The Core

Click bait headlines from MSM don't help.  I constantly see headlines about some natural or man made tragedy that make it sound like it happened in the US, and even make you think that "if we just Did Something it could have been averted, but when you click on the article and read down far enough you find it's in some other country and nothing the US could have done anyway.  And if it's on Twitter, some people are already expressing outrage and they don't even realize it's not in the US.  But in the meantime it has provoked an emotional response in me partly for the tragedy but also anger for having been suckered.

We simply don't need to know about every bad thing that happens in the world.  Bad stuff happens every second around the globe and we hit overload if we hear about it relentlessly 24/7.

Tim Ferriss always talks about making the one decision that avoids a hundred downstream decisions.

Having made a handful of political donations and having given my email address to various politicians when contacting them on issues, it seems that they share it like crazy. So years ago I made a decision to never donate to anyone who calls on the phone, since that's the most disruptive. That makes it easy to field calls.

But I still get email pitches from all sorts of politicians who do not represent me, most of whom I have never heard of. I have a new simple rule - any email that comes from someone for whom I am not a potential constituent, immediately gets unsubscribed. No figuring out whether or not I support their cause or oppose it.

And as a secondary thing, if it is not a one-click unsubscribe (like they make me fill in my email address in order to unsubscribe), then it gets marked as spam, even if I wholeheartedly support their agenda.

I've finally gotten to the point where I get few such messages and most of those go straight to the spam folder.

I rarely unsubscribe as I figure it confirms that the email address is legit and active.

I think that's mostly an issue with actual spammers, of which there are few. Anyone using a modern email system will unsubscribe you.

And as I want to remain active in political races that I can actually vote in, I don't want to just block them all. I also want to get the updates from my representatives with the exception of the one who pisses me off every time I read or hear anything he says.

My goal is not to tune out of politics entirely, but it's to tune out politicians I cannot vote for or against (and presidential politics).