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At some point in the last 20 years, politics became a sport. IMHO its due to the rise of cable news silos and talk radio charlatans taking on the role once res
by 12xo 7y ago
At some point in the last 20 years, politics became a sport.
IMHO its due to the rise of cable news silos and talk radio charlatans taking on the role once reserved for journalists and experts. By oversimplifying very complex issues into Us vs Them, they created an environment ripe for exploitation. And since the currency of media is Attention, the more sensationalist you become, the more attention and money you receive.
This translates perfectly to social media, where the currency is also attention and the rewards, a bit more convoluted than just money. Its what this article describes, the need for attention outweighs the actual results...
- malvosenior 7y agoIn addition to the causes you list, I'd add that education has become increasingly politicized (in the extreme). To the point where many new graduates are either activists or reactionary from having been steeped in that environment for at least the time they were in higher ed.
- 12xo 7y agoThat's pure speculation based on your own views and experiences. What you probably noticed, is the visibility into these people's lives that you or others did not have prior to social media and 24/7 connectivity. Universities have always skewed towards the left side of the spectrum, it used to be called liberal arts educated, today the right has successfully renamed it as indoctrination.
- malvosenior 7y agoIt's not speculation. "No platforming", "safe spaces", "trigger warnings"... are all relatively recent inventions. Universities have always been left leaning, but the "moral grandstanding" mentioned in the original post is a more recent development.
- watwut 7y agoMoral majority, letter campaigns to FCC, christian boycott of immoral companies, comic code, Hayes code ... civil rights era boycotts.
- malvosenior 7y agoI agree that those are all terrible as well! The reason I don't think they lead to "moral grandstanding" that we see discussed in the OP is because they were fundamentally outward focused, in that they were meant to accomplish something (misguided and pointless as they may be). Whereas the items I list are very much about in-group signaling. Hence "grandstanding".
- watwut 7y agoNo platforming, safe spaces and trigger warnings are all outwardly focused. Especially no platforming and trigger warnings. The dynamic within christian groups that leads to a the things I described all have considerable in-group signaling component. Also, some level of that in-group signaling is functional - people don't just randomly take coordinated actions like that. The signaling component is likely necessary for the organization to happen.
- jhpriestley 7y agotry 2000 years ... look up the Nika riots for instance
- mcguire 7y agoI think you might want to revisit some history there. Consider Yellow Dog Democrats and the actions of various political machines. Politics has always been a sport, at least as far as being Us vs. Them. And sometimes sports become politics: see the Nika riots (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots). Modern social media may exacerbate the effect, but it didn't invent it.
- 12xo 7y agoIts always been tribal, but the indoctrination of the uneducated into a army of sorts, is a new phenom. The rise of talk radio and opinion based news/broadcasting has truly amplified this and created the deeply opinionated and woefully ignorant political discourse we have today.