We have little to no control over current events, yet we spend so much time breathing it in and getting outraged at every little controversy. It's a slow-moving trainwreck, and I can't look away.
I'm so envious of the people I know who just don't give a fuck.
I've tried more hobbies and entertaining distractions, but I'm left feeling empty and joyless. Meditation helps, but then I'm right back where I started.
Anyone got any tips?
Make concrete predictions, check news occasionally. If predictions are wrong, check news more often. If predictions are right, check news less often. If you can accurately predict something, it's not actually new information to you, so there's no reason to consume it unless you're getting some sort of value out of it. You probably don't actually enjoy the news, so anything past what it takes to calibrate your predictive ability is just self-harm.
Only make predictions on the level of detail you actually care about. Trump will say something outrageous and beyond the pale three times this week. Does it matter what? Of course not. Now you can just borrow my standing prediction on that and stop listening to that kind of news story on a regular basis.