Arguably this is the first successful assault on the capital building since 1814, when British troops took over Washington DC and burned the White House down.
U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
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Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#572I wonder if historians will see Gamergate as the start of all this.
It's a meme on 4chan right now that this is the case and I can see the lineage.
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#573History in the making right here. This[1] might be an early contender for image of the year [1] https://twitter.com/igorbobic/status/1346906369232920576/pho...
God, poor Capitol Police. Imagine having to try and reason with that crowd, to avoid having to shoot anyone.
The much more likely scenario is that they just let people through because an overwhelming majority of law enforcement are Trump voters.
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#574How 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?
I think these three books offer a solid framework for providing an answer to your question:
1) The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It by Robert Reich [0]
- Reich drops the buzzword neoliberalism in favor of the word power. I like that as neoliberalism is a terrible phrase for the concept it describes, but make no mistake, it's the insidious, invisible nature of neoliberalism that put our country in a position where neither party served the people well. That is what Reich describes here.
2) The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News-and Divided a Country by Gabriel Sherman [1]
- There is also a Showtime miniseries based on the book you could watch. Pair with the movie Bombshell
3) Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer [2]
[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52118381-the-system
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15981705-the-loudest-voi...
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#575It'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…
The stolen election claim is put forward by the President of the United States, not some random people with blogs.
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#576I wonder if historians will see Gamergate as the start of all this. It's a meme on 4chan right now that this is the case and I can see the lineage.
At the very least this goes back to the Tea Party, but many would point to Nixon's Southern strategy.
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#577It'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 would heartily agree and go a bit further. Over the last three decades, news organizations have traded in their neutrality and integrity for political and "narrative" influence. It is exceedingly difficult to find information presented without some attempt to mislead. The short version: There are no more Walter Cronkites or Edward R. Murrows the nation trusts to present the news without filter or spin. That coupled…
A root cause behind this is a shift from news as a public service (something closer to the modern-day BBC) to an info-tainment business that must turn a quarterly profit.
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#578It'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…
What? “Diverse information diets are not a good thing, because most people are not equipped to understand what is reasonable.” Do you realize how elitist and even authoritarian that statement is.
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#579Pence should invoke the 25th amendment and remove Trump from office. That would end this constitutional crisis.
(Some Democrats are calling for an impeachment, which wouldn’t help.)
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#580How 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?
Your news is just flat out awful and has been for a long time.
From OANN to Fox to MSNBC; it's all us-vs-them, fear the others, be afraid, be angry, and stay tuned in for more.
Every time I visit your country I'm apalled and horrified by your news media. It's blatantly exploiting basic animal instinct and core emotions to hook viewers in order to sell ads.
You are a product of your media.
And then there's the network effects of Facebook, Twitter and Parlor...