BrisbaneRhino wrote:
LeagueFan - its exactly that sort of patronising and insulting attitude that makes so many want to make a protest vote, and sod the consequences. Like telling all people who voted for Brexit that they are racist morons, the effect when they next vote may well be the exact opposite of what you want.
DaveO - when has it ever been the case that any but the smallest number of people 'educated themselves in the facts' of important issues? I'd suggest people are no lazier than they were, and if anything are probably bombarded by more information than ever before. The problem is the bias and factual distortion that goes on all over the place. When it came to Brexit, for example, why would you think any more than a tiny minority would have looked at all the facts in detail? The majority never does anything of the sort.
IMO its a lot to do with people (both right or left) ONLY soliciting information and views from sources that already tally with their world view. Any attempt to engage in discussion in even the most neutral of tones is met with outrage and insults, rather than attempts to persuade by reasoned argument. We used to see a lot of that on this very board and many of Corbyn's supporters show exactly the same total and utter disdain for anyone who thinks differently.
Its hugely elitist IMO to write Trump supporters and 'Brexiteers' off as uneducated fools. Or to expect people to educate themselves in some way totally at odds with the way information is now generated and used in society. The real challenge then is to work out how to engage more people at the centre, as if anything we seem to be moving more and more towards red and blue corners with no room for compromise. I have literally no idea if/how this can be done, but its time for sensible people to lay off the insults and work out how to re-engage the huge number of people who feel left behind by the modern world.
Bang on Brisbane. There was an article recently in the New York Times about how peoples “likes” on Facebook were ensuring that content was targeted at them and this applied to political articles. This serves to provide people with an increasingly biased supply of information that tends to reinforce views and in some cases provoke more extreme views. Users end up in their own “echo chamber” of like minded people and never see an alternative view. I think it serves to polarise views, especially when you see the comments under articles where users resemble an angry mob with pitchforks and flaming torches.
This happened during Brexit and during the US election. Suppliers of content will eventually become like the newspaper barons as it becomes the way to influence and reinforce the views of voters.
Unfortunately centrist views just don’t get the clicks. The real world is too complicated for people to engage with via social media as it can’t be condensed easily. Politicians have been shying away from the complicated nature of things for years (see the new Adam Curtis doc) in favour of a simplified view of the world that can be sold to the electorate more easily.
Where do we go from here? I don’t know. I heard someone today, think it was Gerd Wilders saying how right wing populism will win every time. The centre needs to communicate better in order to discredit these populist snake oil salesmen or he’ll be right.