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0 pointsgonzo415y ago0 comments

Also democracy, don't forget democracy is also a victim. :P

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3 comments · 1 top-level

adventured5y ago· 2 in thread

It is a well known fact that the 20th century was overflowing with amazing democracy. We had democracy coming out of ears back then. Then Facebook came along and destroyed all that vast success humans have had with implementing and upholding fair democratic systems all over the world. It was utopia until 2007-2008 when Facebook went mainstream.

Wait, I got that all backwards. The world is more democratic today than it was in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s or 1990s. Facebook is a recent convenient scapegoat for the same problems humanity has had with organizing fair systems of government for thousands of years, and it's a particularly intellectually lazy scapegoat at that.

corytheboyd5y ago

I think the comment above yours was mostly joking, or at least deliberately simplifying things.

But since we’re here and I can’t resist, I agree with you that statements like “x is destroying democracy” are meaningless hyperbole. Social media has a role in influencing the outcome of the democratic process, sure, but to say it is ERASING DEMOCRACY is ridiculous. It doesn’t mean anything. We still vote, and those votes still matter.

My nostalgia for the internet of yore and the affects of social media on democracy are pretty much divorced ideas anyway, I really did just mean for my original comment to be a funnysad observation

crusty5y ago

We may still vote but we aren't the only democracy under strain and the pressures bring put on it are even more exaggerated in other places, like those where Facebook is the internet ala mid-90's AOL, accessed on phones for free or cheap, and separate from general data plans.

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