141–150 of 174 posts
We have a lot of power in tech to make things better, but we often pass it on, and let those who want to exploit it take advantage of our passiveness.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. Seems far more plausible that the media is a reflection of human nature than that the media has reshaped the way people think.
Media is not merely a reflection, but a perpetuator of extremes. If everyone stopped using media, there would still be extremist, but they would be so far distant we wouldn't think of them or their ideas. Here's a great interactive explanation of how this works: https://ncase.itch.io/wbwwb
To speak even more generally, humans make tools that amplify our impact. Some of those tools make us better at being terrible, some make us better at being clever, some do both.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
All right, lets go back just a bit further - to Watergate. The House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon. One member called his wife, said that they had voted to impeach, and then started crying . This was one of the Representatives who voted in favor of impeachment, crying (I believe) because it was a tragedy for the country as a whole that it had come to this. I can't imagine that, if the Democrats win the e…
No one in Washington would cry about Trump being impeached because Trump has done literally nothing with the Presidency that would earn respect from anyone. Even his own party sees him as little but a seat-filler who's only useful because he picks appointees along party lines.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "Was there a time when politics wasn't full of poison?" no. politics, by definition, is the exertion of power, and that is "poisonous", in the sense that someone will not like it, and will, if possible, resist and potentially counter-attack. it's an interesting mental exercise to consider whether or not all unhappiness stems from the application of power.
Interesting ontology. If politics is exertion, what do you call the passive observance or determination of extant power balances?
so you don't necessarily need a separate word or phrase for the observance of political parties and other governmental actors as they exert power--that's just "watching politics".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
All right, lets go back just a bit further - to Watergate. The House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon. One member called his wife, said that they had voted to impeach, and then started crying . This was one of the Representatives who voted in favor of impeachment, crying (I believe) because it was a tragedy for the country as a whole that it had come to this. I can't imagine that, if the Democrats win the e…
No one in Washington would cry about Trump being impeached because Trump has done literally nothing with the Presidency that would earn respect from anyone. Even his own party sees him as little but a seat-filler who's only useful because he picks appointees along party lines.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Politics may never have been pure and things today aren't as bad as they were at certain points in human history, but I am honestly surprised that people here aren't recognizing that there has been a pretty stark change in how politics have been progressing in the last decade versus the several previous decades. The polarization has increased drastically and the civility of political discourse and faith in institutio…
From what I've read, the time after the World Wars was an aberration and we are now returning to the norm.
It takes a mass tragedy to unite people. Look at what happened to GWB's approval after 9/11!
I worry it will take another war or mass terror attack to get us out of this divide we are in.
If only I were Ozymandias planning a fake Alien attack on New York to bring everyone together...
Normal people got access to the internet. It all went downhill from there.
And before #MeToo, there was "Me too!" :-)
Maybe the world is just a better place when almost all of us keep our mouths shut almost all of the time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Stand and you are a red hat conservative promoting police brutality and the Private Prison Complex. Nobody is saying this
I am saying this. There's no reason for anyone to stand for the national anthem, these days. Women should be kneeling in protest, men should be kneeling in solidarity.
Was there a time when politics wasn't full of poison? By the end Thomas Jefferson hated George Washington so much he refused to attend his funeral. And that's just 242-year history of America, you can go back to Rome, Greece or Ancient Egypt and see thousands of years of vitriol inside any large human collective. Modern tools could do a better job, sure. Twitter, FB, YouTube and the rest could use some kind of reputa…
Was there a time when politics wasn't full of poison? By the end Thomas Jefferson hated George Washington so much he refused to attend his funeral. And that's just 242-year history of America, you can go back to Rome, Greece or Ancient Egypt and see thousands of years of vitriol inside any large human collective. Modern tools could do a better job, sure. Twitter, FB, YouTube and the rest could use some kind of reputa…
Politics may never have been pure and things today aren't as bad as they were at certain points in human history, but I am honestly surprised that people here aren't recognizing that there has been a pretty stark change in how politics have been progressing in the last decade versus the several previous decades. The polarization has increased drastically and the civility of political discourse and faith in institutio…