every stupid thing someone says instead of what's actually fucking happening in the world...
You made your bed, media companies. You're going to have to live with lower ratings. You wanted Neo-Russia, you got it.
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u/Roverjosh 1d ago
I’m sure that’s part of the plan. Get people so exhausted and disgruntled they stop paying attention so you can really turn the screws….
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u/Stopper33 1d ago
This benefits the liars, the cheaters, the unethical and those that lush disinformation and propaganda.
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u/SacredGray 1d ago
There is no upside to torturing your mental health like this every day.
If your mental health is suffering from staying politically informed, if you come away from the "news" every day with anxiety and depression and dread and hopelessness --
Please tune out. Please disconnect. Please focus on yourself.
It's not worth it to trade your sanity for knowledge. You're not rewarding any kind of evil or failing any kind of good by preserving your sanity.
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u/tagged2high New Jersey 1d ago
Especially when the political content can only ever be depressing.
Trump and MAGA is not, nor ever was, a positive vision for America, but we're going to have to suffer through it for another 4 years.
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u/Butt_Napkins007 21h ago
It’s not tuning out politics, it’s tuning out 8 fucking years of hearing about Trump.
I stay up to date with current events, but I’m done with the day-to-day of whatever stupid ignorant bullshit racist rapey thing he says or does to get attention.
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u/Sethmeisterg California 21h ago
Absofuckinglutely. For my own sanity. I can't do shit about the coming hellscape so why the fuck should I sacrifice what little mental health I have left. The people who turned out will get what they deserve. Let them burn.
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u/Puncho666 19h ago
They do realize that it’s not a reality show you don’t get to switch it off politics affects real lives and has repercussions
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u/MazzIsNoMore 1d ago
Americans only tune into politics for about 2 weeks before the election. Not paying attention to politics is par for the course
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u/SoundSageWisdom 1d ago
We are tuning out because we are FED up with the mainstream media NOT DOING THEIR JOBS. If they can't be bothered, then most of us do not care to tune in ever again
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u/RonnyJingoist 1d ago
Subconsciously, we all felt we needed some creative destruction to usher in the 21st century's new ways of life and death. Having set those dominoes to falling, we sleep.
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u/theindependentonline The Independent 1d ago
While cable news networks CNN and MSNBC continue to see a massive post-election drop in their television ratings, a new Associated Press poll finds that most Americans are worn out since Donald Trump’s electoral victory and have tuned out from political news.
Read more here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ap-poll-americans-exhausted-politics-b2670238.html
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u/No-Butterscotch5980 1d ago
Naw, I know it's gonna be fucked up. I don't need the roller coaster of hearing about every last gory detail of it, though. If they start doin' some of the Nazi level-shit they've been threatening to do... Then I'll have to apply the lessons of Indiana Jones.
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u/hansrotec 1d ago
When you have made just about every issue equivalent to the fate of the world/country each time that sort of happens. Boy who cried wolf or some such
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u/williamgman California 1d ago
Media created this news blackout. We fucking voted. The voting was not enough. So at this point, unless your elected Congress person gives a shit... You/we are stuck with this elections outcomes. All of it. As the Grim Reaper himself - Mitch McConnel said... "Voting has consequences". We lose all just for "liberal tears".
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u/Turok7777 1d ago
That's why the country is such a shit-show, because paying attention to things is just too hard.
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u/6Arrows7416 1d ago
Eventually Trump will do something incredibly stupid. Everyone will get pissed, get involved again, then get annoyed with the new guy and start claiming that Trump wasn’t all that bad. Then in 40 years people will start shit talking him like we do to Reagan.
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u/Evil_phd 1d ago
I can't say I don't empathize. Sometimes it feels like boomers are doing everything in their power to ensure that the entire world dies with them.
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u/RadBadTad Ohio 1d ago
according to TV ratings
Are Americans tuning out of politics, or did Americans finally start to realize that cable shows are not politics news, they're sports shows.
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u/BeetFarmHijinks 1d ago
They already won. They can't scare us with more headlines about what Trump might do.
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u/SpicyWaspSalsa 1d ago
Election year is 12 months away. People, this is the most important election season of your lives!!! VOTE!!!
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u/yorapissa 1d ago
Absolutely have been. When half the country takes this guys ideological side and elects him their leader again, the signal to normal people couldn’t be worse. Could make you believe Musk has a point about fluoride in the nation’s water.
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u/TMore108 1d ago
Americans are exhausted of politics so they elected the guy that makes us all more exhausted than any other politician... I hate this fucking country
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u/Magoo69X Maryland 1d ago
This is exactly what the GOP wants, of course. A nation that's half MAGA sheep and half people who are just too traumatized to care.
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