Please watch this. It may scare the hell out of you: "How Facebook broke democracy."

[triron]

Link to tweet

[sharedvalues]

1. K&R

[zaj]

2. Amazing... Share, share, share

Well done TED!

[dalton99a]

3. Kick

[superpatriotman]

4. Brainwashing works!

Let’s learn from it.

[brush]

18. Radio, speeches and film worked for Hitler and Goebbels, Facebook...

and Twitter has worked for trump and his Russian pals.

Before trump came along everyone knew Russia was our arch adversary. Now that's reversed for his brainwashed base.

[triron]

20. So long as Putin is happy....

[Takket]

5. it is shocking to me how LITTLE this is talked about.............

everyone was upset about it at the time... but drumpf has turned life in this country into a never ending tornado of outrage.... where as soon as the you duck the piece of wood flying at your head, here comes the road sign you have to jump over.... the outrage and danger NEVER STOPS... and as such things like Cambridge become forgotten when we should be calling on our reps to pass legislation to break up facebook and pass data protection laws.... now that we know the results when we let the wolf run the henhouse.

[triron]

6. Mysterious as well.

[triron]

7. knr

[hlthe2b]

8. Kick

[Pepsidog]

9. The people who are brainwashed will never acknowledge it. How do you wash the brainwashed mind?

That’s the evil of social media. We maybe able to prevent future undue influence by regulations but that will not help those already to far gone. But this is an important message that must be spread. I would guess 90% of people never heard of Cambridge Analytics or Chris Wylie or Robert Mercer. I applaud this persons efforts.

[triron]

11. Would you also esti mate the same for Americans?

I think more have heard of Robert Mercer than Chris Wylie.
I honestly don't get Mercer. He is a brilliant scientist. I had the dubious distinction of being acquainted with him
in HS and college.

[Pepsidog]

19. I think Americans have no idea who any of these people are. From what I read, Mercer is indeed a

brilliant computer scientist and it is bewildering how he can support Trump. Small world that you would have been an acquaintance of his.

[TheRealNorth]

26. Intelligence does not always equate to a moral person

There were plenty of brilliant German scientists that went along with the Nazis.

[Honeycombe8]

10. It's up to people to "join" FB, put their lives online.

That's how I see it.

I have a FB account. I don't have "friends," though. I don't put my life online. I have a FB account because I needed one to participate in a couple of groups (a cord cutting group, a lost pets local group, follow my state reps, and a gardening group, and such).

I pay no attention to FB ads. Why would I? I don't get political information from FB...except the abhorrent red info posted by my red reps.

If there's information I'm interested in that I see on FB, I go to the SOURCE. I NEVER cite FB. FB is NOT a news organization. It's a bulletin board.

So it's up to people to be encouraged, discouraged, incited, invited to believe a certain way or join a nefarious group.

FB IS responsible for selling data, not blocking hate speech or incitements to violence and such. It is now doing so, it SAYS. So it needs to do that.

Also, people need to be aware that other people try to persuade them toward their own views, or different views. Personally, I can't be persuaded, I think, to hate anyone that I don't already hate. Or dislike a political position that I don't already dislike. I believe the science that says there is climate change. No one can persuade me otherwise. I go to main sources for my information, not persuasive posts.

Many people are already inclined toward one thing or another, so it may be easy to push them over the ledge. I mean, what idiot would possibly believe that Hillary Clinton had a child sex ring or whatever under a pizza parlor in NY? Anyone who would believe that ALREADY believed some weird things about her, and hated her. (I suspect most knew it wasn't true, but they enjoyed the story and hopefully getting under the skins of "libs".)

I've even seen a post or two in DU, where the poster posts something from FB as information, instead of going to the real source of the information. FB is NOT a news organization or a source of valid information. If there is valid information, it will have a link to the source, so you can go to that. If you go to that, and it is merely another link to an unidentified source (which has happened to me)....guess what? It's not real.

[Scurrilous]

12. K&R

[cp]

13. And they're targeting US 2020 prez election

Can we, or UK, ever have a proper election again?
Haunting.

[reACTIONary]

14. Democracy is broken????

And Facebook is the cause? What a load of alarmist hooey.

The essential problem of democracy, demagoguery, has been well known and weathered since Aristotle's Politics.

Democracy is not perfectly ideal. And even if it was you wouldn't always get what you want. But it isn't broken. And the notion that Facebook could break it is ludicrous.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

15. What about declining education levels in America, rise of super-mass communication...

and Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs changed to Wants.

[reACTIONary]

22. I don't believe there are ...

declining education levels in America.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2018/10/15/how-are-americas-public-schools-really-doing

What makes you think they are?

I'm not sure how super-mass communication could be considered a threat to democracy. I'm not even sure what it is. If it's Facebook, I'm pretty sure texting your friends isn't going to lead to the collapse of civilization as we know it.

"Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs changed to Wants" sounds like a light weight pop psychology theory to me. But if you provide a reference or link Ill look into it.

[Coventina]

24. I have proof in my college classroom every day.

Most of my students can't read above a fifth grade level.

They can't write a coherent sentence, let alone a well-reasoned essay.

They don't understand the difference between a painting and a photograph.

[reACTIONary]

23. I looked into Maslow Hierarchy, RE Needs to Wants....

I didn't find anything very specific or relevant, but this was interesting:

https://www.ideo.org/perspective/turning-maslows-hierarchy-on-its-head

[bloom]

16. As far as Democracy goes - there has always been media of some sort

Even if it was flyers printed out in someones back room. King George and the Whigs could have been similarly upset that people were convinced to leave England in the 1770s.

There will always be those who will use their money to influence us. The answer has always been for people to be able to evaluate sources and ignore insidious propaganda as much as possible.

The use of Facebook by CA and others which continues to haunt us is how the left was divided in 2016. Where Socialist leaning types were given the idea that they would be able to win without help from the Democratic party (and/or where they thought that demeaning Democrats was a winning strategy). When they were instead - unknowingly getting help from Russia and Cambridge Analytica.

It is up to all of us to learn from what happened in 2016 and try to be better. Some are so worried, that they fear any criticism of any candidate - who is running as a Democrat. I think that can be taken too far. I also think that running to the middle can be taken too far.

Hopefully - one thing that will sort itself out by next years primaries - is who can convey the most relevant message for our times and who is able to use the media best to do so. What I hope does not happen is that the media decides for us - regardless of what media it is. We must be open to a range of opinions. Don't forget to listen to feminist voices, POC voices, etc. The MSM often ignores us / them.

[alwaysinasnit]

17. K&R Great post, thanks.

[triron]

21. knr

[LibFarmer]

25. Great video

and scary as well

The reach of social media is really being manipulated to spread disinformation