Comment by bamboozled
14 hours ago
What major revolutions or important political shifts have occurred from people anonymously shitposting on Reddit or Facebook ?
14 hours ago
What major revolutions or important political shifts have occurred from people anonymously shitposting on Reddit or Facebook ?
None. Almost by definition, the folks who satisfy themselves waxing online drive complacency away from real action. That doesn’t, however, mean they aren’t self-importantly organized to later support an organized movement.
Do you think the current anti-ICE movement would have happened without social media? Or Jan 6th, or all the Palestine protests, or even the election of Trump?
The US has it's first amendment protections, but other countries seem rather more willing to crack down on online speech.
> Do you think the current anti-ICE movement would have happened without social media?
Yes. There is a reason Minnesota is effectively resisting in a way Los Angeles failed to.
Once you have a movement, social media mobilizes. But if you’re building a movement, you need footwork and commitment. Not profiteers turning your cause into clicks.
> Or Jan 6th, or all the Palestine protests
Case in point. Support for each of their underlying causes dipped with notoriety around their online activity.
If you want to drain a movement of effective energy, distract it online from its streets.
Why not? The Vietnam War drew plenty of organised protesters. The details would be different, but big popular actions can still be coordinated through traditional media and word of mouth.
Lack of social media didn't prevent the French Revolution.
I know of one crowd sourced witch hunt on reddit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Sunil_Tripathi
A lot of the cancel culture is also crowd sourced on platforms like these.
The online right talk about 'the great meme war' that led to the 2016 election of Trump.
Seems pretty clear that social media is radicalising people at both ends of the political spectrum, and it's not surprising that governments would want to restrict/police it by trying to criminalise 'hate'/'misinformation' and taking away the shield of anonymity.
Donald Trump?