Well, howdy there internet people, let's bow again. So today we are going to talk about the news,

staying informed, why you should or whether you should, especially if it feels like you can't change

the things you want to, you can't alter the outcomes, you just get to keep score.

And if that's the case, what's the point of even paying attention?

We're going to do this because I got a question message that came in from somebody.

I'm not going to read the whole thing because it's pretty lengthy, but in relevant part,

it says, a few months ago I read amusing ourselves to death by Neil Postman and he

pointed out that if you're the average person most of the headlines you see in

the news are things that don't affect you and that you can do nothing about.

And goes on to talk about the person seeing some of their friends,

monitoring everything, watching all of the horrible things that happen, but they can't do anything about it.

And they're just basically filling themselves up with raging grief and the person asks why they should stay informed. They don't want to check out, but they don't understand

what they can actually do. When it comes to foreign policy and the events that most people probably are imagining,

you're kind of right. There's not much you can do, not right now. I want to be clear about

this. That doesn't mean that there's nothing you can do, just that the effects are limited.

And those people who are out,

they're burning themselves up,

I hope you continue to do it because while you may not be able to drastically alter the outcome, you might be able to change it a little bit.

Imagine if there was constant pressure about the U.S. drone program when it was at its height.

You wouldn't have stopped it, but you could have curtailed it. If you're talking

about a major conflict, the foreign policy machinery, it is really well oiled.

You're not going to be able to stop it.

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