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Keeping informed has been always been a prerequisite of American democracy. "wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own governmen

Keeping informed has been always been a prerequisite of American democracy. "wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government" Thomas Jefferson (https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/60.html https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/60.html) Engaging in the political dialogue is not wasted energy. Low level engagement on social media might be about as impactful as filling a stadium to see a politician speak during a pandemic but high level engagement is really the only way to participate in American democracy right now. If it wasn't valuable, nobody would be training bots to disrupt the process by amplifying division and hate. Sane politicians aren't going door to door these days or standing on crowded street corners. They're interacting on social media.

read_if_gay_ 6y ago
> If it wasn't valuable, nobody would be programming bots to disrupt the process and amplify division and hate. The fact that social media sites are a valuable manipulation target to certain people doesn't make them valuable to you as a consumer. To the contrary.
nabla9 6y ago
> Engaging in the political dialogue is not wasted energy. As it is practised in the internet it's horrible destructive energy in the internet. Actual political work is much better. >Sane politicians Yes. Politicians. They also do actual political work. Public that spends hours in political internet and does not engage outside it goes insane.
- ecocentrik 6y ago
  It seems like your assumung that pundits and bots already dominate the dialogue to such an extent that normal people can't communicate and voice their political grivances. I don't belive that's the case. We're learning to deal with new forms of propaganda the same way we dealt with the old ones. I remember when people were talking about the information overload of the early days of the internet as driving people insane. Or people who complained about TV advertising being a form of mind control. People that can't cope will either succumb to the will of others or retreat but that doesn't mean the rest of us shouldn't keep using these tools to our advantage. > Yes. Politicians. They also do actual political work. Isn't it clear that renaming post-offices a few months before they're defunded qualifies as actual political work or filling stadiums of people to give them a rock concert version of the political experience or hosting twitch streams of a co-op video game to an audience of 500k people? You might consider grilling social media companies for not doing enough to promote for their party's interests "political work" but when it's done in a chamber dedicated to governing through legislation and comes of as whining or yet another attempt at pandering it misses any loftier goals you're implying might exist.

read_if_gay_ 6y ago

> If it wasn't valuable, nobody would be programming bots to disrupt the process and amplify division and hate. The fact that social media sites are a valuable manipulation target to certain people doesn't make them valuable to you as a consumer. To the contrary.

nabla9 6y ago

> Engaging in the political dialogue is not wasted energy. As it is practised in the internet it's horrible destructive energy in the internet. Actual political work is much better. >Sane politicians Yes. Politicians. They also do actual political work. Public that spends hours in political internet and does not engage outside it goes insane.

ecocentrik 6y ago
It seems like your assumung that pundits and bots already dominate the dialogue to such an extent that normal people can't communicate and voice their political grivances. I don't belive that's the case. We're learning to deal with new forms of propaganda the same way we dealt with the old ones. I remember when people were talking about the information overload of the early days of the internet as driving people insane. Or people who complained about TV advertising being a form of mind control. People that can't cope will either succumb to the will of others or retreat but that doesn't mean the rest of us shouldn't keep using these tools to our advantage. > Yes. Politicians. They also do actual political work. Isn't it clear that renaming post-offices a few months before they're defunded qualifies as actual political work or filling stadiums of people to give them a rock concert version of the political experience or hosting twitch streams of a co-op video game to an audience of 500k people? You might consider grilling social media companies for not doing enough to promote for their party's interests "political work" but when it's done in a chamber dedicated to governing through legislation and comes of as whining or yet another attempt at pandering it misses any loftier goals you're implying might exist.