Democracy needs to destroy social media; It is self defense

How about newspapers? The scurrility and venality of newspapers has been astonishing over the years. In the early US, every party set up and subsidized its own paper. Newspapers in Europe tended to work much the same way.

What about TV and radio?

Free Markets are democracy in action. They are the most democratic form of individual choice on the planet.

Facebook/Meta maintains it's phony status because people /choose/ to give them their time, attention, data, money, etc. Social Media and the Free Market combined are the greatest window into the actions of the individual in the face of group decisions.

The network effect is powerful for a reason; so is the ability to leverage peoples fear of change.

Social Media will never be destroyed by democracy; it will only be destroyed by an innovative product that creates a stronger network effect than the barriers to exit for current options.

Great pull-quote:

"Facebook and other sites that commodify attention are doing to the human mind what the industrialists of the early 20th century did the environment."

Couldn't resist.

At some point people will realize democracy is the problem. We have voted for our own destruction, and will continue to because we can't help ourselves. It's in our nature. And unfortunately we can't vote ourselves out of it.

The hard part is figuring out the solution.