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>Otherwise, the whole point of democracy (one human, one vote) is useless, as the rich can simply buy ads to influence enough people to follow their goals. As
by dqybh 7y ago
>Otherwise, the whole point of democracy (one human, one vote) is useless, as the rich can simply buy ads to influence enough people to follow their goals.
As they've always done through the media? The hardest thing to swallow, for some people, is that democracy is deeply flawed, and these things openly show it. Until now they've been free to ignore it.
- edejong 7y agoThe traditional media had to operate in the open. You could figure out what your neighbor was reading by buying his/her newspaper for a day. Also, newspapers could report on each other’s reporting. This has become increasingly opaque.
- hrktb 7y agoI feel the traditional media operated in the open as much as you can still get whatever message is broadcasted to half of the population by clicking on a few links. Even in the days anything more insidious would happen over direct mailing, or direct spam through the mailbox. Even knowing what magazines someone subscribes to is not obvious if you don’t catch the mail staff or check the garbage, which would be roughly equivalent to stalking someone online and checking their accounts followings and network. I think as long as people are trying to build communities, there will be channels to get what other people are thinking/reading/discussing. It will be more tricky with true direct one direction messaging sending “orders” to an army of followers of an ideology.
- acct1771 7y agoMedia conglomerates still indeed have some sway. CNN et al which all have questionable at best propaganda/war drum records are still pointed to with appeals to authority.l, etc.
- dominotw 7y agoits not just media though. politicians in my country directly give ppl money, liquor ect in exchange for their vote, its not really happening in open.
- TelmoMenezes 7y ago> As they've always done through the media? The hardest thing to swallow, for some people, is that these things show very openly how democracy is deeply flawed. If you study a bit of History, or look beyond the western world, you will see how terrible the alternatives are. And you will see that democracy is something worth fighting for. Democracy is not flawed, it is hard. We have to fight for it, and the next generations will have to fight for it, and so on. It's real life. I haven't resigned myself to living in a Black Mirror episode.
- perfmode 7y agoTruth: Democracy has dependencies. Just (fair) access to education and opportunity is absolutely necessary for democracy to function.
- xtian 7y agoAs early as Athenian democracy the dependencies had been identified as comprehensive education, quality information, and time to debate.
- perfmode 7y agointeresting. got a link or reference? would love to read more
- xtian 7y agoI might be misremembering but I think I heard that in a speech by John Ralston Saul. Sorry I can’t remember anything more specific!
- GoblinSlayer 7y agoAnd the will to uphold democracy in the first place.
- shard972 7y ago> If you study a bit of History, or look beyond the western world, you will see how terrible the alternatives are. You might have missed Socrates in your reading of history I think. > And you will see that democracy is something worth fighting for. Democracy is not flawed, it is hard. Ok yep, maybe you should read some.
- baroffoos 7y agoWe need political adverts otherwise we wouldn't know what any party supports. One solution I can think of is every party gets equal ad time so no one can buy more votes and we all find out whats going on.
- Franciscouzo 7y agoWhy blame democracy when the elephant in the room is capitalism?
- GoblinSlayer 7y agoIt's not deeply flawed, just corrupted, but hey, anything can, there's no silver bullet against it.