Social Media Is Tearing America Apart

PoliTalker said:
Social media and the internet both need to be very stringently regulated.
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Now you get it



We need what it offers


We can’t just make it non existent


What parts we can leave to commerce we can leave to commerce by breaking it up


But some aspects will need to be made critical infrastructure and owned by the people



It’s the only way
 
archives said:
Capitalism, it is a lucrative arena, no different than the infotainment we see 24/7 on TV, if there is a buck to be made, anything goes regardless of the consequences
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Bingo



When laws are absent a money making venture evil people will exploit it to make mountains of cash and won’t give a fuck who gets harmed



Capitalism is awesome


But it needs laws


Or evil ones abuse it



It’s just fact
 
Decades ago, people were very concerned about something referred to as 'big brother.' People didn't like the idea of government keeping lists, compiling data on each citizen. People didn't want their lives to be tracked by authorities.

Fast forward to today and people think nothing of having their lives tracked throughout everything they do. But instead of government doing the tracking, it's big money corporations doing it.

Social media is only part of it.

You don't have to be on social media to be tracked by them. It's way more invasive than you agreeing to a 20 page legal user agreement that nobody reads.

Did you know if you walk into a big box store with your phone that the store will attempt to identify you through the signal? Did you know that the store keeps a file on you and learns not only all your shopping habits but who your friends are and their shopping habits and much more? They want to know everything about you, keep it all there in a digital file so they can analyze your life and even attempt to guide your thoughts and decision-making.

Even if you don't take your phone with you, they have security cameras which do much more than protect the store from theft. Those cameras are watching everybody in the store. They are connected to face-recognition software. Their goal is to identify you and watch you everywhere you go in the store. They want to know what you are interested in. They want to study all your habits.

And they will sell all their information on you to the highest bidder.

Data analysis corporations will acquire data wherever they can get it. They use very sophisticated software to see what works and what doesn't work on influencing people's buying a political habits.

These are powerful tools which have become part of our country, whether we like it or not.

There is not enough regulation to prevent this kind of list-keeping with you on the list.

People were afraid of big brother; well brother, we've got it.

This is all part of the class war. This is part of how the super-rich control everybody else.

Hope ya like it. You have no choice.
 
PoliTalker said:
There is a perfectly good life without social media.

It is best to completely disregard it.

Delete all your accounts. Never look at social media again.

Social media is too corrosive to society because it exemplifies extremism.

Extremism is not America. Most Americans just want to live and let live.

The problem with social media is that it has learned how to monetize rumors.

That is very bad for America.

People get sucked in to social media and they think that is reality.

But it is not reality. It is unthinking people blurting and then having algorithms spread the most provocative and attention-getting trash far and wide simply for the purpose of keeping people clicking, keeping their attention so they can be hit with advertising.

Social media exemplifies the worst of our society, while the well-considered (and dull) thinking posts are shunned because they are not as enticing as trash posts.

And worse, Russian President Vladimir Putin uses this dynamic to get Americans to fight other Americans. It helps Putin to fuel American anger, to cause America to melt down and have Americans attack other Americans.

Why should Putin attack America when he can get Americans to attack other Americans FOR him?

Social Media is tearing away at the essence of American goodness.

Don't let it.

Either cancel all your accounts or learn to monitor yourself so that you do not get sucked in to the tabloid style of social media.

America needs to be better than a massive rumor machine.
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See the Venn diagram? Those are the people using social media to destroy this country. Educated, sane, logical, caring people don’t.

Venn diagram including

Liars
Vaccine ignorant
COVID ignorant
Trumptards
Conspiracists
Gullible
Functional illiterates
Anti-science
 
Hello Flash,

Flash said:
We will miss you on JPP.
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Oh, thank you for saying so. Much appreciated.

Cheer up! I am not going anywhere.

OK, guilty as charged. But I don't think of JPP as social media in the same way as FB, etc. Perhaps I should have used another word in the title.

JPP doesn't keep files on users or force users to agree to a 20 page legal document. JPP doesn't even know the identity of users. JPP is about as anti- big brother as a forum can be.

Is JPP social media? I guess so, in the broad sense of the term.

But it's not like FB or twitter.

I don't think Damo is a billionaire who is getting fabulously rich by compiling information on users and selling it.

Do you?
 
Hello domer76,

domer76 said:
See the Venn diagram? Those are the people using social media to destroy this country. Educated, sane, logical, caring people don’t.

Venn diagram including

Liars
Vaccine ignorant
COVID ignorant
Trumptards
Conspiracists
Gullible
Functional illiterates
Anti-science
Click to expand...

You'll have to improve that list and replace the 4th entry before I would agree to your contention. I cannot agree to using derogatory terms. I don't have much admiration for the Trump party, but I also don't see the need to tear the country further apart by stereotyping everyone in the Trump party. There are some good people there who have simply fallen for BS, as well as some very deplorable extremists who can't envision a functional nation because they are simply dysfunctional people themselves.

I don't think hatred on my part is going to solve anything.

I don't think hatred on anyone's part is going to solve anything.

Look at the mess hatred has made of the Trump party.

(I trust that everyone agrees the Republican party is mostly gone, and has been replaced by the Trump party. In that sense, most of what is now called the Republican party is really RINO.) It's really the Trump party now.
 
PoliTalker said:
Hello Flash,

Oh, thank you for saying so. Much appreciated.

Cheer up! I am not going anywhere.

OK, guilty as charged. But I don't think of JPP as social media in the same way as FB, etc. Perhaps I should have used another word in the title.

JPP doesn't keep files on users or force users to agree to a 20 page legal document. JPP doesn't even know the identity of users. JPP is about as anti- big brother as a forum can be.

Is JPP social media? I guess so, in the broad sense of the term.

But it's not like FB or twitter.

I don't think Damo is a billionaire who is getting fabulously rich by compiling information on users and selling it.

Do you?
Click to expand...

Yes, it is somewhat different than other social media. But, it has those same negative characteristics you discussed (plus no limits on foul language). False rumors, lies, divisiveness, extremism, hate....
 
PoliTalker said:
Hello domer76,



You'll have to improve that list and replace the 4th entry before I would agree to your contention. I cannot agree to using derogatory terms. I don't have much admiration for the Trump party, but I also don't see the need to tear the country further apart by stereotyping everyone in the Trump party. There are some good people there who have simply fallen for BS, as well as some very deplorable extremists who can't envision a functional nation because they are simply dysfunctional people themselves.

I don't think hatred on my part is going to solve anything.

I don't think hatred on anyone's part is going to solve anything.

Look at the mess hatred has made of the Trump party.

(I trust that everyone agrees the Republican party is mostly gone, and has been replaced by the Trump party. In that sense, most of what is now called the Republican party is really RINO.) It's really the Trump party now.
Click to expand...

Call them what you want.

Trumpers
Trumpanzees
Trumptards

Doesn’t matter to me. The membership in the cult is still the same. After all we’ve seen from their leader, anyone who continues to fall for that garbage is a fool at best, certainly gullible and ignorant, probably incredibly stupid. So ‘tard’ is an appropriate descriptor.

No hate, though. Merely disgusted disdain.
 
Hello domer76,

domer76 said:
Call them what you want.

Trumpers
Trumpanzees
Trumptards

Doesn’t matter to me. The membership in the cult is still the same. After all we’ve seen from their leader, anyone who continues to fall for that garbage is a fool at best, certainly gullible and ignorant, probably incredibly stupid. So ‘tard’ is an appropriate descriptor.

No hate, though. Merely disgusted disdain.
Click to expand...

I have settled on calling them the Trump party. Trump partisans. It clearly depicts who is being spoken of, but does so without disdain.

The whole thing is we have to be able to discuss politics or the nation is completely dysfunctional. And we have to have terms to refer to each side. So that's it.
 
Since the post is from my good buddy Pollyanna,
allow me to be a real asshole and say

Social Media ARE tearing America apart.

I, however, don't believe this.

I believe that social media have illustrated just how torn apart America is.
 
Every time somebody goes off on somebody else over politics it helps Putin.

He wants Americans to hate each other and become completely dysfunctional, unable to have a rational discussion.

The best thing we can do here in the forum is to actually have political discussions. Stick to the subject, don't make it personal. That would produce the finest quality political discussion board.

Now this thing here in this discussion. FB, Twitter, all those things. We were fine before they ever came along. We don't need 'em. They are causing a lot of people to be really angry, a lot of hurt, and a lot of just plain wrong information. Who needs that?

If the world before social media is considered, and the question is posed: "What does the world really need?" The last answer most people would have given would have been: " a lot of people to be really angry, a lot of hurt, and a lot of just plain wrong information."

Ann Landers used to say you have to ask yourself the question: "Am I better off with or without that person?"

Well I want to ask the question: "Is the world better off with or without social media?"

And my answer is without.

But it's here and it's not going anywhere.

So I am simply suggesting we leave it alone. It hasn't really done us very well. That should be the latest challenge. Quit it all. Can you do it?

Seems like a piece of cake to me. I never started. (On purpose) Life is most excellent without it, I assure you.
 
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