I find it interesting that social media has largely become a tool of mob “justice”, which can, to a large extent, ignore facts/evidence (which are the basis of arguments in the court of law, and academia), and a person can be guilty of a “crime” before any context whatsoever can be given to the incident at hand.
This has taken “doxing” to a new level, and people can lose their jobs (or be criminally charged even) for something said or done in a single day after a video is released, even if there was significantly more to the incident that the video did not capture.
Rational discourse has disappeared, and places that were previously considered to a place to question, argue, and learn new ideas (schools and universities) are now pressured into taking “social action” where previously research on its own was not only encouraged, but it was considered academically questionable to be involved in the topic of your research socially, politically, etc., in that it would taint your research.
For those of you living outside of the United States and Canada - I don’t think you can see how extreme it has become. Most people who have middle of the road opinions have become silent for fear of being labelled, or have been pressured into token action because “silence is not an option - silence is complicity”.
It is a strange time and it will be interesting to see where this leads …
As I stated a while back in another thread (that “cancel culture” thread as @Hanna noted):
the internet and social media - the current era’s version of tar and feathering
Where will this all lead?
This huge swing in the pendulum to the extreme left is unable to prevent its natural swing back to a more normal centrist area. How long that takes is anyone’s guess, but it will happen.
The one guy I’ve been reading consistently for about a decade and a half notes that this current environment we are under is the final implosion of marxism/socialism and the welfare state. Government (federal and state) pension funds in the U.S. will not survive this crisis as they are currently set up. They’ll come out the other end not looking like they are right now.
Just remember what those in power (politically) like to do: they want to keep the sheep’s eyes on one thing (culture wars, racism, etc. are today’s current theme), while no one is watching what they are doing elsewhere or what (bad thing) is happening elsewhere.
I agree, it’s gone so extreme that people just mostly clam up and no discussion can be had.
Similar to how many people circle jerked about how trump was a clown and wouldn’t win. People that were going to vote for him were shamed for saying so, so Clinton and the elites thought she had the public’s full support. Even I was surprised Trump was elected, people said nothing but then went out to vote.
It’s also why public shaming for having a different opinion is counterintuitive, people just keep their opinions to themselves, but will still treat and view you different in their own mind. Essentially you can’t legislate people’s beliefs and thoughts. And now we’ve taken away the rational discussion side to it all.
Can’t blame social media. This (pent up reaction to real or perceived oppression) has been happening as long as there have been revolutions. Not saying that makes it okay, just part of human history.
it’s mostly not-so-influential influencers who face shitstorms and mostly rightfully so.
if you have a million followers, anything you post will inevitably have posters who agree and disagree at all times.
there is a reason many athletes, celebrities, musicians don’t post anything remotely controversial.
it’s your right to express your opinion. just don’t be surprised if someone feels offended, especially online. and don’t be a whiny ass if your sponsors let you down. maybe think twice of the consequences before you post something.
umm, you are aware that the extreme right is using social media too? i guess you are not on twitter or ig. if you are then i guess you are immune to right wing comments on generally every topic.
In a normal world people are allowed to disagree. j.K.Rowling’s disagreement with the trans community is such an example.
She has the view trans women are infringing on the rights of women, trans women believe women like J.K.Rowling are infringing on their rights.
In normal times, everything would carry on as usual. But not being normal times, J.K.Rowlings is not allowed to have her view and the mob descends on her, hurling the most brutal obscenities and mean and nasty things at her they can imagine.
It’s a microcosm, but indicative of what’s happening everywhere and why institutions like Harvard recently released political affiliations of Professors have only 1% who are Conservative.
she’s allowed to have her views. i didn’t follow this particular shitstorm but it’s all the same. you express your opinion being the most prominent author of our time on something controversial, you’re bound to get some negative feedback. i’m sure a lot have also congratulated her for her opinion.
what’s not normal? you think the times we’re living in is just a state of exception and in a few years everyhing goes to normal? if you will, this is the new normal. normal people get outraged online about almost anything, presidents can lie their asses off and people applaud it. fake news are being thrown around and 50% agree with it. scientistic data are being thrown around and 50% agree with it.
unless you have some sources, i’d be quite sceptical of this number. i’m quite sure harvard still has some old yet still alive anglo-saxons profs sitting in their chairs who call themselves conservatives. they might not agree with trump but trump isn’t really the baseline for conservatism.
What we are seeing is a rise of the authoritarian left who shun discourse and instead of engaging civilly in various topics, seek to do an end run around those who might disagree with them by cancelling them completely and threaten the lives and reputations of anyone who might disagree with them in order to get a little bit more power and influence for themselves.
all i have to say, the authoritarian right is still in power in the us and unfortunately in many other powerful countries in the world, eg. brazil, russia, turkey, china. yes, china, as in china being an authoritarian and nationalistic regime. and they’re not doing a great job for the overall population. all i see is corruption growing, ego-centric and short-term thinking by greedy people in power who are well over 60 and won’t make it much longer.
call it what you will. the tea party movement, fox news, and all those other extreme right parties paved the way for it. in fact, they were applauded for being politically incorrect. i can’t remember when those people engaged “civilly” in any discussion.
in fact, i think they played a major role why blm and civil rights activists are so omnipresent today and why they are actin angrier than ever.
for the past 3 years everything and everyone in the US, remotely linked to liberal values, has been removed, ridiculed or undone. eg. obamacare, democrats.
at the same time, trump never had it in him to condemn domestic right wing crimes the same way he condemned the lootings during the george floyd protests.
as i see, your linked survey was done quite recently. i’m not surprised much by the outcome. 500 staff members of the most prestigious US uni were asked, which claims to attract the brightest and smartest minds. i think most of them are able to think independently and far-sighted. yet i still think the conservative number is underrepresented in this survey.
It’s funny how the ‘authoritarian left’ can rise to power while the right wing sits in the WH, and in places like China, and is emerging as much stronger in the countries you mentioned. Maybe dyslexia fits into the equation or something.
Oh please, Democrats dominate the media, google, Facebook twitter are completely one sided as are the “news” outlets, on line, cable, in print and Hollywood in the movies is completely dominated by liberal thought.
ooof Trump is and has denounced right wing groups, he did so in Charlottesville where he said off the top of my head, “those groups should be condemned completely” except the media reported the exact opposite. I can’t blame people for not knowing, the media do a bang up job of misreporting.
Which is fine, far right groups need to be condemned, but the left needs to condemn left wing violence too, which it doesn’t do, none of the Democrats have denounced rioting and the top lawmaker brushes off those pulling down statues as “people will do what people do”.
Obviously you were surprised, because you promptly said you didn’t believe my figures and needed proof, Now you got proof, “it doesn’t surprise you”? I hope you see yourself shifting goalposts as we speak.
Except the 24 hour Trump infomercial network called Fox news and Trump bots of all shapes and sizes, foreign and domestic, infesting twitter and facebook promoting disinformation.
I would agree most news media, outside of fox news, is one sided and dominated by reporting accurate information, vs the social media bot and fox disinformation. That’s a more accurate painting of the picture imo.
No bias there at all, you think one side is accurate and the other is disinformation? What happens is sometimes the truth falls on one side more than the other, then the other side tends to engage in more disinformation than the other side.
CNN has practically been reduced to speaking in tongues.
that’s your perspective. i don’t feel like the democrats dominate the media, especially the US media. i don’t watch much US tv anymore but except for fox news i don’t see any fake news on any other major channel.
facebook, twitter, ig. they are really the epitome of fake news, extremism and populism. i remember i had so many hate groups in my feed during the last US presidential election, it was so silly. i’m not even american and i wasn’t even searching for political topics during that time yet my feed was full of pizzagate, arrest her, benghazi posts… i think it was due that social media is doing something against it. the majority of the people has understood that and so did many of the major companies.
and if you think google is completely one sided, you better have a look in the mirror. you’re search results are the result of your preferences…
hmm, maybe. “they’re are good and bad people on both side” with a lot of blablabla, that’s what stuck with me. yet when the blm protests started he was quite quick to call them terrorists and anarchists which should be treated as such.
What happens is sometimes the truth falls on one side more than the other, then the other side tends to engage in more disinformation than the other side.