Rumors in the age of unreason

[Deckard]

A corollary of this, but more directly related to the original quote: does the internet encourage us to become more tribal than ever?

That would be the greatest irony, wouldn't it, given the opportunities now afforded people to hear and engage with such a multitude of views.

The fact that content from all the main British daily newspapers are currently free to anyone with an internet connection should have been revolutionary and a net gain for the most watertight arguments and positions and beliefs. And yet, it seems to have simply provided people with an easier way to cluster around one of two poles, and to support their team. If anything, the culture wars have amplified, and the teams have been galvanized. I don't sense much cross-pollination happening - I wonder if that means it's not?

I switch between feeling optimistic and pessimistic about the internet's role in improving democracies. Instinctively, the very notion of the internet should be a great thing for believers in democracy. A wonderful thing. But the downsides are impossible to ignore: reduced attention span... impersonalisation... an impoliteness that is accepted as inevitable ("It's the internet - get used to it" being the standard response - which is all well and good but what does that do for meaningful dialogue?) and of course the elevation of opinions and smears that don't warrant elevation.

Never mind. I'm going to take solace from the fact that a self-confessed misanthrope like Strangelet is able to be optimistic.

[Strangelet]

Originally Posted by Deckard

Never mind. I'm going to take solace from the fact that a self-confessed misanthrope like Strangelet is able to be optimistic.

Ah decks. there you are. was wondering where you've been. Its kind of a brinkmanship optimism but yeah.

America here's your corporate/fascist ahem, excuse me, two party system in action

WASHINGTON — In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.
Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.
E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.

So its not just Max Baucus' bill, as I mentioned in the health care thread that was written by a lobbyist. Its the entire fucking legislative branch. So there's your choice, there's all your difference from which to build all your fist pounding ire at the other side of the aisle.

[Sean]

If nothing else, watching this health care bill be as scrutinized as it has been has illustrated to me just how screwed up the whole legislative process really is. I mean, I knew it was in a more general sense, but the details I'm seeing now are pretty eye opening, not to mention ri-freakin-diculous. How does anything ever get done?

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

That's just it, nothing does get done. Then, when it all falls apart again people who watch too much television blame the "Illuminati", or something. Then, no one knows who the "Illuminati" people are, so really NO ONE is to blame but ourselves and then we all just go out and buy more stuff we'll probably really use just once or twice , but we're happy because, hey, we could buy it and then rent more movies and then we're happy again.

Like that.