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From: AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org>
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Subject: Re: Facebook Account
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2024 19:31:38 -0600
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On 11/5/2024 6:33 PM, Shadow wrote:
> On Mon, 04 Nov 2024 20:17:32 -0800, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> On Mon, 04 Nov 2024 20:15:44 -0300, Shadow <Sh@dow.br> wrote:
>>
>>> Our biggest threat to democracy  is the media/social media's
>>> #FAKE_NEWS. That with a very poor public education. The people will
>>> believe anything...
>>
>> Maybe this will explain how it works.  I don't recall who told me this
>> story.  Most likely my parents, aunts or uncles.
>>
>> My ancestors were mostly from Poland and Russia.  Up to the early 19th
>> century, they didn't travel more than about 80km (50 miles) from home
>> for their entire lives.  As is common in rural environments, strange
>> people and strange ideas are treated with suspicion.  That created a
>> problem when they didn't know whom or what to believe.  Communications
>> and transportation was sufficiently lacking that "seeing is believing"
>> was ineffective.  Nobody believed what someone else claimed to have
>> seen.  Instead, it was replaced by "hearing is believing", which meant
>> that people believed and trusted the local authority figure.  It could
>> be a village elder, rabbi, priest, teacher or other recognized
>> authority.  None of these had personally seen anything, but the weight
>> of their authority was sufficient to make people listen and believe
>> their version of reality.
>>
>> It's not so different today.  Instead of a choice between believing
>> what one sees and hears, it's now a choice between what we have read
>> on social media or viewed on YouTube.  The problem of "who to trust"
>> is also the same.  However, instead of 2 choices, we now have hundreds
>> of "influencers" bombarding us with their view of reality, which is
>> typically just propaganda.  The problem isn't that people will believe
>> "anything" but rather that they'll believe "everything" without any
>> guidelines, education, reference, sources, authorities, etc that they
>> can trust to help separate the truth from the propaganda.  Most
>> politicians have given up on trying to appear honest and simply adjust
>> their advocacy and promises to conform what their audience considers
>> acceptable.  The mob no longer follows the leader.  Instead, the
>> leader follows whatever the mob might want.
>>
>> Social media and such are not threats to democracy.  They are threats
>> to the republican form of government, where we elect representatives
>> to represent our opinions to the government.  The problem is the
>> representatives don't use the same criteria for judgment that is used
>> by those who elected them to office.  Politicians favor anything that
>> will enrich them and their friends through contributions and favors.
>> I've been involved in meetings with elected officials that make me
>> suspect that they are very badly informed about the issues that put
>> them in office and very well informed on the sources of cash and
>> influence that keep them in office.
> 
> 	I sort of disagree with you. Psychopaths behind companies like
> X (ex-twitter), Meta, Google, Amakon and others more or less define
> who/what people vote for. Old fashioned media like newspapers and TV
> have some influence, but less, because they announce news for
> everyone. Social media carefully tailors news for each individual.
> 	An example? Brekshit....Facebook and Cambridge Analytica made
> people vote for something they didn't even understand. Note the people
> behind the scandal were all right-wing. I'm not sure if I should laugh
> at or feel sorry for people that think that Zukerberg and Bezos are
> "communists". Sure, they want the State to confiscate Meta and Amakon
> <implicit sarcasm>
> 	They say that Musk might even destroy the US as you know it
> now. Depends on how much he influenced the vote. Musk is a right-wing
> fascist, and privately  - sometime publicly - defends dictatorships.
> 	Enough gullible idiots, and those psychopaths could vote a
> pumpkin into office.
> 	Your  problem is that people in your social circle are
> probably more intelligent than the national average. Harder to con.
> Usually think before giving an opinion. In my line of work I had
> contact with all sorts.
> 	Believe me, the average human is very stupid...and
> trusting(did I just plagiarize Zukerberg?)
> 	[]'s
>>
>> Hint:  I can fix anything if I know how it works.  I really believe
>> that and study how things really work before I try to fix them.  That
>> also applies to government and the economy.  We're not going to be
>> able to fix the government or economy until we have a good
>> understanding of how they work.  The schools are trying, but the
>> problem has grown faster than the curriculum can keep up.

Words matter.  Or ought to, anyway.

Fascist are of the left.  The National Socialist Party was 
indeed socialist, and they would know. The original was 
created by Mussolini after the Great War as an extension of 
The Futurists, all of a piece with socialist theory. Franco, 
supported by Germany and Italy, was also a fascist of the 
left. His opponents were of the right- the Crown and the Church.

Oh, and Mr Musk is not among them.

You're welcome.

-- 
Andrew Muzi
am@yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971