Brianna Wu

What is fundamentally wrong with America isn’t that we face problems. It’s that we have a deficiency in our problem solving mechanisms.

The tendency of social media to reduce everything to a left versus right culture war is one of the primary reasons for that deficit.

May 17, 2023 at 7:06pmWeb
Show threadMartin P.May 17, 2023
@briannawu I also think about this Bucky Fuller quote a lot:
“If you are in a shipwreck and all the boats are gone, a piano top buoyant enough to keep you afloat that comes along makes a fortuitous life preserver. But this is not to say that the best way to design a life preserver is in the form of a piano top. I think that we are clinging to a great many piano tops in accepting yesterday’s fortuitous contrivings as constituting the only means for solving a given problem.”
Show thread Why Not Zoidberg? 🦑May 17, 2023
@briannawu Not only America, but America is further "ahead" than Europe still. The most troubling part is that Trying to solve the problem is considered too political to do, even.
Show threadBen Pate 🤘🏻May 17, 2023
Hey @briannawu - though this is probably a human/cultural problem first (and a technology problem second) what do you think social media could do different/better to help push back against this. Something I see too much in Mastodon circles is a lot of social decisions being made by the technologists, instead of by heavy users and regular people.
Show threadMatt WilcoxMay 17, 2023

@briannawu you believe *social media* is more polarised than US broadcast media? Which sets the tone? Which wears inherited badges of authority?

Social media only facilitates discussion. Topics are set out There. In the real world.

Show threadLaureMay 17, 2023
@briannawu maybe more apt: The tendency of ubiquitous and opaque networks on social media and beyond to easily jack trends and promote a left versus right culture…
Show threadLaureMay 17, 2023
@briannawu most especially the mass proliferation of scam, conspiracy and clickbait channels, a machine, run by determined sometimes state info operators loosely or directly organized in networks across websites, social, tv and radio. Think newsmax, breitbart, Bannon, Tucker etc. and armies of influencers to help.
Show threadKelly GuimontMay 17, 2023
@briannawu this is true but I think part of that deficiency is the "what's in it for me?" mechanism that is inherent here. Why take action to solve a problem if it isn't a problem I have?
Show threadNate BarhamMay 18, 2023

@Verso @briannawu

“And if the people (public figures) I trust are constantly telling me that fixing this problem for someone else, who is probably lazy and undeserving, will actually make my life worse/harder/more expensive, and on top of that won’t even work, how am I supposed to ever get on board?”

Show threadAnna ZarvesMay 18, 2023
@briannawu I like to think we already had the deficit when we arrived on social media, thanks to our education system not teaching us how to think critically.
Show threadYnoTMay 18, 2023
@briannawu the primary reason being the GOP.
Show threadbarryzeeMay 18, 2023
@briannawu While social media does have an amplifying effect, the root of the evil is that we no longer have a willingness to compromise to come to a solution. Everything has to be on "our" terms or nothing. So Republicans don't dream of voting for a Democrat solution and Democrats won't vote for a Republican solution. Moderates in both parties are afraid to take on the zealots in their own party. A pox on all their houses!
Show threadpetteriusaMay 18, 2023

@briannawu

My thinking is that’s a general attitude of unseriousness that’s been prevalent for a while now. Made much worse by the GOP and the social media explosion has just amplified this.

The culture wars add fuel to the fire by giving oxygen to this unserious dialogue.

I wish I had an idea on how to undo this.