I think I disagree with Gurri's assessment of the internet; the tech giants have a more comprehensive stranglehold than he admits. Seems like he's buying into the initial idealism of the web. But haven't read his book yet.
I think I disagree with Gurri's assessment of the internet; the tech giants have a more comprehensive stranglehold than he admits. Seems like he's buying into the initial idealism of the web. But haven't read his book yet.
There's always the option of a peer-to-peer mesh network should the existing internet become so hamstrung that it's useless. And there's no doubt other options...
If Matt, David Sirota, the Naked Capitalism crowd, Scheerpost, Consortium News and a dozen others like them put together a large-scale news site, I would subscribe to it even if it was only available through flashdrive dead drops.
But how many people will switch to that? I worry that if the tech giants can maintain the illusion of freedom on the internet, they can stem this tide of anti-establishment thought.
It's obvious to a lot of people (and most if not all readers of Taibbi), but we are still a tiny minority without much impact on discourse. I would be happy to learn I'm not in a bubble, but I think I am.
Seems to me the Trump supporters are all anti-establishment and distrust the media-- it's the distrust of the media that a lot of people have in common and is the point, not whether or not your specifically left or right wing. There were enough of them to get Trump elected and nearly re-elected-- if Trump hadn't been such a total idiot he probably would have been re-elected. That seems to me to be more than a bubble. That I don't agree with the vast majority of the beliefs of those sorts of anti-establishment individuals, doesn't mean I don't have in common the belief that the corporate media and the electronic social media is completely under the thumb of the establishment (witness what happened to Parler) if they aren't considered the establishment themselves.
Agree with almost all of this, but I would say that it's important to differentiate between Trump supporters and Trump voters (who have many reasons to vote that way). Also, Trump supporters, in my opinion, more recognize the elite control of the old media institutions, but have a decent faith that they're safe on facebook, twitter, etc. (parler notwithstanding, and parler was still a minority from what I can tell). And if they do recognize the way the tech companies are closing the walls more and more, I don't think the average person (or Trump supporter) knows where to go. Unless you are really politically active and have a bunch of free time, I think you're very likely to accept your new, subtly curated facebook feed once the dissenting pages and voices disappear.
Maybe, but I think new options will become available that will be as easy to use as Facebook or Twitter, though it'll take time to build up critical mass of users, we've seen new options pop up regularly that have started trends-- and though may of them have been acquired by Facebook or the other big players, if what they've got going for them is revealing the corruption in the more routine platforms, seems like it'll be hard to just buy them out and expect the users to not just move on to the next thing. Parler may have been a minority but it was on its way up, and the more they try to play whack-a-mole with such platforms, seems to me the more likely new alternatives will find a way.
I think I disagree with Gurri's assessment of the internet; the tech giants have a more comprehensive stranglehold than he admits. Seems like he's buying into the initial idealism of the web. But haven't read his book yet.
There's always the option of a peer-to-peer mesh network should the existing internet become so hamstrung that it's useless. And there's no doubt other options...
If Matt, David Sirota, the Naked Capitalism crowd, Scheerpost, Consortium News and a dozen others like them put together a large-scale news site, I would subscribe to it even if it was only available through flashdrive dead drops.
We will all get valuable tradecraft training that way.
so deadpan
But how many people will switch to that? I worry that if the tech giants can maintain the illusion of freedom on the internet, they can stem this tide of anti-establishment thought.
They can't even maintain the illusion of freedom even now, they're nowhere near stemming that tide...
It's obvious to a lot of people (and most if not all readers of Taibbi), but we are still a tiny minority without much impact on discourse. I would be happy to learn I'm not in a bubble, but I think I am.
Seems to me the Trump supporters are all anti-establishment and distrust the media-- it's the distrust of the media that a lot of people have in common and is the point, not whether or not your specifically left or right wing. There were enough of them to get Trump elected and nearly re-elected-- if Trump hadn't been such a total idiot he probably would have been re-elected. That seems to me to be more than a bubble. That I don't agree with the vast majority of the beliefs of those sorts of anti-establishment individuals, doesn't mean I don't have in common the belief that the corporate media and the electronic social media is completely under the thumb of the establishment (witness what happened to Parler) if they aren't considered the establishment themselves.
Agree with almost all of this, but I would say that it's important to differentiate between Trump supporters and Trump voters (who have many reasons to vote that way). Also, Trump supporters, in my opinion, more recognize the elite control of the old media institutions, but have a decent faith that they're safe on facebook, twitter, etc. (parler notwithstanding, and parler was still a minority from what I can tell). And if they do recognize the way the tech companies are closing the walls more and more, I don't think the average person (or Trump supporter) knows where to go. Unless you are really politically active and have a bunch of free time, I think you're very likely to accept your new, subtly curated facebook feed once the dissenting pages and voices disappear.
Maybe, but I think new options will become available that will be as easy to use as Facebook or Twitter, though it'll take time to build up critical mass of users, we've seen new options pop up regularly that have started trends-- and though may of them have been acquired by Facebook or the other big players, if what they've got going for them is revealing the corruption in the more routine platforms, seems like it'll be hard to just buy them out and expect the users to not just move on to the next thing. Parler may have been a minority but it was on its way up, and the more they try to play whack-a-mole with such platforms, seems to me the more likely new alternatives will find a way.