I believe you'd have a far more satisfying and productive time coming out of your shell if you redirected Joe's conversation to asking about him, or his kids, or his hobbies- keeping it local like the article concludes.
Unless it's your job, neither of you really understand whatever is happening with Ukraine and your conversation will be mostly limited to repeating what you've been told to each other, which doesn't enrich either of your lives.
The Ukraine example might be true for a non-european country, but as a European in these times I want to be informed. I want to help refugees and the victims of war (either by donating or giving shelter for some days). If I wouldn't know things from the news, I wouldn't know about these things.
Knowing in what direction world events might change is good to be at least mentally prepared when things turn worse.
It doesn't have to be checking the news 24/7 but checking it once a day for the important parts I think it's important. I would rather say people need to learn how to distance themselves from the news a bit to keep a healthy mental state with all the things happening right now.
As a fellow European, IMO it’s very important to follow especially what non-Ukraine politicians are doing. That will help a lot in elections in coming decades. Let’s keep them accountable for once.
I doubt there will be a non-biased compilation that doesn't bend narrative here or there.
But it will be interesting to compare my own experience to what people will try to make out of this later on.
Regarding COVID at least in my country it was pure madness. A lot of double standards, different media channels skipping different bits to bend the narrative, people who did little trying to claim credit, discrediting people based on information we have today even if they acted okay-ish given what we knew at the time....
It's very interesting to watch history that I witnessed being written. It will be even more to see how people reflect on this 20 or 50 years later. A lot of food for thoughts if history we know reflects what actually happened in other cases.
It’s pretty easy to understand what is going on in Ukraine in general. It’s also pretty easy to notice certain politicians/institutions/companies reactions. Then it will be pretty easy to make choices. If people ain’t passive, we can ensure this ain’t happening again in 5-8 years.
I think that OP meant Joe Biden. Timeline checks out. It is unlikely OP is in position to talk about presidents kids and hobbies.
> Unless it's your job, neither of you really understand whatever is happening with Ukraine and your conversation will be mostly limited to repeating what you've been told to each other, which doesn't enrich either of your lives.
A bit of very practical issue here is that Russian troll force is in full force right now, at least where I live. Trying to affect general opinion of people, in order to influence future elections and to make NATO/Eu passive due to pressure from population. The money were in fact flowing from Russia toward our right-wing nearly fascist or clearly fascist parties.
I dont think "everyone else should be passive" is good strategy here.
Unless it's your job, neither of you really understand whatever is happening with Ukraine and your conversation will be mostly limited to repeating what you've been told to each other, which doesn't enrich either of your lives.