That's just how you yourself see it,

or whoever wrote the article you just read sees it.


There's no way to accurately quantify how extreme or how moderate the people's beliefs actually are..



You and the author of the articles you've read are PROJECTING.


There's no fact checking , it's an unknowable..  You can call it however you like.

I've read literally zero articles on this, the topic was created purely of my own experience.

That's the worst kind of political view.. hhahahahaha

It's hard not to talk in generalities about this topic but I'm starting to hear a lot more people espouse moderate or centerist views in the last 6 months, after it being like a dirty word for the last couple of years. This was a probably a hangover from the neo cons, the Tony Blairs who had a lot of liberal window dressing but weren't really very pro the working man.

There's been a lot of angry and polarising behavior on social media in the last while and people are craving a bit of calmer discourse. Most people have some combination of conservative and liberal ideas or viewpoints that don't fit neatly into everybody's definition of conservative or liberal. Most have also probably felt some friction when they joined a group of seemingly like minded individuals who then gave them flack for not adopting the party line on every topic.

I don't think people are actually polarised but the internet has great fun highlighting the more stupid personalities on either side of arguments in an attempt to discredit the other side as a whole which ultimately made everybody look ridiculous. I wouldn't even call what people are asking for moderate, they're just looking for more moderate than things are now cos it's a bit of a spin machine circus.

I feel like there's this developing trend of people feeling increasingly isolated, and latching onto the first idelog that even remotely falls within their value system and just running with it. All in some preposterous attempt to feel like they belong to a group, while not truly considering if they fully agree with what is being said. People are more isolated, yet more connected than ever before in human history - the danger here being what you choose to connect and absorb is very filtered and extremist generally.

Some guy, on the internet, comes off as hostile, belligerent, extremist.

Yet, during the day, he's just a regular ol' salary guy, working the 9 to 5, playing the lottery on his way home from work, raising 2 kids that drain the rest of his time, and putting up with a wife that's sleeping with the neighbor.


That is real life..


But on the Internet,  you only find that one outburst he wrote, when they said hillary was takn' his job and sending it overseas..


General VIEWS of this sort has everything to do with the Medium,  far detached from the Reality of crowd consciousness.

The Founding Fathers trusted and depended on the collective wisdom of the population as a whole to keep the ship of state on course, and of a free and active press to keep them informed.

The consolidation and control of mass media is one of the most effective modes of disinformation ever devised. A couple of years ago, when the FCC was planning to rule on Net Neutrality, enough people were awake and alert to prevent the wishes of Big Media from being enacted. With that, most people fell back into complacency, assuming that the battle had been won.

In recent weeks, that victory has been effectively dismantled, yet it has happened in secrecy and below the radar. Why is there no discussion of it in the media? Oh, yea, with some few exceptions the US mass media is controlled by the moneyed elite.

Like the frog in the pot being slowly brought to a boil, large segments of the US population are falling into deep holes of ignorance and delusion without realizing it. And the press and media, far from being the saviors, are becoming more and more the executioners.

I have to agree with many here that it is very much unquantifiable, every sort of information that can/could be taken about it can be/will be manipulated or not representative of large enough groups of people.

There is strength in anonymity, which is why the loudest are always on the internet, or the most violent behind masks; cloth or persona wise.

On a whole, I think people are sick of compromise. We've compromised up to this point, voting between what some might consider **** sandwiches and giant douches. And not just elected officials. We're seeing what is happening to EA, people don't want to put up with that **** cause it's the only star wars game out. They aren't having it. Healthcare or whatever all kinds of decisions where people have to choose between two bad options. And no one below the "1%" is getting a whole bite of the sandwich.

We are the most "aware" we ever have been, and we're able to see just exactly what we're capable of and no longer have to be subservient to any flag or group if we choose not to. People are creating their own communities around their custom beliefs in real time, faster than ever.

I think those terms centrist, leftist, right etc are very antiquated already, especially since they are so subjective to locality and person.

Example, the left as far as their pro-socialist views seem concerned most about the starting point of everyone, and the degree to which people are given handicaps which make life easier or more difficult for whatever reason. Money, race, nation, etc. The right pro-capitalists seem to most argue the interpretation of the end goal/finishing line or what the reward is for being meritorious or excellence. This is obviously extremely simplified with a healthy dose of opinion, but both parts are saying the other is wrong when talking about 2 different things.

This was a ramble.

I feel the extent to which people have been swayed by false information on the internet is greatly exaggerated. The democrats are just overly concerned with blaming a lost election on spammy facebook articles instead of their campaign being a shambles. The general public are better informed about what fake news and spin is now than anybody in history because as the internet gets more commercialised we're being bombarded with nonsense on our phones 24/7. Most of it is a lot less subtle than the the ****ty slanted newspaper and TV news we got in the last 20 year because most of the people writing it are getting paid peanuts. People are stupid but they're not that stupid. Rates of engagement on the internet are going down, and down and down as people just switch off. You can't sell apps anymore. Most people can't make a living on youtube. Blogs and destination sites are in the toilet. If you post something on twitter or Facebook .5% of the people who should see it see it.

I feel like folks just shrug at independent voters because folks know the independent vote holds little weight

as a center right ~ish person i agree the wackos on all sides really outweigh any more reasonable centrist people.

Why are the centrists NON-wackos..


Perhaps one side is right, and thorough polarization is the correct move..

You can not know this..

I feel the extent to which people have been swayed by false information on the internet is greatly exaggerated. The democrats are just overly concerned with blaming a lost election on spammy facebook articles instead of their campaign being a shambles. The general public are better informed about what fake news and spin is now than anybody in history because as the internet gets more commercialised we're being bombarded with nonsense on our phones 24/7. Most of it is a lot less subtle than the the ****ty slanted newspaper and TV news we got in the last 20 year because most of the people writing it are getting paid peanuts. People are stupid but they're not that stupid. Rates of engagement on the internet are going down, and down and down as people just switch off. You can't sell apps anymore. Most people can't make a living on youtube. Blogs and destination sites are in the toilet. If you post something on twitter or Facebook .5% of the people who should see it see it.

I tend to agree with you on most points. There are people with sense still that can act in moderation, it just may not be the majority. I see it on a daily basis. The dopamine is wearing off and some will move on and quit; other will look forward something "harder" and more obviously egregious. Which, may or may not  have already happened.

 

Quote from: 9999hp on Tue, 21 November 2017, 06:34:45

I think people are sick of compromise. We've compromised up to this point,

We're seeing what is happening to EA, people don't want to put up with that **** cause it's the only star wars game out.

They aren't having it.

We are the most "aware" we ever have been, and we're able to see just exactly what we're capable of and no longer have to be subservient to any flag or group if we choose not to. People are creating their own communities around their custom beliefs in real time, faster than ever.

I have to take issue with several of your points. People are sick of false compromise because real compromise has not been an option. Without rational, informed choices on the table, "put up with that ****" is all there is.

And yes, they are having it, with closed eyes and minds in denial. Trump and his minions have failed on public legislation but have succeeded spectacularly in dismantling consumer protection and appointing psychotic ideologues to the Federal court system.

"Aware"? I don't think so. Just this week, Net Neutrality is about to evaporate and it is hardly creating a ripple in the public dialogue, even in a "community" like this one where people would/should supposedly be computer literate and savvy.

The internet is a huge repository of information, but it is an almost equal and opposite source of false and bad "information" and there are millions of people who are rapidly becoming less and less able to discern the difference between the fact and fiction.

While I agree that there hasn't been true compromise, no one HAS to put up with this stuff. Non-compliance/non-participation is always an option. The reason companies can exploit us is because we can't temper our desires on the whole.

I'm responding to this late, but if you've ventured to reddit at all; you'll see the stink. It's worse than the EA debacle. So yes, I think we are still aware, but we operate like a large organism. Our awareness is cascading and not instantaneous. You just happen to be at the forefront of that cascade.

You're right about the internet being both good and bad in content. However, much like an immune response, exposed to little bits of pathogenic information(Hourly), we become more desensitized and elicit less of a reaction and overtime become more immune, most likely after a initial ****storm. Of course, some won't prevail against that disease and it will corrupt them.

Quote from: Shapey Fiend on Tue, 21 November 2017, 19:08:49

People are stupid but they're not that stupid.

Stupid is not the issue, ignorance is. Explain Brexit to me.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/americas-cult-of-ignorance

Brexit was like Make America Great Again. Lots of people are getting poorer and poorer and education gets more expensive so they're disenfranchised. They're the same type found Obama change message so arresting. They're looking for some radical switch to change their situation while what's left of the middle class and the wealthy are more into the strong and stable and more of the same please thanks branding.

Like I think Trump being elected hasn't really disrupted things terribly. Aside from the obnoxiousness it's all sort of within the usual tolerances in terms of what a president would do. Brexit is kind of a special case of the public doing something and throwing the whole country down a new path. I don't even think it's particularly daft the best days of the EU may be behind them maybe in the future being a nimble city state making your own decisions will have untold advantages.