Amanpour: "On Social Media, Lies Spread Six Times Faster Than Truth"

 

"The Social Dilemma" Video: Lies Spread 6x Faster Than Truth on Social Media

Is there a dark side to our growing dependence on social media? A new docudrama, "The Social Dilemma," warns that it is breaking down our shared reality. Director Jeff Orlowski joined Hari Sreenivasan to discuss this, alongside Tristan Harris, who heads up the Center for Humane Technology and also appears in the film.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fKHGrhZxE3Y?start=300&feature=oembed

Alan: I have begun to speculate about the possibility -- and the advisability -- of a military coup. I place this speculation in this post on "social media and the inevitable propagation of falsehood" because it would be a good idea -- and might even save the Republic -- if all social media platforms were shut down between now and Election Day. 

Clearly, this is not going to happen, although social media could be shut down during election season by a ruling military junta endowed with fiat power.

Damn scary!

Who the hell would want that?!?!?

However, there is this to consider...

If Biden and Harris lose on November 3rd, Trump - aided and abetted by his administrative henchmen and lapdog Bill Barr - will move, unstoppably, to replace our democratic Republic with an authoritarian, fascist form of government informed by the will of "conservative" "Christian" theocrats.

This new government will be wrapped in the flag, carrying the Crusader's cross. 

This new government will spout endless platitudes, most of them disguising Uncle Sam's belligerent, slave-holding, racist, genocidal, property-and-profit-ahead-of-people history.

Two Full Years Of American History Taught Dialectically Is The Swiftest, Surest Path To Restoration Of Social And Political Health In The American Body Politic

https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/09/two-full-years-of-american-history.html

The above quotation -- and the quotation below -- are both mis-attributed. 

That said, both quotes express out quandary well.

Due to self-interest, cowardice, treachery and treason, America's two constitutional remedies for ousting a bad president -- i.e., "impeachment" and the "25th Amendment" -- have been proven ineffective.

Alan: If Trump is a "national security threat," or if he embodies an existential menace to the survival of the United States -- then American generals and admirals, confronting a second term for Trump, have a patriotic obligation (and a moral obligation) to oust him by coup.

Prove me wrong.

Given that Trump's re-election would signify the end of American democracy -- the end of "the last, great hope of earth" -- it is time to float the idea that America's generals and admirals may have an obligation to save the Republic from the man who is in process of destroying it. 

This much is indisputably true: Until "ideas" get traction in the popular imagination, there is no chance they will become reality.

I realize that a coup - however brief and deliberately transitional it may be - does not bode well for these "United" States.

I realize that recovering from a coup would take at least a generation. (Francisco Franco's fascist Spain is a case in point.)

For those of you -- particularly law-abiding incrementalists -- who find my suggestion outrageous and/or untenable, imagine 4 more years of Donald Trump and what will be left of "The United States" at the end of his regime (to be followed by 8 years of Ivanka).

What may seem "outrageous and untenable" may be the "last, best hope."

For those of you who think any sudden, transformative change "can't be done," think back on the collapse of The Soviet Union - without a shot being fired. 

"One day," the Soviet Union was the second greatest power the world had ever seen. 

And "the next day" it was gone.

Finito. Done. Terminado. Kaput. Factum.

In any event, unless possibilities like "a military coup" or "separation of the United States into two sovereign nations (more or less predicated on "red"/"blue" political inclinations), prepare for something like Mussolini -- at "best" -- and something like Francisco Franco at worst.

Is that the legacy your caution wants to leave to your children and grandchildren?

 

"The Silence Of The Others," A Netflix Documentary About Francisco Franco's Fascist Dictatorship In Spain

https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-silence-of-others-netflix.html

"U.S. Generals' View Of Trump"

https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/09/us-generals-views-of-trump.html

Is It Time For Red States And Blue States To Collaborate On The Creation Of Two Nations?

https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/07/is-it-time-for-red-states-and-blue.html

Racism, The Division Of The United States Into Two Separate Polities, And The Sudden Collapse Of The Soviet Union

https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/09/racism-division-of-united-states-into.html