this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
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I have started listening to random American city council meetings lately for white noise. Since they're all bureaucratic-flavored boredom anyway.

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[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I watch my city council meetings attentively. Local politics has an enormous impact on your day-to-day life and it’s also an area where being informed and engaged is most easily able to actually effect the outcome you want. City councillors are more likely to have their view swayed by a modest letter-writing campaign than your Member of Parliament/Representative.

For white noise, I often use Age of Empires games. I’ve got Survivalist’s Twitch stream open as I type this, but I couldn’t even tell you if he’s winning or losing at the moment because it’s mostly there as background noise.

[–] lemuria@lemmy.ml 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Yeah, but the city council meeting I'm listening to is on the other side of the Pacific Ocean (Filipino here), so I couldn't do anything even if I wanted to. And given the geographical distance, the impact on my day-to-day life is.. zero.

But still, the stories I hear during the meetings are entertaining and they really do help me understand America just that little bit more. Curiosity for the win!

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Hahaha yeah fair enough!

If you’re interested in another country, my city of Brisbane, Australia streams all its council meetings on YouTube, and we certainly have some…interesting debates. (I would certainly not hold it up as a good example of well-functioning democracy…)

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 3 points 10 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

streams all its council meetings on YouTube

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] verity_kindle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Please, listen to the City Commission of Fort Scott, Kansas. It is so very dull.

[–] lemuria@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Interesting. It looks quite dull from the thumbnails indeed. At the moment my current source of city council white noise is Spokane, Washington - the stories that people tell during open forum are entertaining and I sometimes hate how an amazing story gets cut off by the 2-minute limit.

[–] verity_kindle@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No limit on how long someone can speak during public comments.

[–] lemuria@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

~~Well, Spokane enforces a 2 minute limit. What city do you recommend I listen to if I want to hear longer open forum stories?~~

EDIT: Oh wait, I replied from the inbox, nevermind. Fort Scott, Kansas is definitely the place.

[–] verity_kindle@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

People can ramble on about anything. Come on down! :)

[–] lemuria@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So... if I have the money to fly down to Fort Scott do I get to ramble on for 3 hours about how their city council has been such a great source of white noise, generating additional white noise for me in the process that I can use once I return to Manila?

[–] verity_kindle@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

Please do. Our one good barbecue closed, please bring some good food. Also a gallon of calamansi.