I rewrote this and is now both shorter and I think more coherent. I think if you download again, you'll see the revision. I hope, by the way, to do this with a selection and prepare a booklet I can send to you that thanks you for your patience.
We ignore the elephant in the room at our peril: The effectiveness of Russia promoting propaganda on social media through it's troll farms. I have outed Russian agents posing as Americans, typically Black Americans. The Russians did feed information to the Trump campaign. People do have legitimate complaints, we always do. It's not made up. We're being exploited and divided with false information, with emotionally charged information.
What will it take to harden ourselves from these troll attacks? Would we want to live in a nation that could?
It's all summed up in the role of Teddy which is a lot like the party that gets the most votes in national elections. As the Man In Black said to Teddy in the first Westworld episode, "You're here to be the loser" as the rich guests win.
There may be a part of reality, or part of our human nature, that produces losers and winners. But we need not design our societies to make these the sharpest and most painful of experiences. We are not without agency. If we must have trophies, can they be gold painted plastic statues on unsteady pedestals. Ultimately, we can have no winners or losers, as we live in time and the end-game is never truly played.
It seems our society already came with a design. And yes we do have some agency to forge a future but I'm afraid a governance of a the few won't attend well to the needs of the many. We aren't winning. If we think we won something, it's nothing more than Spectacle. We get shiny objects to pacify and fool us. We might be good at cutting down forests for our houses, but we're even better at buying and selling fake carbon offsets so we can clearcut to the max. Planet saved! We're told we're saving the world from plastic by using paper straws. It's absurd.
I read the book a while back but I think Spectacle goes a long way to explain why people feel betrayed. What great liberal accomplishments do we have to show for this generation? Two presidents were elected by losing the popular vote. With large majorities, Obama was able to get the anemic Romneycare, oops I mean the affordable health care act passed. And by the way, my state hasn't even allowed Medicaid expansion. I think people feel like elections don't actually matter. We get hope and then a big letdown. People aren't getting angry and losing faith because of change and getting left behind. People are losing faith because of business as usual in spite of our voices and our votes. (except for exceptions of minority rule)
I rewrote this and is now both shorter and I think more coherent. I think if you download again, you'll see the revision. I hope, by the way, to do this with a selection and prepare a booklet I can send to you that thanks you for your patience.
We ignore the elephant in the room at our peril: The effectiveness of Russia promoting propaganda on social media through it's troll farms. I have outed Russian agents posing as Americans, typically Black Americans. The Russians did feed information to the Trump campaign. People do have legitimate complaints, we always do. It's not made up. We're being exploited and divided with false information, with emotionally charged information.
What will it take to harden ourselves from these troll attacks? Would we want to live in a nation that could?
https://www.bpr.org/news/2019-06-06/russian-trolling-an-asheville-facebook-profile-and-an-amateur-sleuth-to-connect-the-dots
It's all summed up in the role of Teddy which is a lot like the party that gets the most votes in national elections. As the Man In Black said to Teddy in the first Westworld episode, "You're here to be the loser" as the rich guests win.
There may be a part of reality, or part of our human nature, that produces losers and winners. But we need not design our societies to make these the sharpest and most painful of experiences. We are not without agency. If we must have trophies, can they be gold painted plastic statues on unsteady pedestals. Ultimately, we can have no winners or losers, as we live in time and the end-game is never truly played.
It seems our society already came with a design. And yes we do have some agency to forge a future but I'm afraid a governance of a the few won't attend well to the needs of the many. We aren't winning. If we think we won something, it's nothing more than Spectacle. We get shiny objects to pacify and fool us. We might be good at cutting down forests for our houses, but we're even better at buying and selling fake carbon offsets so we can clearcut to the max. Planet saved! We're told we're saving the world from plastic by using paper straws. It's absurd.
Spectacle is a key concept these days. And we do prize the shiny objects
I read the book a while back but I think Spectacle goes a long way to explain why people feel betrayed. What great liberal accomplishments do we have to show for this generation? Two presidents were elected by losing the popular vote. With large majorities, Obama was able to get the anemic Romneycare, oops I mean the affordable health care act passed. And by the way, my state hasn't even allowed Medicaid expansion. I think people feel like elections don't actually matter. We get hope and then a big letdown. People aren't getting angry and losing faith because of change and getting left behind. People are losing faith because of business as usual in spite of our voices and our votes. (except for exceptions of minority rule)