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Do you know anyone that is oblivious to the world affairs/domestic affairs outside of

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    #92
    igCorcaigh
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 11,115 Mod ✭✭✭✭igCorcaigh


    The older i get, the more i realise how complex the world is. I do keep up with world affairs, but find it hard to form a definite opinion about most matters. There is a lot of nuance.

    My political instinct is left wing, and i support a move to a different political and economic system. I just don't have a clear idea of what that could be.

    I also believe that caring for the wellbeing of people in the world cannot be easily separated from the politics of it all. But i don't see an easy solution.


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    #93
    igCorcaigh
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 11,115 Mod ✭✭✭✭igCorcaigh


    On the topic of OP, i guess i find it a bit odd, but not necessarily that strange.

    My mam thinks im not living in the "real world" because I've never heard of someone she sees on RTE.

    But i don't watch television. I'm more intrigued about phosphine on venus.


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    #94
    yosser hughes
    Registered Users Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭yosser hughes


    DeanAustin wrote: »
    Went out with a girl, who is probably above average intelligence and who has done very well in life, who thought Africa was a country and that Nigeria was a city in it.

    I was stunned. She wasn't stupid by any stretch of the imagination, just ignorant. There are lots like her.

    This actually says a lot about the quality of education in this country.

    She probably did well in exams.


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    #95
    igCorcaigh
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 11,115 Mod ✭✭✭✭igCorcaigh


    Justin Credible Darts wrote: »
    and I bet a lot happier than those crying about global warning, evil trump, the price of petrol, gay rights etc

    The price of petrol and gay rights, eh?

    You do indeed live in a bubble.

    Global warming i assume you mean.


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    #96
    Canis Lupus
    Registered Users Posts: 9,893 ✭✭✭Canis Lupus


    Girl in work isn't sure who the prime minister of her country is.


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    #97
    Jim Root
    Registered Users Posts: 487 ✭✭Jim Root


    The framing of the op has a smug self righteous whiff to it. Leave the woman be, there could be all of sorts of things going on in her life to explain a perceived lack of interest in current affairs or Netflix.


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    #98
    ILoveYourVibes
    Registered Users Posts: 15,176 ✭✭✭✭ILoveYourVibes


    Jim Root wrote: »
    The framing of the op has a smug self righteous whiff to it. Leave the woman be, there could be all of sorts of things going on in her life to explain a perceived lack of interest in current affairs or Netflix.
    This could be true. Or not.

    And yes ..i am smug ..in fact i am SMAUG


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    #99
    Wanderer78
    Registered Users Posts: 28,853 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    igCorcaigh wrote:
    My political instinct is left wing, and i support a move to a different political and economic system. I just don't have a clear idea of what that could be.

    I've very similar views to yourself, nobody truly knows where to go to next, regarding political and economic ideologies, but people are working on it, and there's some great ideas around, particularly on the left, but there is also good ideas coming from more conservative leanings also. I particularly like the use of the term 'progressive capatalism', but I realise, even those that use it, are also struggling to truly define it, but at least they are trying to. Sadly though, we currently, largely have not accepted, that our current form of capitalism is a complete train wreck, for all humans, including the wealthy


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    #100
    lainey_d_123
    Registered Users Posts: 2,385 ✭✭✭lainey_d_123


    bitofabind wrote: »
    I think one of the best things you can do for your mental health and happiness is to stop consuming news media, delete all the breaking news apps etc. I say that as a former journalist who globe trotted following the depressing story du jour, from camping outside Westminster waiting for the latest Brexit update to interviewing eye witnesses after the terror attack in the Bataclan in Paris.

    News is inherently depressing, catastrophic and cyclical. Consuming too much of it gives you a distorted sense of the world, a sense of doom and perpetual "what's next."I got all that in my career and eventually de-sensitisation and numbing set in. I couldn't connect or empathise with any of it. Would roll my eyes at the latest global disaster.

    My sister is willingly ignorant to news and current affairs. Wasn't aware Leo is no longer the Taoiseach until last week. Used to think "Al Jazeera" is a country. She's also a medical professional in a very specialised area, so pretty smart and competent generally. Just doesn't give a flying shyte about what Boris is up to or what the current infection rate is.

    There's a lot to be said for this, to be honest. I took a little break in August with a friend, just went to an off-grid campsite here in England for a few days, and it made such an enormous difference to my mental health being disconnected from all my gadgets and not watching any news. The situation in the world hadn't changed at all, but I just wasn't hearing about it. I was able to just enjoy my day. Get up, shower in one of those mad outdoor eco showers, cook some breakfast on the firepit, read for a few hours, go for a walk into the nearest village, have a pint and some food outside a pub, walk back through fields. Of course it wasn't 'normal', there was hand sanitiser all over the campsite and we had to sign in on the track and trace sheet at the pub, but it was the first time since March that covid wasn't at the forefront of my mind at all times. It's harder to disengage to that extent here in London but I'm still trying not to watch the news or much TV at all, and just focus on work and hobbies.

    The price to pay is people thinking you're a bit thick or ignorant for not knowing about current affairs, but I don't really care. I just say I'm prioritising my mental health.


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    #101
    completedit
    Registered Users Posts: 2,639 ✭✭✭completedit


    Arguably our lives have become so disentangled from our local community so as to make up for that CA becomes a way of conversation. Also if you can scratch beneath the surface, it can raise interesting life questions. Also, it's like the tragedy of the commons. If one person doesn't watch the news or stay informed, no big deal, life will go on but if you replicate that again and again, then perhaps that's where problems begin to emerge.
    News does need to change though. It needs to stop tapping into our glass half full reptilian brain and be more positive. Life is suffering but its not as bleak as the media like to portray it.

    But, as socrates said "An unexamined life is not worth living"


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    #102
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 2,078 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Jim Root wrote: »
    The framing of the op has a smug self righteous whiff to it. Leave the woman be, there could be all of sorts of things going on in her life to explain a perceived lack of interest in current affairs or Netflix.

    I didn't get that from the OP. Sounded more like a genuine curiosity to me. That woman is probably over on the Fair City thread saying how she was speaking to someone who had no idea Tommy's Leeks are going down a treat with the Hotpots customers.


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    #103
    Badly Drunk Boy
    Registered Users Posts: 6,465 ✭✭✭Badly Drunk Boy


    pgj2015 wrote: »
    what gets me is people who couldnt point out any country on a map or that dont know common knowledge things we all learned in school. like did they never listen or what?
    I remember watching an episode of Come Dine With Me where one of the contestants was from Serbia. She said that when she tells people where she's from, they often think that she's from a very cold part of Russia. (Siberia, obviously). I was thinking "People wouldn't really think that, would they?" but when she told her fellow contestants, at least two of them thought she was from Russia. :rolleyes:


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    #104
    Hyperbollix
    Registered Users Posts: 942 ✭✭✭Hyperbollix


    paleoperson wrote: »
    Why are you trying to belittle the beliefs of Brexiteers and Trump supporters and acting like we all agree with you as fact that someone who was informed wouldn't vote for them? Plenty of highly informed, educated and intelligent people voted for them, a lot of the demographic were working class people because it helped them - or was projected to help them - a lot more economically.

    Trumpism and Brexit are the same thing, tailored for their respective audiences, namely a nationalistic nostalgia trip designed to get the majority to vote against it's own interest for the benefit of a small minority.

    I'm not for a second pretending that both these electorates don't have very real problems to be angry about, my point is that neither Donald Trump or Britain leaving the EU, will do anything to solve their problems, in fact they will compound them. Just because a lot of people fall for the charms of a snake oil salesmen, doesnt suddenly give the snake oil real medicinal properties. It just proves that people can be easily manipulated, especially in the age of social media.

    As for highly informed, educated people voting for Trump and Brexit. Of course, there is always going to be a section of society which is in the priviledged position of being fully insulated from whatever shocks that society is subjected to, and often those same people are in a position to profit from those shocks taking place. Is it then ok to drive your country and the majority of its citizens off a cliff because a tiny minority are cheering it on?

    paleoperson wrote: »
    Who shows a small bit of interest in what's happening in the world - so are you saying all those MAGA hat wearers don't care what's happening in the world? I mean you have to make sense, you can't just make things up as you fancy.

    Yes, I would absolute say that these MAGA people don't give two shíts whats happening in the world. Most of them probably couldn't pick out Germany on a map or many other places for that matter, probably some in the US itself.
    Let's not cod ourselves. Trumpism is nothing more than Wrestlemania dressed up as politics. Trump rallys are like Superbowls. It's an event to go to and scream your lungs out and laugh at the main attraction, a mentally deranged sociopath who has fluked his way into the highest office in the land by virtue of a quirk of a flawed electoral system, and plenty of voter suppression and cheating to boot.
    We won't pretend this is an informed audience packed with conservative voters who are deeply worried about the spread of liberalism. Trumpism is just a simple "fúck you" vote, the very definition of cutting off your nose to spite your own face. 25% of the worlds death toll for covid19, in the world's richest and most scientifically advanced nation. Speaks for itself.


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    #105
    ShatterAlan
    Registered Users Posts: 2,807 ✭✭✭ShatterAlan


    My sister hasn't a clue about what's going on in the world. Not a scooby. She's not thick just has zero interest in politics or current affairs. She wouldn't know who the Taoiseach is (she lives in the UK...so the majority of brits wouldn't know either...but still).


    She probably knows that Trump is US president but wouldn't know who VP is or who the opposition is (Biden / Harris).


    I wish I was like her, I'd probably be a lot happier and more successful instead of wasting my life wringing my hands about the state of the world and stressing over things that I can't change or have zero influence over other than to bitch about them.


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    #106
    pgj2015
    Registered Users Posts: 8,956 ✭✭✭pgj2015


    I met a woman one night who was with her other half, straight away she starts ranting about the Irish politicians and other issues with gay marriage (she was in favor). oh her opinion was 100% right and no one else got a look in. I was only in her company for about 10 minutes, it was awful, I felt sorry for her other half who didn't seem to be as political at all.

    why get worked up over things you cant change?


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    #107
    Justin Credible Darts
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,404 ✭✭✭Justin Credible Darts


    igCorcaigh wrote: »
    The price of petrol and gay rights, eh?

    You do indeed live in a bubble.

    Global warming i assume you mean.


    yes, and do you know what else ?


    As a man I could not give 2 fecks about abortion
    or black lives matter, us politics , how much ciggies go up in the budget, brexit, whether people like their toast done on one side or two



    As someone who has no kids and too old to start now, I just dont care what happens when i and my wife wont be around. In fact care very little now unless it directly impacts me.


    I know some might see this as selfish, but again i dont care, what I do care are those close to me, family friends etc. That is plenty to worry about, instead of worrying about stuff I cannot control.


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    #108
    ShatterAlan
    Registered Users Posts: 2,807 ✭✭✭ShatterAlan


    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    There's a special place in hell for those who get worked up about politics but don't actually vote.


    I would beg to differ. The US political system is completely rigged. Democrats and Republicans are two cheeks of the same arse. The president isn't elected there, he's selected. The two party system is effected to give the public the illusion of choice when in fact it is corporations that pull the strings for their own aggrandizement.


    What matters to the American public:


    Jobs
    Affordable and Universal Health Coverage
    Affordable and quality education.
    Responsible gun law reform
    Reining in military spending
    Ending never-ending illegal foreign wars for profit
    Regulation of the casino capitalism of Wall Street
    Tackling climate change


    These things matter to the majority of Americans left, right and centre yet neither party has done a damn thing about them since Kennedy. Instead the parties deflect and distract the public with non-issues like Roe v Wade or gay marriage or fcuking gender neutral toilets or non-existant caravans of rapists coming over the border to steal your daughter's virtue and your precious lettuce-picking job to the point where the public are at each others' throats calling one another "wingnuts" or "libtards" and that suits both parties just fine.


    When that sums up your voting choice then what's the point?


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    #109
    paddythere
    Registered Users Posts: 439 ✭✭paddythere


    pgj2015 wrote: »
    I met a woman one night who was with her other half, straight away she starts ranting about the Irish politicians and other issues with gay marriage (she was in favor). oh her opinion was 100% right and no one else got a look in. I was only in her company for about 10 minutes, it was awful, I felt sorry for her other half who didn't seem to be as political at all.

    why get worked up over things you cant change?

    Because things can be changed


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    #110
    ShatterAlan
    Registered Users Posts: 2,807 ✭✭✭ShatterAlan


    ILoveYourVibes wrote: »
    it took me three seconds to find out the cases were around 1000k today.

    I am a quick thinker though ..i tend to be able to make sense of information quicker than others.

    Maybe some people DO have to sit and read things over for hours. I don't.




    A MILLION cases :pac:


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    #111
    ShatterAlan
    Registered Users Posts: 2,807 ✭✭✭ShatterAlan


    gigantic09 wrote: »
    I have a couple of teenage nieces and nephews who don't seem to have a clue about what's going on in the world outside their own teenage bubble. They seem to have very little general knowledge, political, historical etc. They wouldn't be aware of the likes of the beatles, Hitler or jfk.
    We were playing charades last Xmas and I did 'the Angelus' for my turn. They looked at me like I had two heads, never heard of it.
    Their gran offered them a slice of rhubarb pie and again not a clue what rhubarb was.
    Nephew got a dog for birthday, and I joked when I was his age I had to walk the plank everyday as we couldn't afford a dog. Joke fell totally flat.
    Sometimes I question the government's insistence on keeping schools open at all costs if this is what the result is ��.


    Your nieces and nephews are a dream come true for politicians and their handlers.


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    #112
    ShatterAlan
    Registered Users Posts: 2,807 ✭✭✭ShatterAlan


    whisky_galore wrote: »
    Tbf I'd be pretty ropey on many of the -stans, the small countries east of say Poland, much of Africa esp the smaller ones, and South America.

    A fair whack of countries that were around in school are called something else now!




    The "-stans"?


    Is that your collective for countries that end in "....stan"?


    What about your thoughts on people or languages ...are they the "...eses"? You know...Chinese, Japanese, Nepalese? Maybe Congolese or Portuguese brings it a little closer to home.


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    #113
    DeanAustin
    Registered Users Posts: 3,784 ✭✭✭DeanAustin


    yosser hughes wrote: »
    This actually says a lot about the quality of education in this country.

    She probably did well in exams.

    Believe it or not, she didn’t particularly. She did pretty well professionally because she knew how to get things done, wasn’t afraid to tread on toes and knows how to get people on her side. She’s very streetsmart, she was quite intelligent but she just wasn’t well informed or well educated.

    Professionally, people who can get things done are worth more than people who have degrees coming out their arse or who can name the President of Venezuela.


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    #114
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 17,381 ✭ [Deleted User]


    ShatterAlan wrote: »
    The "-stans"?


    Is that your collective for countries that end in "....stan"?


    What about your thoughts on people or languages ...are they the "...eses"? You know...Chinese, Japanese, Nepalese? Maybe Congolese or Portuguese brings it a little closer to home.

    They're known as the Stans. It comes from Persian.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/-stan


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    #115
    Mules
    Registered Users Posts: 514 ✭✭✭Mules


    Deleted User wrote: »
    I think people who are obsessed with US Politics but show zero interest in domestic politics are worse.

    Like people who seem to genuinely care about Trump's new judge, how that effects anyone in Ireland, I just don't know.


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    #116
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    ShatterAlan wrote: »
    My sister hasn't a clue about what's going on in the world. Not a scooby. She's not thick just has zero interest in politics or current affairs. She wouldn't know who the Taoiseach is (she lives in the UK...so the majority of brits wouldn't know either...but still).


    She probably knows that Trump is US president but wouldn't know who VP is or who the opposition is (Biden / Harris).


    I wish I was like her, I'd probably be a lot happier and more successful instead of wasting my life wringing my hands about the state of the world and stressing over things that I can't change or have zero influence over other than to bitch about them.

    Indeed yes, / I watch the news, then resume MY life


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    #117
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    paddythere wrote: »
    Because things can be changed

    By who? Not you and I


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    #118
    paddythere
    Registered Users Posts: 439 ✭✭paddythere


    Graces7 wrote: »
    By who? Not you and I

    By the public, of which you and I form part of. How do you think we got from feudalism to a stage where every adult has the vote? It was just voluntarily conceded by the powerful.

    For example: You ever heard of Karl Marx? Just one guy who wanted to change the world and I think it's safe to say he did whether you agree with him or not.


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    #119
    saabsaab
    Registered Users Posts: 7,770 ✭✭✭saabsaab


    I'd say a few don't even know about the pandemic! Met this woman in the middle of the foot and mouth crisis in 2001, she asked what the wet mats were about (disinfectant at the doors) . Told her and she said she never heard about the crisis! Wasn't Dublin either.


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    #120
    Be right back
    Registered Users Posts: 6,056 ✭✭✭Be right back


    I once worked with someone who had never heard of Auschwitz.


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    #121
    Justin Credible Darts
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,404 ✭✭✭Justin Credible Darts


    I had to google who this greta thomberg was.
    There are multi millionaire musicians, celebrity, oscar winning actors I have never heard off

    These things are not important to me.
    But ask me the capital city of any country, almost anything on geography, ask me about history or the music I do like, ask me about dogs, gardening etc and can chat with anyone.

    Its all about what you deem is important.


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