@qkslvrwolf I would define 'real media' as that which is preferred by the public, which they are not compelled to regard. This view emphasizes the democratic market of ideas, and the public's role in making free choices.
It's too easy to demonize media, as if they order us about; they do not. That's a cop-out that inappropriately lets We the People off the hook. The problem is that too many citizens are dumb cows who don't want to have to think for themselves.
@qkslvrwolf If your argument is that the vast majority of voters are unthinking cows, you won't get any disagreement with me. But you can't child-proof democracy.
At some point, legal adults have to take responsibility for themselves.
@wesdym No, my argument is that individuals cannot magic think themselves out of living in the environment that's been constructed around them, and blaming them is a dead fucking end where nothing changes and everyone hates each other.
Put the blame where it belongs: on the billionaires who found democracy's achilles heel, which is that with technology they can pay for multiple orders of magnitude more disinformation than good people can counteract.
@wesdym It's brandolini's law: It takes an order of magnitude more effort to debunk disinformation than to produce it.
The only way to fix that is to shut of the source of disinformation. The only way to do that is distinguish paid speech from free speech.
@qkslvrwolf Oh, look, it's Reply Guy.
Sorry, dude, my 'bored enough to sit up all night listening to self-appointed Jello Biafra wannabe days are over'.
Bye.
@qkslvrwolf But they're not mugging us for the money they have to have. We CHOOSE to pay them. We don't have to.
At the bottom of this entire food chain are hordes of people who just don't want to have to be inconvenienced in any way in order for anything to be better.
And that's their free choice. But I wish they were more honest with themselves and others about it.
@wesdym I mean, that's like saying "oh, don't like cars? don't drive" in a country where the infrastructure is nearly entirely built around cars and not driving one excludes you from society (torturous) and can literally get you killed. It's just an insane point of view.
Individual choice cannot make structural changes. Collective action is required to change the structure.
@qkslvrwolf 'Collective action' in this case is enough people choosing what's better for them over what's easier.
Now, if you have some suggestion for how to FORCE them to do that, maybe that's a plan. Until then, you either accept democracy for the mess that it is, or you propose a different system that imposes what you'd prefer. Just be prepared for the pushback. Because an awful lot of people DO NOT give a shit, believe me. I'll be the first to agree they should, but they just don't.
Peter Gleick
excited for the mastodon rise
WesDym