It’s a funny joke, but really this sort of thinking belies a big chunk of the problem in dealing with negative feelings. Almost universally, there is no such thing as information that you are worse off for knowing. Sure, there are edge cases like if you learn some country’s nuclear secrets and they send an army of bureaucrats/assassins after you to make your life hell - but I can almost guarentee, that has not happened to you.
The joke is referring to knowing about things like the outbreak of violence in Sudan. I’m not saying that violence in Sudan is not a bad thing - I’m just saying that knowing about it isn’t. Before, you didn’t know about it, so you couldn’t do anything about it. Now you do know about it, so you can do things like send money to aid organizations or petition your government to impose sanctions on a repressive government. Or you can say “that sucks, but it’s not my problem” and move on with your day.
Knowing it is happening, you can do things to prepare yourself for bad things that may happen. You can build up your emergency fund, make more connections with people in your community, start preparing to emmigrate, politically organize, or use him as an example to teach the next generation what not to do. Or you can just shrug and say “nuthin’ I can do about it”. But either way, the information is, at worst, neutral. It is either irrelivant, or can be used to improve your life and the lives of others relative to what they would have been if you didn’t know.
Like, if it is your birthday, and the forecast calls for rain, it is a good thing to learn this. Otherwise you may have planned a picnic. Sure, it is “bad news” that it is raining - but it is good that you know, because now you can plan to go to the movies instead.
It’s a funny joke, but really this sort of thinking belies a big chunk of the problem in dealing with negative feelings. Almost universally, there is no such thing as information that you are worse off for knowing. Sure, there are edge cases like if you learn some country’s nuclear secrets and they send an army of bureaucrats/assassins after you to make your life hell - but I can almost guarentee, that has not happened to you.
The joke is referring to knowing about things like the outbreak of violence in Sudan. I’m not saying that violence in Sudan is not a bad thing - I’m just saying that knowing about it isn’t. Before, you didn’t know about it, so you couldn’t do anything about it. Now you do know about it, so you can do things like send money to aid organizations or petition your government to impose sanctions on a repressive government. Or you can say “that sucks, but it’s not my problem” and move on with your day.
How about knowing Trump was an incredibly bad person to have running the country, and being forced to watch it happen anyway?
Knowing it is happening, you can do things to prepare yourself for bad things that may happen. You can build up your emergency fund, make more connections with people in your community, start preparing to emmigrate, politically organize, or use him as an example to teach the next generation what not to do. Or you can just shrug and say “nuthin’ I can do about it”. But either way, the information is, at worst, neutral. It is either irrelivant, or can be used to improve your life and the lives of others relative to what they would have been if you didn’t know.
Like, if it is your birthday, and the forecast calls for rain, it is a good thing to learn this. Otherwise you may have planned a picnic. Sure, it is “bad news” that it is raining - but it is good that you know, because now you can plan to go to the movies instead.