so silicon valley built a reality around everyone’s senses (rather than being stuck in pods with neural jacks) but no one is going to dial inside your matrix and get you unplugged. You have to unplug yourself from the digital matrix that shields you from reality.
Reality always was a bit sketchy anyway. Even before silicon valley we had big three broadcast networks, local news papers and a few dominant national papers, and the radio. Other then that, there was either word-of-mouth or “being there”
Filtering information is not a new concept. The old guardians of knowledge were actually fewer (and more powerful) than they are now but they were also much more subtle and clever about how they did it.
Twitter, Facebook, and Google can shadow ban, demonetize, and even out-right censor some sources, but the people can always overwhelm the system, and people can be awfully clever about skirting barriers when motivated.
Robert Reich:
We need a form of truth and reconciliation commission precisely because our normal institutions have failed. We need to understand how that failure happened, who is responsible, and who should face justice...
We send in experts after disasters not just for vengeance but to make people feel safe again. The “reconciliation” part of a commission is just as important as the “truth” part. We still have to have a society with these Trump people, and that can’t happen until we understand what they’ve done and feel measures have been taken to protect us from them again.
Toward this end, perhaps the main benefit of some kind of commission on accountability is that it would allow the American public to reckon with the abuses and violations committed not just by Trump but also by his many enablers.
Is this about as totalitarian as it gets?