SchmotGuys
564
30
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/09/17/social-media-politics-charlie-kirk/
1. Companies who own the platforms manipulate what speech you hear to promove conflict and eyeball time.
2. We're getting worse at figuring out what is BS
3. We like echo chambers and pretty folks telling us what to do.
PoliticalWanderer
The true enemy is the rich and their corporations, who own or disproportionately influence social media. Social media itself is just a tool.
lightfoot2
What happened to the American Dream? It came true. You're looking at it.
Lurker55684
Ah yes, it remember before the Internet when violence didn't exist, everyone got along, racism was not a thing, and there was no drama in politics.
moonshadowkati
I disagree. I think it's the same as it ever was. People bash differing opinions, people hiding hate behind self-righteousness, people forming big dumb mobs to quash opposition. Now we just get to see it all play out, all over the country and all over the world if we so desire, and so we get glimpses of a bigger picture that was once harder to see. Nothing is happening right now that didn't happen before the internet, overall.
JohnWickdidnothingwrong
The enemy of democracy is the same as its always been, rich people. Media is media, who controls it is what matters.
TurnsOut42WasASlightMiscalculation
I wouldn't say "the" but certainly "a" (or rather "an")
GrandmasterSpank
Exactly this. Who owns the 'social media'?
SchmotGuys
Users (rightly or not) use social media thinking they are in a public forum rather than a highly selected echo chamber. They think they are hearing what the majority are saying, but instead are hearing what pisses folks off the most.
Our ability to understand what peers are thinking is being warped. We’re getting accustomed to seek news/information from social media which is tuned to adjust reality towards rage/echo chambers.
Democracy cannot thrive without free and fair communication
LurkingSarcasm
Not only that, their data is being harvested about everything we are doing, seeing, interacting with, messaging, traveling to, googling. This is not for observation or even some all seeing digital assistant to help balance your life, but for control... and that is a huge problem.
wingedcougar1993598
It's good to see this idea finally catching on. I've been saying it for almost a decade, but of course, since I have no meaningful social media presence and I'm not a journalist, my audience is like, three people.
DownvotesStarWars
4*
I agree with you
Lurker55684
This idea ignores the anti democratic operations of administration after administration since the 1950s. It ignores that the FBI was involved in political persuasion. It fails to mention anything about racism and the backlash from Obama. And it doesn't mention how the boomers fit in here, the largest population block who is not nearly as online as any others. It's an idea, but I think it relies heavily feelings of nostalgia. The world wasn't better when I was 12, I was just less involved in it.
SchmotGuys
The argument isn’t that the world was better when you were 12. It’s that democracy was.
wingedcougar1993598
I'm not clear what you're on about. Social media platforms are willing to allow the corruption of the platforms themselves to influence society at large for their own gain, and otherwise, they do almost nothing to police their own networks for behavior and information that is overtly detrimental to that society. They're a net negative for the majority of people they affect.
Sulexar
Imgur is social media, clown.
wingedcougar1993598
You'll note I didn't say "no social media presence". I said my social media presence isn't meaningful. I delete all my accounts right around the one year mark and start over, because there isn't any social media that offers true anonymity, and I'm not willing to sacrifice my physical safety and wellbeing for a little digital cred.