4 ms·

You're right again. Your method is especially powerful on the personal level. When it comes to propaganda and the media, however, this method doesn't work. Sen

by m52go 12y ago

You're right again. Your method is especially powerful on the personal level. When it comes to propaganda and the media, however, this method doesn't work. Sensationalism and click-bait rule, and that calls for conflict and sound-bites. Some times this conflict is manufactured, sometimes it isn't...but it's always sensationalized. I'd argue this trend has played a significant role in the destruction of our collective abilities to tolerate negativity, and it's also (in some remote way) been a factor in creating these filter bubbles we're discussing right now. TLDR: why do a proper, level-headed discussion exploring why women feel a certain way, when you could have a high-stakes, emotional, back-forth debate with highly-quotable 1-liners?

beat 12y ago
I'd argue that it's actually not that bubbles are forming with new technology, but rather that bubbles are dissolving. I think race rather than sex is the more media-conscious way of looking at it. Why are we suddenly, as a society, arguing about police brutality against black men? It's not like it wasn't happening before. But it wasn't visible before, except to eyewitnesses. For your average white middle class suburbanite, they don't go to black neighborhoods, don't experience black culture, don't have friends who live there. It's an alien experience. It might as well be in Timbuktu for the relevance it has to their experience. But suddenly, everyone has smart phones with cameras and internet access, and this stuff is being filmed and published everywhere. Now, we can't not know about it. We can't pretend it doesn't exist. We have to talk about it - something immoral and wrong is clearly happening, and as a society, we have to face that. This really started with Rodney King, back 20 years ago now. That was a home video camera, with footage given to a tv station, but the result was the same. Now, it seems almost weekly. And I have no doubt that things will change. Brutality will be reduced, and justice will become fairer. Propaganda is much harder to do when contradictory facts are right there in our faces. It's become much more subtle. Now, it's not about just pushing an official version, but crowding out alternative views in a noisy environment. The trick isn't to prevent other points of view (that's how propaganda works), but rather to drown them out. Click bait will always be a problem. We can't help but rubberneck at violence and sex. But undeniable facts are coming to the fore faster and easier than ever, and the way of fighting those facts, right now, is to try to drown them in reverse-victimization arguments (Gamergate, #notallmen, etc). It won't work, not in the long run. Propaganda is less valuable now than it's ever been.

by m52go 12y ago

beat 12y ago

I'd argue that it's actually not that bubbles are forming with new technology, but rather that bubbles are dissolving. I think race rather than sex is the more media-conscious way of looking at it. Why are we suddenly, as a society, arguing about police brutality against black men? It's not like it wasn't happening before. But it wasn't visible before, except to eyewitnesses. For your average white middle class suburbanite, they don't go to black neighborhoods, don't experience black culture, don't have friends who live there. It's an alien experience. It might as well be in Timbuktu for the relevance it has to their experience. But suddenly, everyone has smart phones with cameras and internet access, and this stuff is being filmed and published everywhere. Now, we can't not know about it. We can't pretend it doesn't exist. We have to talk about it - something immoral and wrong is clearly happening, and as a society, we have to face that. This really started with Rodney King, back 20 years ago now. That was a home video camera, with footage given to a tv station, but the result was the same. Now, it seems almost weekly. And I have no doubt that things will change. Brutality will be reduced, and justice will become fairer. Propaganda is much harder to do when contradictory facts are right there in our faces. It's become much more subtle. Now, it's not about just pushing an official version, but crowding out alternative views in a noisy environment. The trick isn't to prevent other points of view (that's how propaganda works), but rather to drown them out. Click bait will always be a problem. We can't help but rubberneck at violence and sex. But undeniable facts are coming to the fore faster and easier than ever, and the way of fighting those facts, right now, is to try to drown them in reverse-victimization arguments (Gamergate, #notallmen, etc). It won't work, not in the long run. Propaganda is less valuable now than it's ever been.