Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're confusing democracy with freedom / progress my friend.
Then find me an autocracy with those freedoms.
The United States of America.
How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage
101–110 of 181 posts
Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sure it's not just you but you could still be wrong. :> What you consider alternative / independent journalists could be charlatans by journalistic standards. It's hard to say in the abstract.
Yeah, establishment journalists consistently provide accurate information, like the time they discovered that huge stockpile of WMDs in Irak.
When journalists fail to adhere to journalistic standards they should be criticized for that. What's your point?
Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage
#103Brazil had such an outburst in 2013, also seemingly spontaneous and enabled by social networks.
Fast forward a few years and the president-elect is a far-right idiot who ran on a platform of conspiracy theories and attacks on the press, supported by a huge disinformation campaign on anonymous, encrypted and widely popular messengers, completely bypassing all forms of campaign accountability.
Ignore the symptoms at your peril.
Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Democracy is not the perfect system that some people purport it to be. You get someone elected, someone who is far from perfect but he's the only likely candidate to win, so what can you do. And then that person has 4 years to screw you over. That's not just.
While not being perfect, that is still far better than regime in Zimbabwe, Venezuela or North Korea, where the head of state keeps the power as long as he is alive, or is replaced by force by another thug.
I'm pretty sure Venezuela was (and still is) a democracy.
I think people tend to conflate liberalism (in the classical sense), and democracy. You can have undemocratic liberal states (the Austro-Hungarian empire was a good example).
Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Protesting is one thing. Vandalism, looting, and firebombing are not legal protests.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.
Macron isn't Hitler or Pol Pot or George III. He wants to put the price of diesel up to reduce environmental damage. He wants to reduce taxes on the rich to spur the economy. You can disagree with those aims, but he's not destroying the French system of government. For that, look to Venezuela.
Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage
#106I don't like Facebook more than anyone else, but at this point aren't we just blaming them for enabling communication? By all means, criticize Facebook for privacy issues, but not for stuff like this, unless you actually want censorship on the largest scale ever in history.
Hasn't the majority of the criticism of Facebook been about enabling communication? Indeed, hasn't that been the cause of most of the Left's pearl-clutching about social media's influence on politics over the last few years? Many, if not most, of the complaints about Russian "interference" in the US election and Brexit that I've seen the Left being so distressed about consisted primarily of Russians saying things abo…
> Hasn't the majority of the criticism of Facebook been about enabling communication?
Enabling horizontal communication, not controlled by the Mainstream Mass Media.
Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s odd because they pick and choose which “violence” is right and wrong. When Arab spring (in the end a very destabilizing movement) was facilitated by FB and Twitter it was great. When it facilitates caravan protests it’s great. When it facilitates anti-tax movements that threaten viability of an unpopular (vis a vis locals) but popular internationally (ie elites) then it’s seen as facilitating “bad” protests. Obv…
This also extends to which incidents of police violence are approved and covered or not. If circumstances were different we might see cries of authoritarianism and calls for regime change!
Exactly, they'd be decrying the use of “chemicals weapons” by police (i.e. tear gas/pepper spray) and ask if it violates treaties against its use on civilians, etc. It’s all so blatantly political and partisan by a group which sets itself up as paragon of impartiality, truth, etc., but it’s all about world view, power and exerting that power to project that world view.
Now of course editorials and editorializing _is_ understandably different but unfortunately that wall has been completely breached and demolished.
Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, establishment journalists consistently provide accurate information, like the time they discovered that huge stockpile of WMDs in Irak.
When journalists fail to adhere to journalistic standards they should be criticized for that. What's your point?
I guess the fact that we have to separate independent journalists from the ones working for privately owned outlets is problematic in itself.
Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s odd because they pick and choose which “violence” is right and wrong. When Arab spring (in the end a very destabilizing movement) was facilitated by FB and Twitter it was great. When it facilitates caravan protests it’s great. When it facilitates anti-tax movements that threaten viability of an unpopular (vis a vis locals) but popular internationally (ie elites) then it’s seen as facilitating “bad” protests. Obv…
This may be my reading only, but "populist" seeems to carry a negative connotation. I wonder, what is the opposite of populist? Is it "elitist?"
The bad kind of populism is when an elite says they speak for the masses without actually consulting them. The public at large in such populism is a passive entity. The masses become a strawman used to pretend a majority support the autocrat's actions even if you cant find any particular person who does.
The sort of "populism" without a leader discussed in this article is nothing like that. But there are political powers that wish to ignore that a lot of people can be legitimately angry at the same time.
Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s odd because they pick and choose which “violence” is right and wrong. When Arab spring (in the end a very destabilizing movement) was facilitated by FB and Twitter it was great. When it facilitates caravan protests it’s great. When it facilitates anti-tax movements that threaten viability of an unpopular (vis a vis locals) but popular internationally (ie elites) then it’s seen as facilitating “bad” protests. Obv…
This may be my reading only, but "populist" seeems to carry a negative connotation. I wonder, what is the opposite of populist? Is it "elitist?"
If you agree with decision taken by the majority then it's "democratic". If you disagree, it's "populist".
I'm from India where we have a similar term in the political lexicon - "vote-bank politics". It's means a policy that a plurality of voters (the "bank") like and want, but you don't. If you're within the vote bank, then it's no longer vote-bank politics, it's democracy in action.