What is clear to me, is that we can't remain silent. As you've said, there are people concerned and shocked on both the left and right. ..and as I write that, I wonder why we reference 'left and 'right'. Other than the polar views, I think most people are a blend of both 'right and left' views depending on the subject and our experiences. Don't we call them moderates?
Some time ago I read an article about a Democrat who decided to join a Republican group so he could better understand the difference. His conclusion was, we had more in common than not.
Most of us don't live on the fringes, so lets find the common ground that will help us climb out of this mess, together. Though it may be incredibly difficult to speak up, it is more important than ever.
It isn’t party lines that will change this, it’s each and every one of us who see living in a democracy, though flawed, as a privilege that is worth both cherishing and defending.
In my experience, the major sticking points are these:
1) Republicans, as a party, are wholly committed to defending every single thing Donald Trump does.
2) Democrats, as a party, are wholly committed to defending, as an example, every single thing Richard Leland Levine does.
Not only are these two perspectives irreconcilable with each other, they are both irreconcilable with being a decent human being.
I have one answer, which is to burn them both on the same pyre -- I hope it doesn't happen, I guess, but every day that 1 & 2 up there remain true, another log is added to the pile, and it's already a big one.
We are in a constitutional crisis that the social media has largely created. I appreciate your attempt to imagine or rationalize a solution. But truth and decency, or even lies and indecency, have nothing to do with it since it is the market and profitability that drives the algorithms and not behavior whether good or bad. The social media is amoral in it's pursuit of profits. And if it is going to exist I would not want it any other way. In this I agree that Elon Musk can run Xwitter in anyway he likes. Suppressing the market is not a solution. Walking away from the market IS a solution for ordinary people whose brand placement and marketing strategy does not require a social media presence.
I have been told, and I have no knowledge whether it is true or not, that if hundreds of thousands of people do a Google search for "Donald Trump prostitutes peeing" that eventually all searches for "Donald Trump" will yield results where articles about the notorious Steele Dossier will be included with regular searches for other information. The algorithms sense it is a trending topic and therefore bring it forward.
Do we need to build "Liberal Democratic" bot-farms like the right has been given by Russia, China and Iran so as to compete with the amplification of positive messaging? Is Julian Assange right we need to become the trolls we want to see in the world? Master manipulators of the memes?
As always I learned a lot from this interview but not enough to allay my suspicions that there is nothing the social media can contribute.
We are living in an era of decadence and narcissism and we (and I include myself here) are addicted to our own opinions. Humans have always been that way. We used to keep private journals or send the occasional letter to the editor in our newspaper or shared our opinion among friends around beers at the local. But now we have platforms to exhibit ourselves and our opinions as if they really mattered. Having followers and influence is a sign of actual existence. It is very sad.
Sometimes new problems need new solutions. Blowing up every Apple store (safely, in the middle of the night) would be a start. Withdrawing your children from any institution that does not prohibit mobile devices on campus (and enforce that ban with real consequences) would be another start.
We must develop new ways of protecting ourselves -- personally, if I start to get a few too many followers anywhere, it starts to wig me out, especially if they want to talk to me. I don't know you people! And I would rather my opinions be taken on their own merits rather than because I'm some internet person they think they know. One of the funniest things (to me, because I'm mad) is proving someone conclusively wrong about something (like whether psychosexual child castration is an appropriate part of the domain of medicine), then watching them crawl out of the woodwork again over the next few weeks while they think I'm gone, and then doing it all over again under a different name.
Another part of the social media problem - that none of these social media personalities want to address - is that using social media (rather than reading real things) actively makes you stupider. It's basically like working in a paint factory. Few smart people want to do it, seeing the consequences, and those who do usually don't stay smart for long.
Do you see how long your comment is? They're not gonna read all that. I've learned that you can say absolutely whatever you like in a post, local rules be damned, and as long as it's after the middle of the second paragraph, almost nobody will notice. It's less bad on substack than elsewhere, but it isn't great here either. Writing multiple paragraphs is basically like speaking Latin at this point -- et volvo viam illamque.
Maybe..... though some of us still do write journals. Some of us do read the whole article. I think cynicism kills belief that things can change, cuts out creativity and determination, undermines purpose. ...and I'm guessing, if you've read this far (lol), you're thinking I'm pretty niave. We have to believe, actually we have to know, we can make a difference. Maybe these interactions on Substack, can help us along the way.
I'm only cynical with respect to the effect that uninterrupted phone use has on people -- but I don't think that's really cynicism, in any case, unless it's cynical to observe that huffing paint rarely leads anywhere good.
I'm optimistic, in general, because I think, gradually, more and more people are realizing that a phone isn't a replacement for another person -- and I also have a grimmer sort of optimism, because I think the phone addicts will eventually devolve into such pathetic creatures that they'll involuntarily lie down and let the people who still have brains run things -- sort of like how a paint-huffer eventually just passes out.
There do exist people who can handle a little paint-huffing and keep themselves together -- and I do mean that literally -- but "just say no" is still the best general advice.
To be blunter, what's happening now is sort of like what happens when alcohol reaches a population of humans that never encountered it before. That sh*t is scary. Yet, eventually, you get an Alcoholics Anonymous -- it starts with a few recovered people who know how close they came to the edge, and who are willing to wrangle addicts at their lowest.
There's also the simple development of manners & mores -- for example, what do you do when someone you're talking to is staring at their phone instead of giving you their full attention? The first thing I do is, whenever they look back at their phone, I stop talking. If they ask why I keep stopping, I point at their phone. This usually gets them a bit flustered. Thereafter, whenever they look at their phone, I stop talking *and* point at it. This gets them *pissed.* What happens from there depends on the person: if they tell me to f*ck off, I oblige, and leave the room. Try it if you like, next time someone scrolls on you. Make them afraid to move that thumb, lest you...point! It's a riot.
That was quite the read.
What is clear to me, is that we can't remain silent. As you've said, there are people concerned and shocked on both the left and right. ..and as I write that, I wonder why we reference 'left and 'right'. Other than the polar views, I think most people are a blend of both 'right and left' views depending on the subject and our experiences. Don't we call them moderates?
Some time ago I read an article about a Democrat who decided to join a Republican group so he could better understand the difference. His conclusion was, we had more in common than not.
Most of us don't live on the fringes, so lets find the common ground that will help us climb out of this mess, together. Though it may be incredibly difficult to speak up, it is more important than ever.
It isn’t party lines that will change this, it’s each and every one of us who see living in a democracy, though flawed, as a privilege that is worth both cherishing and defending.
In my experience, the major sticking points are these:
1) Republicans, as a party, are wholly committed to defending every single thing Donald Trump does.
2) Democrats, as a party, are wholly committed to defending, as an example, every single thing Richard Leland Levine does.
Not only are these two perspectives irreconcilable with each other, they are both irreconcilable with being a decent human being.
I have one answer, which is to burn them both on the same pyre -- I hope it doesn't happen, I guess, but every day that 1 & 2 up there remain true, another log is added to the pile, and it's already a big one.
If you have a better idea, shoot.
Excellent and really important discussion on the power of social media and the right’s relative dominance.
I'm smiling.... were that to happen, which it has, though rarely, I'd say excuse me, am I boring you.....
Learn Digital Legitimacy
I despair.
We are in a constitutional crisis that the social media has largely created. I appreciate your attempt to imagine or rationalize a solution. But truth and decency, or even lies and indecency, have nothing to do with it since it is the market and profitability that drives the algorithms and not behavior whether good or bad. The social media is amoral in it's pursuit of profits. And if it is going to exist I would not want it any other way. In this I agree that Elon Musk can run Xwitter in anyway he likes. Suppressing the market is not a solution. Walking away from the market IS a solution for ordinary people whose brand placement and marketing strategy does not require a social media presence.
I have been told, and I have no knowledge whether it is true or not, that if hundreds of thousands of people do a Google search for "Donald Trump prostitutes peeing" that eventually all searches for "Donald Trump" will yield results where articles about the notorious Steele Dossier will be included with regular searches for other information. The algorithms sense it is a trending topic and therefore bring it forward.
Do we need to build "Liberal Democratic" bot-farms like the right has been given by Russia, China and Iran so as to compete with the amplification of positive messaging? Is Julian Assange right we need to become the trolls we want to see in the world? Master manipulators of the memes?
As always I learned a lot from this interview but not enough to allay my suspicions that there is nothing the social media can contribute.
We are living in an era of decadence and narcissism and we (and I include myself here) are addicted to our own opinions. Humans have always been that way. We used to keep private journals or send the occasional letter to the editor in our newspaper or shared our opinion among friends around beers at the local. But now we have platforms to exhibit ourselves and our opinions as if they really mattered. Having followers and influence is a sign of actual existence. It is very sad.
Sometimes new problems need new solutions. Blowing up every Apple store (safely, in the middle of the night) would be a start. Withdrawing your children from any institution that does not prohibit mobile devices on campus (and enforce that ban with real consequences) would be another start.
We must develop new ways of protecting ourselves -- personally, if I start to get a few too many followers anywhere, it starts to wig me out, especially if they want to talk to me. I don't know you people! And I would rather my opinions be taken on their own merits rather than because I'm some internet person they think they know. One of the funniest things (to me, because I'm mad) is proving someone conclusively wrong about something (like whether psychosexual child castration is an appropriate part of the domain of medicine), then watching them crawl out of the woodwork again over the next few weeks while they think I'm gone, and then doing it all over again under a different name.
Another part of the social media problem - that none of these social media personalities want to address - is that using social media (rather than reading real things) actively makes you stupider. It's basically like working in a paint factory. Few smart people want to do it, seeing the consequences, and those who do usually don't stay smart for long.
Do you see how long your comment is? They're not gonna read all that. I've learned that you can say absolutely whatever you like in a post, local rules be damned, and as long as it's after the middle of the second paragraph, almost nobody will notice. It's less bad on substack than elsewhere, but it isn't great here either. Writing multiple paragraphs is basically like speaking Latin at this point -- et volvo viam illamque.
Maybe..... though some of us still do write journals. Some of us do read the whole article. I think cynicism kills belief that things can change, cuts out creativity and determination, undermines purpose. ...and I'm guessing, if you've read this far (lol), you're thinking I'm pretty niave. We have to believe, actually we have to know, we can make a difference. Maybe these interactions on Substack, can help us along the way.
I'm only cynical with respect to the effect that uninterrupted phone use has on people -- but I don't think that's really cynicism, in any case, unless it's cynical to observe that huffing paint rarely leads anywhere good.
I'm optimistic, in general, because I think, gradually, more and more people are realizing that a phone isn't a replacement for another person -- and I also have a grimmer sort of optimism, because I think the phone addicts will eventually devolve into such pathetic creatures that they'll involuntarily lie down and let the people who still have brains run things -- sort of like how a paint-huffer eventually just passes out.
There do exist people who can handle a little paint-huffing and keep themselves together -- and I do mean that literally -- but "just say no" is still the best general advice.
To be blunter, what's happening now is sort of like what happens when alcohol reaches a population of humans that never encountered it before. That sh*t is scary. Yet, eventually, you get an Alcoholics Anonymous -- it starts with a few recovered people who know how close they came to the edge, and who are willing to wrangle addicts at their lowest.
There's also the simple development of manners & mores -- for example, what do you do when someone you're talking to is staring at their phone instead of giving you their full attention? The first thing I do is, whenever they look back at their phone, I stop talking. If they ask why I keep stopping, I point at their phone. This usually gets them a bit flustered. Thereafter, whenever they look at their phone, I stop talking *and* point at it. This gets them *pissed.* What happens from there depends on the person: if they tell me to f*ck off, I oblige, and leave the room. Try it if you like, next time someone scrolls on you. Make them afraid to move that thumb, lest you...point! It's a riot.