russia interference, trump, collusion, etc

[John Galt]

it's their own f**k fault though, and their parents. my children will know how to troll anonymously, mainly because if they don't, i will find out and i will wreck their f**k day

and yes, this is the post-reality age. when you can't trust what your eyes see anymore, because software can alter photos, and when you can can go on escapist adventures on computers and now... in full VR... it's only natural that we come to a point where facts are deemed irrelevant for politics. i mean, it's terrible, but its there. the only way out is by grounding on facts, which i don't think we'll get to until we crash hard into reality. social media is an existential threat to the western order, but at this point i think it's more like how climate change is a threat to the environment: massive problem we can't or won't fully acknowledge because to do so would require genuine systemic changes that we are quite possibly incapable of enacting

[exploited]

The idea that we are just now living in a fact-free political existence is amusing, if it were not so depressing, obsolete and incorrect.

Do you really think that the average voter in 1922 had a better understanding of "facts" than the average voter now? That average person is more educated and literate than ever before. Safer than ever before. With access to a wider range of media and media fact-checking than ever before, at a drastically cheaper price.

In fact, I would wager that a person who is of average intelligence, and has some interest in politics, has a far greater understanding of reality now than at any other point in history.

f**k conservative traitors, all you guys can do is tear stuff down. Never any investigation of context, never any attention span for valid comparisons. Sickening, really, how the conservative views his fellow human being. Great strides have been made, and the fact that we are even talking about how we are being manipulated by media is proof of that. Galt doesn't give a shit about facts, all he cares about is people sticking to their roles.

[John Galt]

having theoretical access to things doesn't mean people use it. people turn to social media for 'news' because they think people they know are trustworthy, while the media (which is not 'social media') itself does, in general, vet things before releasing information. the problem is that social media does not, and truth ends up being like in Momento. the internet isn't one large hall where we talk about things. it's a bunch of separate echo chambers, some of which are completely divorced from reality. some people will think the craziest things because it is supposedly "secret truth". like the book "The Secret" or "Forbidden History". these people are across the spectrum in their political beliefs and social media and the internet has fostered this. before crazy people had no place to interact, now they can do it from their phone. we live in Fantasyland -- which is an excellent book and i recommend it

[exploited]

[Spider]

[spacemonkey]

The truth, not agenda's or bias, should be the holy grail for pure journalism at its best. The kind we deserve, but is it still even possible? A dishonest media is a bigger threat then the weapons of any foreign nation.

[Spider]

[spacemonkey]

[Spider]

The press is the reason trump is in office, you dolt.

They put him there.

[Kane]

It's interesting watching liberals cope with how to best attack illiberalism. What if we ignored the white nationalists, alt right, etc and just turned out to vote? And stopped rioting against them giving them the ability to proclaim victimization?

Does a lack of protest against right wing groups in public spaces really invite it to be normalized?