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" [..] given enough surveillance, companies can sell us anything: Brexit, Trump, ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, and successful election bids for absolute bastards
by RobertoG 8y ago
" [..] given enough surveillance, companies can sell us anything: Brexit, Trump, ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, and successful election bids for absolute bastards like Turkey’s Erdogan and Hungary’s Orban."
The same as the author, I have serious problems believing this but it has become a common place now even in mainstream media.
In a way, I worry more about this, than about the others dangers that we can read in the article (I agree with those also).
It seems that, now, whenever people vote for somebody or something that they are not "suppose" to vote, they have been "manipulated" and it's the fault of Russian bots.
I'm not saying that, like always, there are not forces in play trying to move things their way, but I find worrisome how easily that narrative is accepted. It's a kind of mainstream paranoia conspiracy or, maybe, a too convenient excuse for not finding the real reasons why people feel disgruntled.
- turnitoff 8y agoI mean, it's kind of a half-truth, isn't it? We know that this sort of manipulation is going on in an organized way: Sybil attacks are pretty common in politics. But it's insidious precisely because of this Patomkin-effect: it makes it unclear how many real supporters the issue has, and it gives an easy cop-out for people who would be otherwise responsible for their own defeat. In a way, it becomes a scapegoat that can unite friend and foe. (Although I think Doctorow is steering clear from the very stupid interpretation of this effect)
- RobertoG 8y ago>>"[..] it's kind of a half-truth, isn't it?" More like a quarter-truth that allow to forget the other three quarters. Economic policies dismantle the welfare state in the U.K. but the people vote Brexit because some adds. Part of the population in the USA is left economically behind but the reason Trump is elected is because some Facebook advertisements. One thousand years of history but part of the Catalan people search independence from Spain because the 'Russian bots'. The economy is not working but people is sceptic about the European Union 'because Internet'. And you heard all that in mainstream media and in the mouths or politics. It seems to me that happy people don't vote revolutions, never mind the advertisements. It's when people is angry or scared that they search for "strong leaders" and "guilty parties".
- vertex-four 8y agoDismantling the welfare state is going to continue to happen well after Brexit, you know that. It has nothing to do with immigration or our membership within the EU.
- RobertoG 8y agoSure, but the reason people is angry is not some advertisements. That's only a scapegoat.
- vertex-four 8y agoI don’t think anyone has seriously suggested that people are angry because of advertisements, but that certain interested parties made use of that anger to attack something entirely unrelated.
- RobertoG 8y agoI agree, but the debate is, (in the society at large) disproportionally, in my opinion, about the advertisements. And they are used, I think, like a distraction, instead of looking into the real issues.
- vertex-four 8y agoThere's also the fact that the reasons people say they're disgruntled are often one or two steps removed from their actual issues, but... propaganda gives them something to blame, and they go for it.