Are we better off ignoring the news for our own peace of mind?

[webfact]

 

by Michael Bridge

Gone are the days when we waited for the daily news to be delivered by a newspaper boy on his rounds.

Now sitting in my humble condominium in Thailand, I have the luxury of watching TV beamed from all over the globe 24/7.

I can even watch programmes up to 7 days after broadcast using a Catch-Up system.

On my mobile breaking news is sent almost before it happens and add You Tube, and Facebook and we can stay update with news and of course rumours and the dreaded fake news.

Being an expat has its added stresses, but we try to take it all in our stride.

I am of the age where I was not born during World War II, and so apart from seeing Vietnam on TV from afar in the UK, have luckily never had to experience close up the horrors of war.

Almost Reality TV

When the current hostilities broke in Ukraine like many at first, I watched in fascination the situation unfolding.
However, what hit home for me was the view of the massive traffic jams as people tried to flee Kiev.

I thought how unnerving it had to be trying to drive your family away from your house with limited cash (the ATMs were limiting transactions) not knowing if you would run out of petrol before reaching safety.

I could relate to having to lead my own family to safety and it was really quiet a sobering situation.

I hope NATO can get its act together before we start to talk about World War III.

Of course, there are a lot of Russian families currently on holiday in Thailand and I am sure they are starting to feel uncomfortable.

However, I actually feel very sad for them, as I am sure the majority of Russians do not welcome this hostility.

 

Meanwhile personally for my own sanity, I plan to switch off my BBC News app and only watch movies and TV series for the time being.

I am sure people will be disusing the situation in the pubs, bars, trains, planes restaurants, and even saunas, so I am unlikely to be totally immune to the news, but at least I can try.
 

-- © Copyright  ASEAN NOW 2022-02-25

 

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[Thailand]

No

[connda]

For those who have listened to the West's "Russia Bad" narrative for the last decade and actually believe that there is only one side to that story and Russian national security means nothing to the West?  Yeah - best to turn off the TV and stop reading the online commentary.  It will drive you insane. 

[Kwasaki]

9 minutes ago, webfact said:

Of course, there are a lot of Russian families currently on holiday in Thailand and I am sure they are starting to feel uncomfortable.

Why should they, they haven't done anything.

[John Drake]

12 minutes ago, webfact said:

Now sitting in my humble condominium in Thailand, I have the luxury of watching TV beamed from all over the globe 24/7.

I can even watch programmes up to 7 days after broadcast using a Catch-Up system.

On my mobile breaking news is sent almost before it happens and add You Tube, and Facebook and we can stay update with news and of course rumours and the dreaded fake news.

Who are you exactly? There is no name I see attached to this first person essay.

[Bkk Brian]

15 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Why should they, they haven't done anything.

No they've not done anything wrong but their dictator Putin has and considering the protests against the invasion going on in Moscow there they may be feeling a little embarrassed because of his actions and threats to anyone who tries to intervene?

[connda]

Take the time to learn more about the region that isn't filtered through the lens of Western main-stream media.
Some background regarding Ukraine that a sixth grader could understand.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/map-explainer-ukraine/

[Denim]

It is in a persons interest to follow the news since although it may be that events far away are not now touching us here , it could well be that the various repercussions will have an impact on us in the not too distant future. Think travel arrangements and exchange rates etc.

 

Therefore , forearmed is forewarned.  Look at the present to plan for the future.

 

Most importantly  .....................  stock up on booze and nibbles.

 

If I were a Ukrainian citizen , I would at the very least had my car topped up with petrol weeks ago and a one week supply of emergency food in the house.

[Chainsaw]

I got rid of my TV years ago and never regretted it. Watching the news was always depressing, it was always doom and gloom hyped to the max. I realised that all I could do about any of the disasters in the world was worry about them and stress myself out. Since dumping the tv I've realised just how much propaganda is dressed up as 'news'. No thanks.

[STALINGRAD]

To the quote earlier “Why should they , they haven’t done anything” Are people not a reflection of the customs and culture of the nation they live? Are their sons and daughters not the very soldiers that perform the aggression? The Russian people have been inured to a hopeless fate since before the Bolshevik revolution. By not standing up to their leaders they enable this behavior. Cubans fled Castro and complain for another to change their country while playing dominos in Miami. Russians mumble while their leader poisons,enables Assad,blackmails Europe.They are all cowards.

[connda]

Just now, Chainsaw said:

I got rid of my TV years ago and never regretted it. Watching the news was always depressing, it was always doom and gloom hyped to the max. I realised that all I could do about any of the disasters in the world was worry about them and stress myself out. Since dumping the tv I've realised just how much propaganda is dressed up as 'news'. No thanks.

I left my TV in the US when I left in 2007. 
 

[LennyW]

43 minutes ago, webfact said:

I plan to switch off my BBC News app

Best thing you could do, the worst source of factual unbiased news out there!!

[NanLaew]

16 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

No they've not done anything wrong but their dictator Putin has and considering the protests against the invasion going on in Moscow there they may be feeling a little embarrassed because of his actions and threats to anyone who tries to intervene?

An embarrassed Russian? Now there's an oxymoron.

[Sparktrader]

 

Most news is bad news. Tiring enough explain btc to.people.

[NanLaew]

3 minutes ago, LennyW said:

46 minutes ago, webfact said:

I plan to switch off my BBC News app

Best thing you could do, the worst source of factual unbiased news out there!!

Get RT (while you can).

 

Alex Salmond is awesome!

[Bkk Brian]

45 minutes ago, webfact said:

On my mobile breaking news is sent almost before it happens and add You Tube, and Facebook and we can stay update with news and of course rumours and the dreaded fake news.

Its not the TV that is a problem, the internet is the source for more fake news than ever before in history

[connda]

6 minutes ago, STALINGRAD said:

To the quote earlier “Why should they , they haven’t done anything” Are people not a reflection of the customs and culture of the nation they live? Are their sons and daughters not the very soldiers that perform the aggression? The Russian people have been inured to a hopeless fate since before the Bolshevik revolution. By not standing up to their leaders they enable this behavior. Cubans fled Castro and complain for another to change their country while playing dominos in Miami. Russians mumble while their leader poisons,enables Assad,blackmails Europe.They are all cowards.

That's painting with a very broad xenophobic brush.  The same could be said of Americans or any country for that matter.  Such a notion fails to grasp that countries are made up of individuals and countries are not homogeneous.  It is very dangerous to go down the path you are suggestion as it foments a call for racial and ethnic discrimination if not violence. 
"All Russians Bad. All Russians Responsible."  Which is clearly nonsense. 

Edited February 25, 2022 by connda

[Sparktrader]

5 minutes ago, Chainsaw said:

I got rid of my TV years ago and never regretted it. Watching the news was always depressing, it was always doom and gloom hyped to the max. I realised that all I could do about any of the disasters in the world was worry about them and stress myself out. Since dumping the tv I've realised just how much propaganda is dressed up as 'news'. No thanks.

Tv - crime disaster everywhere

No tv - life is peaceful

[Bkk Brian]

1 minute ago, NanLaew said:

An embarrassed Russian? Now there's an oxymoron.

I know a few Russians due to the International School where my daughter goes and they are all feeling a little embarrassed about this and in no way agree with the invasion.

[Bkk Brian]

3 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Get RT (while you can).

 

Alex Salmond is awesome!

Alex Salmond suspends RT show over Ukraine invasion

[Doctor Tom]

Ignoring reality doesn't make it go away. There is a term for it, living in a fools paradise.   The problem is sifting the real from the fake and making up your own mind, not easy in these days of the evil that is social media and news outlets that are biased and feeding their own egos and agendas . But being informed is to have some power over your own life, albeit it very small. 

[Doctor Tom]

4 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

a little embarrassed

'A little embarrassed'? That's a bit lame isn't it?  I hope that they are feeling totally disgusted and angry with their thugs in power.  

[Sparktrader]

15 minutes ago, STALINGRAD said:

To the quote earlier “Why should they , they haven’t done anything” Are people not a reflection of the customs and culture of the nation they live? Are their sons and daughters not the very soldiers that perform the aggression? The Russian people have been inured to a hopeless fate since before the Bolshevik revolution. By not standing up to their leaders they enable this behavior. Cubans fled Castro and complain for another to change their country while playing dominos in Miami. Russians mumble while their leader poisons,enables Assad,blackmails Europe.They are all cowards.

Not true. Russians living in Pattaya are individuals like you.

[Bkk Brian]

3 minutes ago, Doctor Tom said:

'A little embarrassed'? That's a bit lame isn't it?  I hope that they are feeling totally disgusted and angry with their thugs in power.  

? Perhaps they are but I'm not going to get in a discussion with them about how they really feel while waiting to pick up our kids from a school that has over 40 nationalities in it including Ukraine.

[mahtin]

Playing ostrich is inviting a kick in the posterior parts.

[LarrySR]

Legitimate journalism is fine.

Just don't watch the garbage like Fox, NewsMax, Breitbart, OAN.

[The Hammer2021]

1 hour ago, connda said:

For those who have listened to the West's "Russia Bad" narrative for the last decade and actually believe that there is only one side to that story and Russian national security means nothing to the West?  Yeah - best to turn off the TV and stop reading the online commentary.  It will drive you insane. 

Rubbish.  Russia is not threatened by Ukraine. It is the Russian people who are threatened by Putin.

[Enoon]

55 minutes ago, STALINGRAD said:

To the quote earlier “Why should they , they haven’t done anything” Are people not a reflection of the customs and culture of the nation they live? Are their sons and daughters not the very soldiers that perform the aggression? The Russian people have been inured to a hopeless fate since before the Bolshevik revolution. By not standing up to their leaders they enable this behavior. Cubans fled Castro and complain for another to change their country while playing dominos in Miami. Russians mumble while their leader poisons,enables Assad,blackmails Europe.They are all cowards.

They live under a regime of terror.

 

As they did under the Soviets.

 

As they did under the Czars.

 

As they have ever since Russia acquired its unspoken rules of governance, 100's of years ago, under "The Mongol Yoke".

 

Generally speaking the unspoken rules of governance of the West have a different origin.........and have had a very different outcome.

 

You would also be a "coward" had you lived any part of Russian history, or the history of China..........or Thailand.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2022 by Enoon

[bbko]

1 hour ago, Kwasaki said:

Why should they, they haven't done anything.

Tell that to the Asians in the US, they are being blamed for covid as if they worked in the Wuhan lab.

[Airalee]

56 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

? Perhaps they are but I'm not going to get in a discussion with them about how they really feel while waiting to pick up our kids from a school that has over 40 nationalities in it including Ukraine.

But you did get into a discussion with them.  And not just one, but a few.