Even sitting and cooling down and taking in a given news piece carries with it certain hazards in comprehension and action. The longer one looks into a given state of events, the stranger it gets, the more previously unperceived actors and forces emerge, and the more complicated things become.
Given the contemporary media structure and the speed at which information is disseminated, and the increasingly kinetic nature of the general environment, and the growing necessity to take a stand, coupled with all of the many heuristics and manipulated abstractions a community will marshal to cope with these things, there is immense pressure to react and put forth unexamined opinions, which if not seated well, can harden into ego-centric commitments that only calcify and set-fast in response to challenges.
There are a few ways to cope with this state of affairs, such as throwing oneself into the cauldron itself and continuously take a beating as one constantly makes mistakes and learns. Another way is to withdraw completely and watch somewhat aloof and observe and learn that way. In the real world it is usually a mish mash of such approaches, contingent on context and necessity.
What with all of the motion and the constant antagonism, one way to cope is working on the intellectual equivalent of "shooting from the hip," an image that is often disparaged as an unhinged and undisciplined form of action, in which the actor is recklessly firing away without aiming. Which of course can be a problem.
But the impetus for shooting from the hip in the first place comes from being placed in an environment of specific constraints, in which a speedy and targeted response is constantly demanded at breakneck speeds. Coping with this state of affairs then means perfecting a course of action that takes these conditions into account.
Intellectually, this coping can be seen in those who have gifts for quickly putting together an argument, and firing it off, as it were, not by taking the time and energy to raise the instrument and carefully line up the aiming aids to one's eye, standing still, taking breaths, etc. (as typified by sustained research, lining up of references, appealing to meta arguments and criticism, but by aiming with the body, so to speak, and feeling out instinctually the situation, skills which can be informed by acquaintance with various aiming techniques anyway.
Developing a "feel" means putting much work on the backend, developing a broad study of subjects and putting together a solid working model of the world, informed by one's instincts, and which informs one's instincts in turn, which are then paid forward onto the front end, taking some of the burden of constant research and verification in favor of quick and educated speculation, in the hope that the speculation lands and sits well as a given state of affairs further develops.
If this situation proves to be intolerable, well, it is time to move entirely into another environment, say to unplug and take a moment to breathe and observe. That itself is an opportunity that must be afforded.
