Guide to politics for the political idiot?

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I love the "idea" of politics but I've never really kept up with it at any point in my life. Can someone give me a list of daily or weekly updated sites with good, mostly-unbiased readings on recent events? I'm far more interested in international affairs than domestic, by the way. Blogs are fine too. Also, anything leaning towards environmental or philosophical issues would be even better.

― Reatards Unite, Monday, 16 April 2007 03:41 (eighteen years ago)

The New York Times and Washington Post both have good international news sections. The Economist magazine is a rich source for world news, but it's pretty dense, so you might not want to spring for a subscription until you've bought an issue or two at the newsstands to see if it's for you.

― Nathan, Monday, 16 April 2007 03:47 (eighteen years ago)

Once in a while I read Foreign Affairs - it's great if you want to feel like you "really" know what's going on, but in truth I'm hardly disciplined enough about following world affairs to feel like I know much.

― Hurting 2, Monday, 16 April 2007 03:57 (eighteen years ago)

the economist and the financial times

― lfam, Monday, 16 April 2007 03:58 (eighteen years ago)

I think the original poster might find economist too dry.

― Hurting 2, Monday, 16 April 2007 04:11 (eighteen years ago)

yeah, the economist

also the comments section on any story about don imus
god bless america

― daria-g, Monday, 16 April 2007 04:11 (eighteen years ago)

the economist is very dry and dense but it does not use unnecessary jargon. its prose is clear and straightforward.

― lfam, Monday, 16 April 2007 04:14 (eighteen years ago)

i wish the heck it was less expensive to subscribe

― daria-g, Monday, 16 April 2007 04:16 (eighteen years ago)

Blogs are fine too.

This makes me wonder? Are there any "mostly unbiased" political blogs?

― mulla atari, Monday, 16 April 2007 05:03 (eighteen years ago)

The Economist has a rather pronounced center-right bias (especially on economic/trade/labor issues) that should be accounted for. I've not seen a publication of similar scope and style with a center-left take unfortunately (and once you jump to The Nation/Mother Jones/etc.. it's all about advocacy rather than reporting).

― milo z, Monday, 16 April 2007 05:07 (eighteen years ago)

Once in a while I read Foreign Affairs - it's great if you want to feel like you "really" know what's going on

until you realize it's just a club of chin-stroking establishment back-patters and finger-waggers. i subscribed after 9/11 because i was like "OK it would be good to get some perspectives," and there's some ok stuff in there, but really it's just a less punchy version of what you can get on the nyt and wapo opinion pages, often written by the except same people.

― tipsy mothra, Monday, 16 April 2007 07:17 (eighteen years ago)

EXACT same people, i mean.

― tipsy mothra, Monday, 16 April 2007 07:17 (eighteen years ago)

Out of curiosity, what sites do people frequent for political discussion? Is there any place to read smart debate on politics/interntational affairs that isn't already aligned with some viewpoint?

Ie, not Free Republic, but ILE for politics? ILP?

― Bartleby, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:05 (eighteen years ago)

I think The Fray over at Slate used to have a lot of discussion but the interface is annoying

http://thewashingtonnote.com/
http://www.tpmcafe.com/
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/

blogs.. def have a point of view, but only the second is partisan, but, I don't see anything wrong with this. The Next Hurrah is really good. discussion in the comments. I'd say go read Billmon but not long ago he deleted his whole site, which is a shame, it was brilliant..

us politics:
http://www.pollster.com/blogs/
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/
http://politicalwire.com

― daria-g, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:34 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/NewAnswersControllerServlet?boardid=56

― Noodle Vague, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:35 (eighteen years ago)

oh yeah, watch the cspan call in shows sometimes, the early morning ones! those are a treat. people say the craziest things and the hosts aren't allowed to argue, they just sit there and look at the camera like "WTF"

― daria-g, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:39 (eighteen years ago)

I think the desire to engage with politics without having to deal with ideology is a little quixotic! I'd also beware of the assumption that "centrist" is somehow not an ideology.

― nabisco, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:44 (eighteen years ago)

Is there any place to read smart debate on politics/interntational affairs that isn't already aligned with some viewpoint?

there's a debate to be had about whether this is possible.

i tend to read lots of center right or just plain right stuff along with the slate and tpm crowds. bizarro world and all that: techcentralstation for randian scifi knowitall types, the corner at nro, andrew sullivan, and realclearpolitics.com (the most hilariously biased "independent aggregator" of political writing out there)

― gff, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:44 (eighteen years ago)

I guess what I mean is, I like reading debates between people coming from different ideologies, as opposed to a site where most readers/posters are going to be coming from (roughly) the same place.

(I frequent some of those right-wing sites way too much. Red State is another funny one.)

― Bartleby, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:57 (eighteen years ago)

if you want to stop being a political idiot, don't turn to the internet for discussion. the internet has allowed political dialogue on an unprecented scale but the quality of the discourse has, if anything, suffered.

― lfam, Monday, 16 April 2007 18:27 (eighteen years ago)

or i just haven't found anything

― lfam, Monday, 16 April 2007 18:27 (eighteen years ago)

but i doubt it

― lfam, Monday, 16 April 2007 18:29 (eighteen years ago)

also, i wouldn't say that the economist's classical liberal bias is "rather pronounced" so much as "announced." it was specifically founded to argue the case of the free market against the mercantilism and state control of the economy. i think it's current the best source for news in english. i added the financial times because the publish daily and have probably the best daily english-language coverage of the CIS and ex-CIS states.

― lfam, Monday, 16 April 2007 18:38 (eighteen years ago)

~~the mercantilism~~

currently the best source

― lfam, Monday, 16 April 2007 18:38 (eighteen years ago)

and really, once you start reading the economist you will have a hard time going back to the glib coverage offered by other newspapers. it's kind of shocking how long it is. it's pricey for a reason!

― lfam, Monday, 16 April 2007 18:40 (eighteen years ago)

the economist is amazing - as noted its style is so, so clear, without being the slightest bit dumbed down. most crucially i trust it - yeah it has its "position" but i trust it more than any other outlet not to twist/conveniently leave out facts to suit its agenda.

new statesman also great.

― lex pretend, Monday, 16 April 2007 18:50 (eighteen years ago)

If you want to know as much as I do about what is going on in the world, and do not want to study in spy school, check out these websites:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/ BBC news website
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ The Guardian
http://www.haaretz.com/ Ha'aretz, a liberal Israeli paper (with a correspondingly pro-Israeli bias, albeit a liberal one)

The Financial Times is good for occasional hard copy action. The Economist likewise.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 16:42 (eighteen years ago)

Ugh, no, the BBC website is pretty terrible. I mean I read it at work to get stories in brief and it's easy to navigate, but the stories are usually disjointed and/or sparse on the facts.
That said, it does have dome good "Politics for Dummies" type sections where basic(ish) concepts/groups/ etc are defined for people like me who don't usually know what's going on.

― Not the real Village People, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 18:11 (eighteen years ago)

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