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U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

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Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#671

Post by tathougies »

umvi wrote: post #72

How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?

Some people don't want Biden as president. That's their opinion and they have every right to protest. Regardless of what their opinion is though, everyone should agree that this particular behavior is unacceptable. Unfortunately, we could not come to an agreement on that just this summer, and this is the natural end result of a country where large swaths of the population are unwilling to call out political violence when 'their side' are the ones committing it.

At this point, even Trump telling people to stop (which, to his credit, he has) will not help, in the same way that democrats telling Antifa to stop will not help (I mean Biden has asked them to stop for months now, and they're still launching fireworks at the courthouse in Portland to the point the mayor is now begging for federal help).

Political violence has been normalized by the media (both social and not) to the point where, even popular politicians who disagree with the mob will become its victims.

The scary part is that some people perpetuated all this polarization and rage for money.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#672

Post by bg24 »

gameswithgo wrote: post #494
coryfklein wrote: post #353

It's the practical erosion of Free Speech. Liberal (small "l" liberal) democracy and liberal science thrives on members: 1. Being willing to admit they may be wrong 2. Having access to a diverse information diet But the past two decades have shown erosion of not only legal Free Speech, but practical free speech: * Whereas previously they were just ignored (or even rebutted), today employees, students, and professors…

I see things almost completely opposite to you. Twenty years ago we had far less diverse access to information. You would get things from your local newspaper, or tv networks. Professionals would work and filter what we see. Today anyone can fire up a blog, twitter, youtube, and start talking about anything. People today thus have been getting exposed to all kinds of ideas, and being taken in by them: the earth is fl…

Yes. And a large chunk of population simply aligns based on emotion and do not have the desire to learn. This applies to all categories of people, including myself.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#674

Post by meowkit »

JosephHatfield wrote: post #625

Capital Police opened the security line, encouraged the "protesters" inside, and were even shown having selfies taken with them. What other conclusion can you reach than that this was supported if not organized by someone with authority over the security forces sworn to protect the Capital? If true, this is Sedition.

Its not true please don’t parrot nonsense. The cops were relatively gentle compared with the summer protests, but they didn’t just let people inside.

Here is a livestream of the initial run on the steps: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_dGyEhnhGdw&feature=youtu.be

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#675

Post by xiaodai »

umvi wrote: post #72

How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?

It's the freedom to choose. People can chooose what they consume. It's right that it's a right. But this "right" has been exploited by media $$$ to manipulate the gullible and unlearned. Sad.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#676

Post by sillysaurusx »

odiroot wrote: post #365
umvi wrote: post #72

How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?

Not an American, living in EU. It somehow reminds me of Weimar Germany, with two very fringe (sometimes militant) opposing groups radicalising the rest of the society -- or the rest just ignoring the whole mess and going about their lives.

According to the history of Weimar Germany, this seems nothing like that, though. They enforced their views with guns. We reinforce our views with protests. Yes, there are some crazy folks with guns, but that's different than the politicians themselves having a personal military that they use to purge opponents.

However, I'd love a deep historical perspective – it would be fascinating if there were parallels to be drawn. But, are there any?

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#677

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

gameswithgo wrote: post #494
coryfklein wrote: post #353

It's the practical erosion of Free Speech. Liberal (small "l" liberal) democracy and liberal science thrives on members: 1. Being willing to admit they may be wrong 2. Having access to a diverse information diet But the past two decades have shown erosion of not only legal Free Speech, but practical free speech: * Whereas previously they were just ignored (or even rebutted), today employees, students, and professors…

I see things almost completely opposite to you. Twenty years ago we had far less diverse access to information. You would get things from your local newspaper, or tv networks. Professionals would work and filter what we see. Today anyone can fire up a blog, twitter, youtube, and start talking about anything. People today thus have been getting exposed to all kinds of ideas, and being taken in by them: the earth is fl…

Half of the population has a below-average IQ. Maybe 10% of those with an above average IQ are Dark Triad personalities somewhere on the toxic spectrum between narcissism and sociopathy.

Economic values operate to reward them, and to punish - or at least inconvenience - those with less toxic values. So naturally the Dark Triad types have a very strong incentive to exploit the below-average. And the more below average and cognitively unsophisticated they are, the easier it is to exploit them.

This isn't even about Left vs Right. It's about how you design a political and economic system that can handle these challenges without imploding.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#679

Post by newguy1234 »

fhrow4484 wrote: post #458
umvi wrote: post #72

How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?

> How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality This isn't an accurate representation of the US. There are 4 sides: - extreme left - left - right - extreme right The proportion of each is probably around: 5%/45%/45%/5% (maybe 10/40/40/10) The 5% on each extreme are the one making the news on the other side to insti…

Now you see what Trump is talking about when he says fake news. The irony is that fake news is basically both sides of the spectrum. I'm personally on the right-wing side of politics and it just cringes me at how many people on the right-wing buy into baseless conspiracy theories. I always tell people that fighting over a mask is not exactly the hill you want to die on. However, I've also noticed that the left-wing is getting their own share of conspiracy theories as well now too.
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