I think this article answers a false question. There is no such thing as “XYZ broke America”; not social media, not other common scapegoats such as immigrants, or China. These arguments can’t be rebuked because they’re not falsifiable (and I suspect some key people pushing them in the mainstream are well aware of this). That said, take this quote:
“The platforms are not harmless. They may accelerate worrying trends, amplify fringe voices, and facilitate radicalization.”
Well that’s exactly “the problem”. Social media doesn’t create hate speech, but amplifies it for profit. China is not an evil cartoon villain, but it is often ruthless and criminal in its drive for power (as is the US, by the way, and has been for at least a century before Trump). Immigration is not a crime, but any uncontrolled influx of people (foreign or not) into an area will increase social tension.
To say “America’s challenges are deeper than this” is a truism. It would be much more useful to investigate how social media platforms can pay for the consequences of their negligence.
This article is very sensible as far as it goes. But it doesn't even touch on the elephant in the room, i.e. the appalling state of American primary and secondary education. This is not new, so in a way this reinforces Williams's point about "social media" not being the culprit. But this institutional defect made the non-educated almost-majority of the American population vulnerable (far more vulnerable than in other rich countries) to the gateway offered by social media to finding others of their kind. They now no longer had to suffer the scorn of the educated in humble silence and passivity, social media enabled them to give full-throated expression to their resentment and find many others who sympathized. And thereby to become a political force again, which they hadn't really been since William Jennings Bryan.
So yes, Williams is right about the diploma gap, but the inequality due to wholly inadequate primary and secondary education is what underlies that gap, and is far worse in itself -- because it makes the non-educated so vulnerable to information cascades and demagoguery -- than the higher education gap.
Twitter and facebook have admitted to being influenced by government agencies. To suggest they are part of the broader range of knowledge available is a bit naive.
A joke going around for a couple of years now
"What is the difference between alt media and the MSM narrative? About three months."
Alt media is Rumble, locals, Bit shute and telegram.
To have a population openly asking questions is not a bad thing. It gives evidence that the people do care about their country and the global population as a whole.
Maybe the problem is more about gaslit hegemone from the ruling classes. People who rate their success on the money they make and not the outcomes of an improved society for all.
Synthetics, like FIAT currency, give a false god to those who believe they can do whatever they please as long as they benefit above everyone else.
Intuition, on the other hand, has not been crushed out of the general public's cognition. The rise of the religion of science tries to break our 6th sense but until science can understand intuition then it will never achieve its goal.
Maths is a large part of the problem. It has been bastardised to create a frankenstein attempt to understand nature.
In maths we are told placing nothing (0) next to an item (1) makes that single item ten (10) times bigger. Can anyone tell me where this happens in nature?
The basis of the mathematics language is flawed. Now build economies and knowledge systems based on that flaw. Allow it to go to extremes and sooner or later Intuition starts to ask questions.
The human races greatest achievement is to continually gaslight itself that it is superior to all other species.
When in fact it is perceived by all other species on the planet to being the village idiot.
Thanks for writing. I would be curious to hear reflections and review of martin gurri s revolt of the public.
I think this article answers a false question. There is no such thing as “XYZ broke America”; not social media, not other common scapegoats such as immigrants, or China. These arguments can’t be rebuked because they’re not falsifiable (and I suspect some key people pushing them in the mainstream are well aware of this). That said, take this quote:
“The platforms are not harmless. They may accelerate worrying trends, amplify fringe voices, and facilitate radicalization.”
Well that’s exactly “the problem”. Social media doesn’t create hate speech, but amplifies it for profit. China is not an evil cartoon villain, but it is often ruthless and criminal in its drive for power (as is the US, by the way, and has been for at least a century before Trump). Immigration is not a crime, but any uncontrolled influx of people (foreign or not) into an area will increase social tension.
To say “America’s challenges are deeper than this” is a truism. It would be much more useful to investigate how social media platforms can pay for the consequences of their negligence.
This article is very sensible as far as it goes. But it doesn't even touch on the elephant in the room, i.e. the appalling state of American primary and secondary education. This is not new, so in a way this reinforces Williams's point about "social media" not being the culprit. But this institutional defect made the non-educated almost-majority of the American population vulnerable (far more vulnerable than in other rich countries) to the gateway offered by social media to finding others of their kind. They now no longer had to suffer the scorn of the educated in humble silence and passivity, social media enabled them to give full-throated expression to their resentment and find many others who sympathized. And thereby to become a political force again, which they hadn't really been since William Jennings Bryan.
So yes, Williams is right about the diploma gap, but the inequality due to wholly inadequate primary and secondary education is what underlies that gap, and is far worse in itself -- because it makes the non-educated so vulnerable to information cascades and demagoguery -- than the higher education gap.
Twitter and facebook have admitted to being influenced by government agencies. To suggest they are part of the broader range of knowledge available is a bit naive.
A joke going around for a couple of years now
"What is the difference between alt media and the MSM narrative? About three months."
Alt media is Rumble, locals, Bit shute and telegram.
To have a population openly asking questions is not a bad thing. It gives evidence that the people do care about their country and the global population as a whole.
Maybe the problem is more about gaslit hegemone from the ruling classes. People who rate their success on the money they make and not the outcomes of an improved society for all.
Synthetics, like FIAT currency, give a false god to those who believe they can do whatever they please as long as they benefit above everyone else.
Intuition, on the other hand, has not been crushed out of the general public's cognition. The rise of the religion of science tries to break our 6th sense but until science can understand intuition then it will never achieve its goal.
Maths is a large part of the problem. It has been bastardised to create a frankenstein attempt to understand nature.
In maths we are told placing nothing (0) next to an item (1) makes that single item ten (10) times bigger. Can anyone tell me where this happens in nature?
The basis of the mathematics language is flawed. Now build economies and knowledge systems based on that flaw. Allow it to go to extremes and sooner or later Intuition starts to ask questions.
The human races greatest achievement is to continually gaslight itself that it is superior to all other species.
When in fact it is perceived by all other species on the planet to being the village idiot.
Someone sent me this article saying it reminds him of my work :) The author (and others) might find some of my old research on polarization and digital media interesting: https://lydialaurenson.substack.com/p/polarization-and-peacebuilding-on-digital-media-my-research-from-2019