Worlds Apart
Is our digital political divide a hot fix or a curse
In magic, the dual reality method works because no one is lying.
Normally it goes something like this. The magician has a conversation with someone before the show. Not to recruit them like an actor, just to get some information out of them. As the audience is settling in, he tells the volunteer to raise their hand when he calls for help. They do, they come up on stage and the magician does a trick that is impressive to the volunteer but a miracle to the audience.
That’s because from the audience perspective there are key differences. The volunteer selected from the audience is a random person. The magician might even ask questions to prove they’re a stranger like “have we spoken to each other before today?” Which is true, they spoke earlier that day.
The trick is even more impressive.
The magician never tells a lie.
The volunteer doesn’t either.
The audience gets a heightened experience.
We are living in dual realities political online. Infinite realities, really. Our experiences are heightened. The bad seems world shattering. The good is a breath of God.
And it all happens because either knows the true experience of the other and no one tells a lie.
Let’s talk about the tech purge over the weekend. A Friday news dump that most notably removed Donald Trump’s access to Twitter after it was briefly returned for him to end his campaign for president. The conservative answer to Twitter, Parler, was delisted from the Google Play store and given an ultimatum by Apple to implement a more stringent moderation system or face a similar fate on the iOS App Store. On Saturday, Apple took Parler down as well. Over the weekend, Amazon struck a more direct blow by forcing Parler off of their AWS web servers which will reportedly lead to a prolonged outage.
I haven't spent a lot of time on Parler. It seems messy and I don’t particularly need another Twitter experience as I am already conflicted with my relationship to that dopamine addiction. But I wonder about the bifurcation of our online discourse. We spent four years fretting over our safety bubbles desensitizing us to those we might not agree with but would have tolerated in a world where we didn’t have the option to sort by “political affiliation.”
But since doomsaying seems to be the order of the day, let’s throw one more gnarled log on that fire.
Are we coming to a place where there are no safety bubbles, but safety platforms? Do liberals have iPhones and conservatives have an Android variant that allows them to have Parler?
“Good!” you might say. “It would be so much better if we didn’t have to live with these CHUDs!”
But we should be careful what we wish for. We’ve already seen what can grow the deeper you try to bury it.
A bunch of people sent me this clip of Alex Jones flipping out on a caller trying to peddle the prophecy of Q. If you don’t know what Q is, here is a refresher, but fair warning it probably won’t make much more sense after you read it.
The roots of the Q conspiracy happen on lawless boards like 4Chan and 8Chan/8Kun. There is no step that the elite tech companies can take against Parler that they haven’t taken against 8Kun. And yet… as the mob stormed into the Capital last week one of the rallying cries was “Where We Go One, We Go All”… a Q catchphrase.
From my perspective, Alex Jones slamming Q is a bit like the Hamburglar revealing himself to be a vegan. But it also shows us that we’ve begun to set up our own Dante’s Inferno. Rings and rings and rings of acceptable content. Sure, I might like Alex Jones but at least I’m not a Q simp!
Not to mention the argument that de-platforming may well be a futile strategy. Maybe Q burns out. Maybe we get four different splinter conspiracies. So far, the best attempts from our tech overseers hasn’t stopped the message from have real world impact.
I don’t believe in happily ever after thinking. I don’t think that the issues we had under Trump, including what happened Wednesday can be solely contributed to him or the callow politicians and self-interested media members who profited off him.
These are deeper wounds.
These are cultural and economic forces at work.
Maybe even spiritual.
The only thing that’s changed is that we live in a world where everything is recorded and transmittable worldwide. I still think we are in an awkward adolescence about it. We still don’t know what it means. At least I hope so.
Maybe we should be separated? Maybe the separation will help us build a new culture by forcing us to recognize what we really wanted to connect to each other about in the first place. Or maybe it will only make us think less of each other. The insults about “the other” sharper, their humanity even more distant.
Maybe this a hot fix that cures everything. Maybe it’s Judgement Day.
Or maybe it’s just more of a mess we need to sort through, yet another burden of the interesting times we find ourselves in.
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If “riots are the voice of the unheard”, is it smart to silence the voices of potential wingnuts by cutting off all of their outlets? I am sure big tech coordinating together to shut down their leader and their platforms will go over great with a crowd that sees the media as “the enemy of the people “. Seems like this is the kinda thing that would the kind of dope that would storm the capital even more angry and desperate. - JACOB
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To all the geniuses who think the election was rigged. I support your stance to no longer vote, that's really the best thing you can do for your country. Being a well informed citizen is a requirement to vote and if you want to believe all the BS you read on the internet, then you don't meet this standard. - BRAD
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To Kim G and all of us in a similar situation, politicians such as Hawley, made it abundantly clear they don't represent you (Kim G). As such, I'm sure there are mechanisms for their removal. Similarly, those who he does represent are encouraged to defend his actions.
I guess this is the democratic way... I heard someone say during the Electoral College debates something to the effect that 'Democracy is a substitute for war.' My sincere hope is that we on both sides accept that we're one people and continue to use debate and elections to find a middle path we can all walk. - ERIC
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It's toxic to lean into the talking points of very complicated topics simply for the Trolllols and LULz. It's not cool to destroy property for a cause - regardless of how noble the cause is. It's a reaction. But the response shouldn't be condemnation - it should be a tactful response which is meant to heal our brothers. Whether that's asking how you can improve your own race relation behavior or not completely dismissing claims of fraud - and discussing them as adults.
We're reactionary as human beings, especially when we agree with the narrative. How do we promote independent thought and skepticism without alienating each other? Wish I knew the answer. - ESKO BOMB
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This trend of vilifying years has to stop. Or at least hold off until the year is over. If we're convinced 2021 is another shit year in January, it'll live up to those expectations. - KEN
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To all the “Trump said there was fraud for too long, this is incitement.” folks...
...you did the same thing for four years. FOUR F——-G YEARS.
The “damage” that Trump has done? No, no, that was you.
We’re here because for four years during Trump, and the eight years before Trump, the mainstream media has been the propaganda wing of the DNC.
But it’s not just the right wingers who don’t believe the narrative anymore... no one has faith in the media anymore. And, more importantly, no one has faith in the electoral system anymore. - SCALE
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