we're already there.
"Otherwise, we are left with a situation in which billionaires control social and political discourse, regulated only by the very politicians they have purchased wholesale. That is a recipe for authoritarian disaster."
"Otherwise, we are left with a situation in which billionaires control social and political discourse, regulated only by the very politicians they have purchased wholesale. That is a recipe for authoritarian disaster."
Agree, which is why the constitutional issue I have described should be raised, along with the broader effort to redefine and reassert the public realm -- the commons. I also agree that anti-trust can be useful tool (per the comment below), but disagree that defining broadly used tech platforms as part of the commons, and thus subject to public control, could "easily lead to totalitarian fascism." I know of no such example in the utilities context, and if democratic control to assure open speech and discourse threatens fascism, then we are doomed indeed.
Yes and no. We are not doomed but politics will not save us as there are forces in our government too corrupt to even speak of. There are so many people who are aware of the dangers, so many who aren't. Our world is extremely broken at this moment in time. BUT we are free to share love, connect each other, see the humanity within the soul. Take away the phone, social media - all this garbage is a way to get us hooked, forget our humanity, and then take away our "freedom". But the internet isn't the source of our freedom. What did people do before it? They got to know each other. This is the sign all along that the internet is a source of oppression where people see only the most superficial aspects of humanity without coming close up and seeing humanity face to face soul to soul. yes i know this comment has almost zero to do with your previous comment - but i firmly believe that despite all the bad things that are going on, there is a vacuum of loneliness that desperately wants to be filled. When we act on our humanity then people really are truly good at heart. No more political media lies, identity politics, or the politicization of anything. It's broken, it won't help us.
we're already there.
"Otherwise, we are left with a situation in which billionaires control social and political discourse, regulated only by the very politicians they have purchased wholesale. That is a recipe for authoritarian disaster."
Agree, which is why the constitutional issue I have described should be raised, along with the broader effort to redefine and reassert the public realm -- the commons. I also agree that anti-trust can be useful tool (per the comment below), but disagree that defining broadly used tech platforms as part of the commons, and thus subject to public control, could "easily lead to totalitarian fascism." I know of no such example in the utilities context, and if democratic control to assure open speech and discourse threatens fascism, then we are doomed indeed.
Yes and no. We are not doomed but politics will not save us as there are forces in our government too corrupt to even speak of. There are so many people who are aware of the dangers, so many who aren't. Our world is extremely broken at this moment in time. BUT we are free to share love, connect each other, see the humanity within the soul. Take away the phone, social media - all this garbage is a way to get us hooked, forget our humanity, and then take away our "freedom". But the internet isn't the source of our freedom. What did people do before it? They got to know each other. This is the sign all along that the internet is a source of oppression where people see only the most superficial aspects of humanity without coming close up and seeing humanity face to face soul to soul. yes i know this comment has almost zero to do with your previous comment - but i firmly believe that despite all the bad things that are going on, there is a vacuum of loneliness that desperately wants to be filled. When we act on our humanity then people really are truly good at heart. No more political media lies, identity politics, or the politicization of anything. It's broken, it won't help us.