Democracy, Disrupted [Barf]

NY Times ^ | March 2, 2017 | Thomas B. Edsall

[C19fan]

As the forces of reaction outpace movements predicated on the ideal of progress, and as traditional norms of political competition are tossed aside, it’s clear that the internet and social media have succeeded in doing what many feared and some hoped they would. They have disrupted and destroyed institutional constraints on what can be said, when and where it can be said and who can say it.

Even though in one sense President Trump’s victory in 2016 fulfilled conventional expectations — because it prevented a third straight Democratic term in the White House — it also revealed that the internet and its offspring have overridden the traditional American political system of alternating left-right advantage. They are contributing — perhaps irreversibly — to the decay of traditional moral and ethical constraints in American politics.

[C19fan]

This clown would have complained Gutenberg's printing press has contributed "to the decay of traditional moral and ethical constraints in AmericanEuropean politics." Just as the Catholic Church, I am member, lost its monopoly on knowledge thanks to Gutenberg the internet has smashed the modern day clerisy who used to have monopoly power over information and news.

[T Ruth]

A Year of Biased Reporting: Why the New York Times Won

[Behind the Blue Wall]

Well said.

[rellimpank]

-—brings back memories of one Hillary Clinton a few years ago decrying “unfiltered” information——

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Executive Summary: The internet is allowing some of the unfiltered truth to reach the rubes, so it’s dangerous and must be reined in.