caryking said:
Civilized said:
smitt86 said:
caryking said:
I do agree we will have a **** show; however, nothing says that this **** show will be violent if Harris wins. If Trump wins Halperin might be underestimating the mess we will see. Liberals are far worse and divisive that conservatives. History shows that to be true...
I'm not picking a side in this battle, but let's be honest here, every Trump-supporter I know was IRATE after the last election and January 6th happened(regardless if you believe the government instigated it, folks were there any angry).
I expect far left folks to do/say dumb things if Trump wins, and I expect far right folks to do/say dumb things if Harris wins. It's how this always works.
I think it'll be violent either way, at least in small pockets. And the reason the divide is getting larger year after year has nothing to do with who the President was or any actual policies, it's all social media driven.
Folks find echo-chambers, are looking for a sense of purpose, and attach their purpose to their "tribe"/team, and then they feel like they're succeeding and "making a difference" if they are super active in their new community. So then it just causes them to hear more of what they want to hear and they start to really drink their team's kool-aid and become less pro-"their team" and more anti-"the other team". It's why you have folks thinking Trump will be a dictator and must be stopped all all costs, and you have folks thinking that Democratic politicians were meeting in a pizza joint where they drank children's blood to stay young/powerful, haha.
It's why everyone on one side thinks every mainstream media network is just a puppet for liberal politicians/companies, and everyone on the other side thinks 99% of the stuff on X is crazy talk and fake news. Between AI, bots, and folks intentionally spreading false information to get clicks, social media just going to keep driving a wedge and make the gap between the 2 political parties get larger and larger.
Unless we put an end to social media(won't happen) or completely turn away from the two-party system(highly unlikely), this is just going to continue to get worse.
I'd give this post 10 stars if I could.
Could not possibly agree more.
Social media is a scourge on humanity. The algorithms and echo chambers are impossibly effective at quashing actual public discourse and cultivating extremism.
Social media is absolutely no different than The View…
Is it not? I think it's actually quite different, and I couldn't care less for that program.
If I sign up for cable/streaming/etc, I get a ton of channels to choose from. Many of those channels are programs that I hate or don't care to watch, but the companies don't suggest it to me and my family/friends can't just put it in my face encouraging me to watch it. The "algorithm", which at this point that word is starting to lose it's meaning with all the usage of it, is crafted to generate engagement. If I'm Brian and I like NC State and hunting, you'd think my feed would be a ton of NC State stuff (positive and negative) and hunting stuff. Instead, the social media platforms(at least ones like FB and X) realized that it's much easier to get folks to "engage", when they're mad about something. So it would be like tuning into watch NC State play on the CW, and the entire game they're just talking about everything Brian hates(UNC, gun rights, PETA, etc). So Brian could just turn the channel, right? How do you turn the channel on social media? You can keep scrolling, but it's just going to be more of the same. It creates the echo chamber, it would be like someone ONLY watching The View, so you think everything they say are facts, and most folks with a brain know that's not really how any media outlet works.
Also, when those folks get in their chairs and talk to the camera on The View... we know their names. They might not be doing all of the writing for the show, but it's their mouths it's coming out of and they're the ones folks hold responsible for the words. We know what they're saying and exactly who is saying it, there is some accountability there. On social media, most folks are anonymous trolls that are just inciting folks to anger and reposting false things(even some they've created) just to generate clicks/traffic. If social media would move to associating their name/face with their account, I think you'd have a LOT less folks feeling emboldened to post hateful/trollish things just to generate engagement. Freedom of Speech doesn't entitle folks to anonymity, so you should be free to say what you want on social media, but you should also have to stand on what you say and be held accountable for it.
