Michael Shellenberger
@ShellenbergerMD
“By conflating the anti-establishment politics of domestic populists with acts of war by foreign enemies, it justified turning weapons of war against Americans citizens. It turned the public arenas where social and political life take place into surveillance traps and targets for mass psychological operations. The crime is the routine violation of Americans’ rights by unelected officials who secretly control what individuals can think and say.”
8:42 PM · Mar 28, 2023
The key to making democracy work is the ability of the political class to influence the electorate to vote between strictly limited choices.
Print, the “press” of the constitution, was an enabler of democracy because only those who owned printing presses and bought ink by the barrel could influence the masses. They could generally be co-opted into colluding with the political class, even when they weren’t already part of it.
Broadcast radio and TV were also controllable via licensing and the investment required to operate stations and networks.
On the other hand, the Internet is a real threat to democracy.