51–60 of 171 posts
IMHO it indicates that we, as a species, are built/evolved to exist in small tribes and cannot cope with large societies or crowds.
Delete your twitter/facebook/reddit account. Seriously! Go do it now! These sites are built with the goal of pushing people into groups that are always angry at each other. Angry polarized groups spend more time on the site and are easier to sell things to. The only thing ignoring this trash will do is make you a happier, more functional person.
If it wasn’t for Twitter I would have literally no clue about the machinations of the intelligence agencies to undermine the president or the corrupt activities of the Biden family. Unfortunately the mainstream media outlets choose not to report or pursue a lot of stuff, and have an alarming habit of citing dubious statements from “the intelligence community” as legitimate evidence that resolves the matter.
Ironically, a lot of the world has seen the USA do this to everyone else for a while too. Too a lesser degree to their anglophone friends of course but the rest of the world is alien and unlikable all the same (with just as little arguments as you see in the political divide). I suppose one could argue that the isolationism/tribalism has simply expanded inwards as 'the rest of the world' has already been put in the '…
I doubt the phenomenon has anything to do with the US in the ROW. Here in NL, a NATO member, it has been primarily the 'left' which has been painting groups with different opinions as 'nazis' 'fascists' etc. Vegans describing other people as murderers. I blame this culture for our last political murder [0] which already happened in 2002. This phenomenon is not new, I think it has to do with the dissolution of the USS…
Well, this is literally true if you consider non-human lives. The danger I see is then not listening to and interacting with these non-vegans to develop a more nuanced perspective of the people on "the other side" who may not be very different after all. Stating a legitimate political or moral view alone is not (itself) what induces polarization, as I see it.
Delete your twitter/facebook/reddit account. Seriously! Go do it now! These sites are built with the goal of pushing people into groups that are always angry at each other. Angry polarized groups spend more time on the site and are easier to sell things to. The only thing ignoring this trash will do is make you a happier, more functional person.
The double problem is, we are isolated, often after various moves due to our studies and first years of work, otherwise because we diverge politically from other ex- or people in our family who, themselves, got polarized the other way. So deleting social networks would be a good thing, but we depend on them for out last human interactions on weekends and evenings. Even worse during confinement.
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It's well known that Russian trolls/bots use fake personas on social media in order to sow discord. Are you arguing that's not done at all, or that there is no evidence it's done in the article specific instance? Here's an article examining how it's done in relation to anti-vaxx. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137759/
Don't all governments to this to any other democratic government? This practice is as old as democracy itself.
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I think most people on both “sides” find that unacceptable.
Than why have the GOP not not denounced them? Their silence is approval of the Nazis.
The short video at the bottom of the page is particularly interesting.
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On some level yes. But the unfortunate side is that it's seeping into the overall culture and previously-benign and relatively apolitical institutions. That makes it dangerous to "ignore" and hope it goes away due to us all deciding to be reasonable and ignore the hateful and prominent voices that use social-media as a megaphone. Some institutions being actively soaked in identity politics and other divisive elements…
I do agree with you and I want the constant crawl of IdPol stop, but I can't help but feel this is part of the polarization aspect. The internet is causing the growth of IdPol as well as the growth of the movement against it.
IMHO, we need a return to "boring" centrist politics.
It is very sad that the authors of the article either believed in all these accusations against the Russians or are afraid to say that this is nonsense so that they are not accused of supporting the Russians. I want to note that the Russian government also accuses its political opponents of being foreign agents, using the same rhetoric.
It's well known that Russian trolls/bots use fake personas on social media in order to sow discord. Are you arguing that's not done at all, or that there is no evidence it's done in the article specific instance? Here's an article examining how it's done in relation to anti-vaxx. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137759/
The problem occurs when EVERY opposition statement from "the other side" is dismissed as "your just a Russian troll as no real American would ...."
"Russian Troll" and "Russian Bot" have been become a modern day no true Scotsman fallacy used by people to dismiss anyone that dares disagree with them on public policy, or the role of government as being Russian disinformation
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt the phenomenon has anything to do with the US in the ROW. Here in NL, a NATO member, it has been primarily the 'left' which has been painting groups with different opinions as 'nazis' 'fascists' etc. Vegans describing other people as murderers. I blame this culture for our last political murder [0] which already happened in 2002. This phenomenon is not new, I think it has to do with the dissolution of the USS…
> Vegans describing other people as murderers. Well, this is literally true if you consider non-human lives. The danger I see is then not listening to and interacting with these non-vegans to develop a more nuanced perspective of the people on "the other side" who may not be very different after all. Stating a legitimate political or moral view alone is not (itself) what induces polarization, as I see it.