Political noise is nothing new. As soon as the first caveman figured out that talking about nothing worked almost as well as actually doing something, political hot air was born. All that has changed is the access to the vast volumes of double speak, not its nature.

Internet, phone, cable, streaming, TV, newspapers (they do still exist), online news, blogs, social media posts and any new way some genius comes up with to separate you from your peace and quiet all come screaming with every idiotic pronouncement from every idiot who has a comment – and present company is not excepted. Above all your government officials pontificate with any talking head or podcaster that will have them usually without saying much.

Now, if I were a good little political scientist, I’d tell you that you need these loudmouths in order to be well rounded in the information space. Fortunately, I don’t have a political scientist card so I can tell you the truth – quality is all that matters, not quantity.

But, but both sides!

If one side can’t make its case in under an hour, okay, watch the whole hour if you think it’s worth it. If the other side can make an excellent case in ten minutes, why insist that they drag it out or worse, that you find fifty more minutes that are complete drivel? The object isn’t equal time. The object is informed understanding.

You cannot and will not learn everything there is to know about a given issue – not even if you’re a paid expert on the subject matter. Now, if we’re paying you, I expect you to know a lot more than the Average Joe, but you’ll still never know it all. Quick, without looking, who was the first man to hold the office of President of the United States? I guarantee you got that one wrong.

Say what?

You – just like every grad student I’ve ever pulled this on – forgot the Articles of Confederation, didn’t you? The office of president existed under the Articles but was very different from when Washington became president. In fact eleven men were president before Washington but their powers were much more limited because the office was so different. Also, different government.

Oh, and the answer is John Hancock of Maryland.

Sure, it’s a bit of a trick question but it highlights the point – humans don’t come in size omniscient. No matter how expert you are, you can’t know it all.

Now, here’s the good news: you don’t need to. You need to know enough to follow the bouncing ball and to know where to find more information if you need it – and to recognize that you need more information. That’s it. You don’t need to be a super computer or wear a pocket protector – or even be old enough to get that last joke. You just need a solid foundational knowledge and to be decently informed. That’s plenty to be able to navigate the noise and to know when you don’t know enough.

Where to start?

Start with ‘you don’t know enough’ for a given issue. Then go get the information you need. History, culture, nature of the conflict(s), current conflict, current issue – you just need those basics. Not the whole enchilada – a good overview is sufficient to be well informed enough to evaluate the issue.

But, that’s work!

Welcome to adulthood. Want more work? Try being ignorant and letting your government keep doing stupid stuff – fixing that is always a nightmare. Think of it like doing the dishes; one plate and a fork is a lot easier than two weeks of stuff piled all over the counter. Just wash the danged plate and go to bed.

What about that ‘good foundation’ I mentioned? Frankly, most of you listening to political commentary probably have it. It’s just the political literacy to understand what you’re being told. Here I mean really basic stuff. If the words ‘legislature’ and ‘parliament’ are foreign, you aren’t ready yet. I couldn’t care less if you know the exact definition of ‘nation state’. Those that do probably realize I use it pretty loosely. But if you’re foggy on what exactly a country is or the difference between Federal and state, you need to get your foundation laid.

No, for those smarty pants out there, it’s not just international stuff. You probably don’t understand half as many American issues as well as you think you do. That would be largely a function of our crappy education system and our crappier legacy media. The rest is because there are no one card decks.

What?

You weren’t taught to think about issues or to think for that matter. That’s poor education and you are completely able to teach yourself so don’t give up. The media is more interested in ‘narrative’ than facts. Journalists were never as professional as they wanted to believe but now they aren’t even journalists anymore. On the bright side, it makes ignoring legacy media perfectly safe.

Think of political groups be they activists or governments as having a deck of cards. Each card is a reason for whatever issue or action. Every political body decides for itself how to shuffle those cards. Will they put the ace on top or the joker? Totally up to them. But the cards will be ordered by importance with the card that’s most important on top.

When we talk about the reason Group X did Thing Y we almost always talk about that top card. But there are no one card decks. The most important card isn’t the only card. Translation: there’s NEVER only one reason for a political action, no matter what it is.

Let’s look at the current hilarity going on in the House of Representatives. If you listen to the left leaning media, it’s a catastrophe caused by the far right Republicans trying to take over the country. If you listen to the right leaning media, it’s the fault of those rebels who want to rebrand conservatism at the expense of the Republican party. Ask the guys involved and they want to consider budgetary bills individually instead of in one huge omnibus and McCarthy undermined that when he went back on his promise.

Truth is, all three have an element of truth to them – they are all cards in the deck. The last is probably most on point but the other two aren’t completely wrong. But they are deliberately worded to make them seem worse than they really are. The House can function perfectly well without a Speaker – it’s done so many times before. The Republicans are trying to take power – but by winning it electorally which is perfectly fair. There is a group of Republicans that want to take the party down a more conservative path. Always has been, it’s just that the electorate is becoming more conservative which means they might finally succeed and the old school Republicans don’t want that.

Both Democrats and Republicans prefer omnibus bills because they are easier to sneak pork into and get them passed with little scrutiny. Upsetting that apple cart will open a new level of political gamesmanship that the old school of both parties wants to avoid.

So, how much of that was noise? Pretty much all of it.

I’m a conservative and I side with the so called rebels – but this is a minor incident in a longer war. Speaker is important but being without one for a week or two hurts nothing. Unless you are just fascinated with the internal workings of Congress, this just doesn’t matter right now.

How do I know? Vacations and illness are things. If the President can take a week off, so can the Speaker.

In other words, common sense. Sure, knowing about the American political systems makes it easier but you don’t need to know what the Speaker does to have enough sense to realize that no one works 24/7 anyway. How critical can this be?

Just like at work, losing someone for a week isn’t a big deal but losing someone for a month may be. The media makes everything sound so urgent – because they get paid by the view or click. They NEED your eyeballs desperately. That’s why clickbait ends up sounding so desperate – because it is. Slow news weeks are very bad for business. Combine that with talking heads that wouldn’t know a real news story anyway and you end up with what ever they can make sound interesting.

Conflict is interesting. If it weren’t for the war in Israel, you’d hear about nothing but the speakership fight. Only one of those two is important.

Here’s the best rule of thumb to my mind: a story or issue is important in proportion to the number of people it actually affects. Wars affect thousands and change lives; congressional infighting is just a spectator fight. Remember, politics is just about groups of people making decisions – if it doesn’t affect people, it’s not politically important.

Of course there’s more to it – it’s usually safe to ignore politicians playing to their base beyond understanding the general gist. The really important stuff is usually the really boring stuff. You know, budgets and regulations domestically, which country is allied with which internationally. Snoozeville even if you like politics, but that’s actually where the action usually is.

No, it doesn’t mean that the news is never useful. It’s just rarely important. Seriously, how many of you knew, let alone cared that there isn’t currently a Speaker of the House? I mean, it’s pretty funny as political theater goes but it will have to drag out a LOT longer to become really important. In the meantime, the interim Speaker hasn’t let the House blow up or anything – yet. Congress makes its own rules – something of a flaw in the Constitution – so they can pretty much work around any hole they managed to dig themselves.

No one will die or even get badly hurt while the Republicans fight this out. Everyone will get paid – the next budget fight will be epic and epically funny – and the country will survive. Then they will select a Speaker and find something else to fight about.

Is this useful to know? If you are interested in a specific piece of legislation, like say Biden’s upcoming aid package for Israel and Ukraine, yes, this is good to know and can be useful. If you aren’t concerned about anything specific being passed soon, then no, it’s not. The Speakership is important to the House, but no one is more than inconvenienced by having an interim Speaker for a few weeks.

Not that CNN shares that opinion. Okay, it is funny when the other side of the aisle muffs something, so let the lefties at CNN have their fun. But catastrophic and Earth shaking? Come on. It’s fun political theater as the two main factions of Republicans fight it out with each other but it’s only important to the Republicans. Okay, sure, it could be important to their future but this isn’t likely to be the defining moment of the Republican party. They are on the way out if it is.

So how do you know what is and what isn’t important? Short answer, if it’s the main focus of the news cycle, that might be a clue. Okay, okay, being serious – ask yourself a question. Does this affect anyone’s life? At a minimum, it’s important to that person. Next question: does this affect a lot of people’s lives? If both answers are yes, it’s important.

There are different levels of important. Obviously, if it affects your life you’re going to find it a lot more important than if it only affects a few people far away. Importance isn’t urgency – a tornado in your neighborhood is both important and urgent but in another state is only important.

Sounds kinda like common sense, huh? That’s because it is. Figuring it out is easy. Knowing the answers that part can be tricky.

The Speakership fight is fun but not significant in the long run. But major changes to welfare or Social Security can impact millions and ruin lives, or improve lives but damage the economy. But what about changes to the election system? Which ones matter and which ones don’t?

Those questions – where you don’t know the ins and outs of how the thing works – those are the questions you need to find out more about. That is so easy today that there’s no excuse for trusting only the talking heads on legacy media. Find a few videos, podcasts or websites – whatever works for you – and get the information you need from both sides.

But if the thing doesn’t affect any actual people then it’s actually not important.

Feel free to skip the clickbait.

Update: wouldn’t you know they’d elect a new Speaker the day I publish this thing?