News

Lemmy is definitely not that. It's an echo chamber like any other. Ideas that mollify or agree with the zeitgeist are promoted regardless of merit.

Yes, burn like our newly-elected leaders have essentially promised. Are you offended that I'm acknowledging that reality?

And no, the internet won't let truth ring out to the world. I thought the same when I was a wee lad too. The information superhighway. The end of oppressive government censorship.

The Information Age.

But no, maybe it's not apparent in your neck of the woods yet, but it is here, and China, and Russia, and countless other backsliding nations: the Internet wasn't our saviour, and bad ideas don't naturally die if they are pushed to the masses. They thrive.

Lying trolls are downvoted on lemmy, we don't give free passes and call everything "free speech" and remove voting buttons so we don't hurt feelings. But sites like X where there is much larger reach don't even offer that level of self-regulation. Bad ideas are boosted purposely and relentlessly. News channels have degraded to similar levels under increasingly partisan private ownership.

The Disinformation Age.

But between relentlessly spreading Trump talking points, one thing partisan networks like Fox News and OAN refused to push were claims about rigged voting machines, even when interviewing Trump in person.

Because they got sued. And lost. Badly and expensively.

Because libel has always been illegal in this country. Because we all inherently understand that free speech does not cover spreading blatant lies about people/companies.

But no person/entity pursues this in scale against even the most egregious far-reaching examples. Like when Musk boosts an article to millions claiming the MAGA nutjob who tried to beat Nancy Pelosi's husband to death was his gay lover. Nothing. When Trump continues to declare the Democrats stole the 2020 election despite it being settled by every court case. Nothing.

Despite having provenly effective tools to keep people honest we've let things degrade to the point where nobody even needs to give a second thought as to whether they are expressing an opinion or just slandering/manipulating people because we are afraid that calling out blatant lies is violating "free speech". Meanwhile a fascist regime abuses that to dismantle our democracy, frequently threatens any press who speak against them, threatens to jail prosecutors who cross them while performing their duties, political opponents who don't bend to their will. And if that's the case, then our democracy will burn, and then we'll see what not having "free speech" really looks like.

There was a time in this country when we had policies like the Fairness Doctrine, upheld by the Supreme Court, enforced by the FCC, where bias in media was actually regulated. Throughout the most prosperous time in this country, from the late 1940s until, like many things that began our rapid decline, Reagan killed it.

Now even leveraging the much weaker tools remaining, in the face an existential threat to our democracy, is seen as some radical idea.

I didn't react well to being implicated in "handing the government to a criminal and his fascist cronies in order to prove a point". Criticism of voters in general gets under my skin because it's so counter productive.

I'm certainly convinced that you are a Democrat. I can tell because you ignored what I said and gave the rant you wanted to give, completely oblivious to the fact that none if it applies to what I said. You can't get any more Democratic than that. Scolding voters is not a great strategy.

You're ignoring the fact that this person clearly would have voted for Harris if they were in a swing state. Harris did not lose Illinois and this person got to avoid getting blood on their hands via voting for perpetuation of genocide. That sounds far more ethical and rational than just knee jerk voting no matter what.