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Comment by aylmao | Hacker News Reader

It doesn't cease to amaze me how a few years ago social media was the beacon of democracy, back when they were part a wave of political revolution in the Arab world.

But now the US has another bad election (IMO not as bad as the one that landed Bush as far as elections go, though which president is worse is up for debate), and social media is trash that have just enabled "global bullshit".

USA, if your population is largely gullible consumers taught to rely on their "feelings" and be egotistic, proud patriots instead of critical thinkers, that's your own fault. Social media, if anything, has been a net positive as far as politics go in my country.

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> It doesn't cease to amaze me how a few years ago social media was the beacon of democracy, back when they were part a wave of political revolution in the Arab world

Almost all of those revolutions failed or dissipated. Similar "social media driven" revolutions in the US, like Occupy Wall Street also died with a whimper. The enabling power of social media has always been greatly overrated. The effect of social media, and in particular Facebook, has largely been a net negative.

I find it surprising how much people underestimate the long-term impact of Occupy. Now when people say “the 1%”, everyone knows what they are talking about. The most popular Democrats, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, would not be where they are if OWS had not lain some groundwork ahead of time by introducing wealth and income inequality as mainstream conversation topics. And maybe they will have a successful presidential run in the future.

In my country, the big media companies and the state are highly colluded. Social media has come as a welcome alternative for broadcast and dissemination of information by reporters who don't follow the state's agenda.

Independent and small-party candidates opposing the ruling party have also found in social media a vehicle to reach their constituents being they can't rely on the big networks. Social media has been used to make wrongdoings public, including during the election, and raise the public's awareness on stuff TV networks don't report.

I can't and won't speak in absolutisms, and I think you shouldn't either. IMO though, in my home country and in terms of political action and public awareness I disagree with you.

I really doubt the US population is any more or less gullible than any other population and the ability of social media to be destabilizing is not uniquely American either. There is no mob of critical thinkers, it's always just a mob.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/14/technology/facebook-news-... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/14/how-400-russia...

Nice perspective. A revolution for other countries, garbage bullshit in our own.

Those revolutions evolved into garbage bullshit in all(?) of those countries, so we got off fairly easily since we didn't have to face an active, public military crackdown on US citizens across the US.

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