Twitter doesn't poison politics, people poison politics.
How Twitter poisoned politics
81–90 of 174 posts
Re: How Twitter poisoned politics
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mass-democracy was well-known to be a terrible idea by many wise people in history, for the precise reasons that Twitter is revealing.
Weren't many of those speakers essentially paid propagandists for monarchs, oligarchs and strongmen?
No, they were speakers who essentially made the US Constitution into a republic instead of a mass-democracy
Re: How Twitter poisoned politics
#83Was 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?"
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.
Re: How Twitter poisoned politics
#84Earlier 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…
I think this is the issue; at least in the U.S. EVERYTHING is becoming more politicized no matter how inane. You are also EXPECTED to have a binary opinion on all these issues with no room for differing opinions. Look at the NFL protests during the anthem. Kneel and you are a bleeding heart liberal that hates the cops. Stand and you are a red hat conservative promoting police brutality and the Private Prison Complex.…
then just say no. stop falling for the partisan trap and assert your right to have an opinion disconnected from a political identity (even if that opinion more-or-less falls in line with one of those parties).
Re: How Twitter poisoned politics
#85Earlier 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…
I think this is the issue; at least in the U.S. EVERYTHING is becoming more politicized no matter how inane. You are also EXPECTED to have a binary opinion on all these issues with no room for differing opinions. Look at the NFL protests during the anthem. Kneel and you are a bleeding heart liberal that hates the cops. Stand and you are a red hat conservative promoting police brutality and the Private Prison Complex.…
It's classic divide and conquer. The ultra rich have framed politics as red vs. blue, when in reality it has always been (and always will be): them vs. the rest of us.
Re: How Twitter poisoned politics
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
America wasn't like this 20 years ago. Politics has always been bad, and there's times it's been even worse, but that doesn't mean it's not trending downward right now.
> America wasn't like this 20 years ago. 20 years ago was 1998, the year Clinton was impeached - the politics were just as slimy 20 years ago, the reality of it was just not as readily at our fingertips as it is today.
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 election next month, if they vote to impeach Trump, that any of them will cry about it, ever. I can't imagine that the Republicans shed any tears over voting to impeach Clinton, either.
Re: How Twitter poisoned politics
#87Re: How Twitter poisoned politics
#88Was 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?" Short answer: Nope. A couple years ago I read "Freedom for the Thoughts That We Hate." Aside from the history of the 1st Amendment, my #1 takeaway was: "politics has always been ugly and dirty." That said, I think what's difference now is more and more people are less and less aware of history , as well as the fact that the MSM has finally figured out how to m…
> I think what's difference now is more and more people are less and less aware of history...
More and more people that other people are listening to are less and less aware of history. The internet has given a platform to many more voices. Some of those new voices have worthwhile things to say. And others are coming from places that are rather disconnected from reality. Before, the only place those people got heard was at the corner bar. Now the whole world can hear them.
Re: How Twitter poisoned politics
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
America wasn't like this 20 years ago. Politics has always been bad, and there's times it's been even worse, but that doesn't mean it's not trending downward right now.
> America wasn't like this 20 years ago. 20 years ago was 1998, the year Clinton was impeached - the politics were just as slimy 20 years ago, the reality of it was just not as readily at our fingertips as it is today.
20 years ago, Clinton tells a lie about his personal life and gets impeached; today, Trump lies about things which have actual life-or-death consequences for US citizens, and that's just ordinary political background noise and you're crazy if you get upset by such a minor thing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Re: How Twitter poisoned politics
#90Was 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…
No doubt politics has always been dirty, but the existence now of a system which, by design, automates the amplification of the most obnoxious of its millions of users, has to have had some effect.