It's the Internet, Stupid. What caused the global populist wave? (opens in new tab)

The internet has been utilized efficiently by many, but it’s essentially the new printing machine, salon, public square, college lounge, and speakeasy all rolled into one. All the old places where propaganda or ideology spread found its place, it’s all here in memes, blogs, TikToks, or whatever instead.

But the rise in populist thinking is also a feint, in many ways. The end goal of populist ideology, as always, is centralization of power whenever the populist ruling party reaches critical mass in authority. This has been true regardless of the political leanings of a populist movement, either left or right.

For democracies to remain stable for elections and transitions of power, I think the future of the internet will be something like China’s great fire wall.

I think he's basically saying this is not true, but one thing that's confused me is why the backlash against tech hasn't been more pointed.

I've often thought that it was all the change in the world that scared people, and that that change might be targeted at the sort of tangible changes in terms of technology changes, particularly AI, but I find people surprisingly neutral on AI. It's interesting that people seem way more upset about vaccines, which have been around for hundreds of years.

But I guess to Francis' point, social media means that people aren't focusing on particular technology changes. It's all these things that maybe wwere always there - and maybe are there now in fewer numbers! But you're exposed to the crime, the different lifestyles, how much better everyone else is doing, live and in 4k.