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Democracy Dies When Facebook and Twitter Define the Truth

44 points by 1cvmask 6y ago

jbirer 6y ago
A lot of people do not realize that the majority of people do not want democracy anymore. They want to be told what they want to hear, and they want people who have different thoughts to be silenced and tucked away for their own psychological comfort. America will not become a dictatorship thru force, people will let it come with open arms because it does not challenge their views and strokes their fragile egos with validation. Take my country Turkey for example, Erdogan gives them stories of Europe being envious of Turks and blames the economy on the West because "we are becoming too strong for them" and other stories like that. When I tell them that our economy is weakening due to foreign policy I am attacked because I am implying that the leaders might not be perfect or that our country is not 100% great which they cannot handle.
- legolas2412 6y ago
  Sounds a lot like what india is trending to
- mrguyorama 6y ago
  The word for this is fascism
- thunkshift1 6y ago
  >...”and they want people who have different thoughts to be silenced and tucked away..” isnt that what the main stream/centralised media is trying to achieve through its endless tirade against social media?
randompwd 6y ago
Maybe they meant to say the illusion of democracy dies. Media outlets owned by the rich have controlled the flow of information for centuries. Most of those journalists had no problem suppressing stories which didn't directly affect them as long it a) gave them "access" or b) was acceptable in their social circles - which were often composed of socialites, the rich and the descendants of the rich. As bad as social media is(and I think it is bad), at least now people are able to see more clearly how the sausage is made. The glorification of politicians and celebrities will hopefully die. The realisation that celebrities aren't intelligent or have a better grasp on a situation will become clear. Fame doesn't make you clever. And most of these people are far from intelligent to begin with. They are just puppets for the puppet masters. Propaganda comes in all forms and celebrities are the lowest hanging fruit.
- cafard 6y ago
  > The glorification of politicians and celebrities will hopefully die. > The realisation that celebrities aren't intelligent or have a better grasp on a situation will become clear. These do not seem to be the current effects of social media.
chopin 6y ago
As opposed to when the mainstream media define the truth? Mainstream media are not much better in that regard. Especially wilful or negligent omission of either facts or entire stories is something I observe quite often. Or wording is chosen carefully to define a certain narrative. Social media are appalling but the alternative is hardly any better.
- whoomp12342 6y ago
  well said. Its a problem like world hunger. Its not that we can't solve it, its that we dont.
  - GenerocUsername 6y ago
    World hunger is not solvable without powerful and draconian population control due to population expansion. Problems which seem simple to solve yet remain unsolved are often not as simple as they appear without thorough inspection.
- jfengel 6y ago
  And yet you find out about these facts and stories. So there are a couple of possibilities: * The mainstream media is unsuccessfully hiding something from you. * You yourself are getting a biased version of this story, treating it as ground truth, and then treating any alternatives as suspicious. I'm in no position to tell you which possibility holds. I just raise it to suggest that you consider both. Much of the time, when I hear somebody telling me "the story they don't want you to hear", it's because that story is itself twisted but fits their preferred narrative. And it's often difficult to tell them that, because they've already rejected any news sources that I might use to contradict them. Even if I happen to know personally, that makes me part of the mainstream.
  - GenerocUsername 6y ago
    Often times the truth is just the unedited source material... This makes it extremely apparent where the bias was introduced, and the pattern is super obvious to anyone who actually seeks source material instead of accepting the digested version as truth
known 6y ago
Truth != Wisdom of Crowds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_earth
bcrl 6y ago
And when YouTube promotes flat earth videos.

44 points by 1cvmask 6y ago

A lot of people do not realize that the majority of people do not want democracy anymore. They want to be told what they want to hear, and they want people who have different thoughts to be silenced and tucked away for their own psychological comfort. America will not become a dictatorship thru force, people will let it come with open arms because it does not challenge their views and strokes their fragile egos with validation. Take my country Turkey for example, Erdogan gives them stories of Europe being envious of Turks and blames the economy on the West because "we are becoming too strong for them" and other stories like that. When I tell them that our economy is weakening due to foreign policy I am attacked because I am implying that the leaders might not be perfect or that our country is not 100% great which they cannot handle.

legolas2412 6y ago
Sounds a lot like what india is trending to
mrguyorama 6y ago
The word for this is fascism
thunkshift1 6y ago
>...”and they want people who have different thoughts to be silenced and tucked away..” isnt that what the main stream/centralised media is trying to achieve through its endless tirade against social media?

randompwd 6y ago

Maybe they meant to say the illusion of democracy dies. Media outlets owned by the rich have controlled the flow of information for centuries. Most of those journalists had no problem suppressing stories which didn't directly affect them as long it a) gave them "access" or b) was acceptable in their social circles - which were often composed of socialites, the rich and the descendants of the rich. As bad as social media is(and I think it is bad), at least now people are able to see more clearly how the sausage is made. The glorification of politicians and celebrities will hopefully die. The realisation that celebrities aren't intelligent or have a better grasp on a situation will become clear. Fame doesn't make you clever. And most of these people are far from intelligent to begin with. They are just puppets for the puppet masters. Propaganda comes in all forms and celebrities are the lowest hanging fruit.

cafard 6y ago
> The glorification of politicians and celebrities will hopefully die. > The realisation that celebrities aren't intelligent or have a better grasp on a situation will become clear. These do not seem to be the current effects of social media.

chopin 6y ago

As opposed to when the mainstream media define the truth? Mainstream media are not much better in that regard. Especially wilful or negligent omission of either facts or entire stories is something I observe quite often. Or wording is chosen carefully to define a certain narrative. Social media are appalling but the alternative is hardly any better.

whoomp12342 6y ago
well said. Its a problem like world hunger. Its not that we can't solve it, its that we dont.
- GenerocUsername 6y ago
  World hunger is not solvable without powerful and draconian population control due to population expansion. Problems which seem simple to solve yet remain unsolved are often not as simple as they appear without thorough inspection.
jfengel 6y ago
And yet you find out about these facts and stories. So there are a couple of possibilities: * The mainstream media is unsuccessfully hiding something from you. * You yourself are getting a biased version of this story, treating it as ground truth, and then treating any alternatives as suspicious. I'm in no position to tell you which possibility holds. I just raise it to suggest that you consider both. Much of the time, when I hear somebody telling me "the story they don't want you to hear", it's because that story is itself twisted but fits their preferred narrative. And it's often difficult to tell them that, because they've already rejected any news sources that I might use to contradict them. Even if I happen to know personally, that makes me part of the mainstream.
- GenerocUsername 6y ago
  Often times the truth is just the unedited source material... This makes it extremely apparent where the bias was introduced, and the pattern is super obvious to anyone who actually seeks source material instead of accepting the digested version as truth

known 6y ago

Truth != Wisdom of Crowds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_earth

bcrl 6y ago

And when YouTube promotes flat earth videos.