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How to filter out news about the UK monarchy?

16 points by noobApe ↗ HN
I couldn't care less about the English monarchy, but news sites are filled with stories about it. Is there a Chrome extension or something similar that can make me oblivious to news related to this ceremonial, irrelevant form of totalitarianism? Much appreciated.

6 comments

[ 11.5 ms ] story [ 363 ms ] thread
hirsutehippo
I would avoid browsing general news sites entirely. If you haven't already, subscribe to the RSS feeds of you favourite websites and use those to stay informed.
hammyhavoc
Start using RSS feeds and start applying filtering against those RSS feeds.

Beware filter bubbles.

I didn't want to hear about Kanye West, but I missed him running for president until I went on Twitter one day.

Likewise, Kim Kardashian may do something incredible for humanity, and I'll never know about it.

With that in mind, apply filters against titles, not body content. Also helps prevent false positives where someone may invoke a comparison to in an article.

Don't forget one for Prince Andrew.

expertentipp
Everything I learned about any contemporary monarchy, about soccer and supercars, I learned against my will. Every word of that information was violated into my brain. Use RSS, if malicious content still appears filter it out by keywords.
xp84
RSS ideas posted here are good. It might also give you some satisfaction to use one of those chrome extensions that replaces text. You could use something like that to replace each of the Royals’ names with “some guy” or “some lady”

“Some Guy gives a speech”

“Some Lady attends awards ceremony”

Scoundreller
Too bad Yahoo Pipes isn’t a thing anymore. Would have worked perfectly.
badpun
> ceremonial, irrelevant form of totalitarianism

Totalitarianism by definition cannot be ceremonial or irrelevant. Totalitarianism tries to control all ("total") aspects of peoples' lives - e.g. in North Korea, after your shift at the factory is over, you can't just go home, but are required to go to a local political center to listen to a talk about the country's great leader's ideas. What's more, you are literally only expected to walk on a couple paths in your life - to work, to the political center, to school, to the store etc. Walking (I say walking, because obviously people can't afford cars in there) in any other direction is suspicious and frowned upon. THAT's totalitarianism, not the Queen/King.