Nope
I haven't been online that much this past week. A general malaise has swept over me that I can't quite shake yet. I am sure it has something to do with the terrible events in the world and the way the mainstream media reports on them. Worse is how the public responds predictably to this mass manipulation by just amplifying the negative sentiments of their side. There is nothing healthy or valuable in that and I doubt it moves the needle at all. Rather, it keeps us divided and immobilized, which is by design. Just empty calories and vacant thinking that deplete our time and energy.
I feel like we should have learned by now that politics and social media are a dangerous mix where misinformation, propaganda and tribalism spread wildly. It is not just the algorithms and bad actors who cause this anymore, but also regular people who have been unwittingly trained to behave this way online. We should resist this and instead discuss issues constructively, share ideas for making meaningful change, and support one another through these difficult times. I think it is counterproductive to simply hyper-focus on some “bad person” who clearly wants the attention, feeds on the chaos, and benefits from all the negative publicity.
So I tend to nope out when I see this happening, even in decentralized spaces. I have a “broligarchy” filter on Mastodon with a dozen names (and growing) that helps a little. It is amazing how much richer the conversations are when you remove the psychopaths from the discussion. We can't avoid what they are doing, of course, but there is nothing they hate more than being ignored and made irrelevant. And the powerful people who support them are not going to put their money and influence behind someone deemed irrelevant.
Tags: #Politics #Media #Social
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