(October 4, 2017 at 4:43 am)Kosh Wrote: You can't fix stupid.
This may sound harsh, but the typical American shouldn't be on the internet. It is simultaneously the biggest source of information and disinformation. Deciding which something is takes a little common sense, and the willingness to verify information as credible by checking a variety of sources. It seems most Americans no longer know the difference between opinion and news. I know many people who think Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are news sources.
In years past this wasn't an issue. The only platform people had spread their ignorance was down at the corner diner. Sure, people could write a letter to the editor at a news paper. Usually you had someone with a journalism degree deciding what gets printed. Again a buffer to weed out the more crazy people amongst us. IMO freedom of speech does not mean that people are required to hear you. I have complete autonomy to stand on my property and teach scientology if I desire. Nobody should be required to give me a platform though.
The Russians seem to understand Americans better than most Americans understand themselves. They would be littlefinger in game of thrones sowing chaos and dissent. They are destroying murica without even firing one bullet. The terrorist have done their part as well. They've gotten us waste trillions of dollars.
All empires fall. It's just a matter of time, but I hope it holds off for about 40 years. I'm extremely thankful that I don't have children.
What's maddening is that actual security experts - FBI, CIA, etc. - have been trying to have the government take the problem seriously, but the GOP doesn't want to do shit about it. The GOP is far less about actual governance at this point than actively working to "smash the state" and build something else in its wake. I mean, this was the stated goal of Bannon and a lot of the people Trump placed within his administration, and has become what the Tea Party is all about.
The Russians latch on to that, and the right's general distaste for academia, and do their best to discredit experts, their expertise, or both. We're at a point now that when an expert says "Hey, this shit is real, it's happening, and we need to do something about it" the response from those on the right tends to be "Well, your political ideology doesn't match mine/you voted or otherwise supported someone I don't like, and I don't like what you're saying, so I'm not going to believe you." A.K.A., fake news. It's hardly ever a reasoned rebuttal of presented facts, but rather just an outright dismissal because of feelings.
And, of course, since our news media is more interested in generating ad revenue than actually reporting on things, they're complicit as well.
So, yeah... these issues have been here for the last, oh, 20 or so years, but Putin has found a way to exploit them. And the people who can, perhaps, do something about it really don't want to.
