Until pundits and regulators take seriously the deep perversions of our public spheres we can’t address the problems these companies have generated. We need radical approaches to these companies. Our responses must be as broad and deep as these companies’ hold on our minds and purses.
What?
Siva Vaidhyanathan is a professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia and the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2018).
What is it we do that is radical, broad, deep? Response comes there none….
It’s hard to imagine that the book title did not come first before thousands of words of jargon-filled dross were subsequently coralled into padding the thing out.
Amazon has many copies available that are “Used – like new”. Why does that seem strangely believable?
While financial markets are neither rational nor efficient, they do capture the collective judgements (justified or not) of millions of amateur, professional, and institutional investors around the world.
The fact that the financial markets capture the collective judgements of millions of investors is precisely what makes them both rational and efficient.
The man’s a moron.
A Richard Murphy level moron.
End of discussion.
“What is it we do that is radical, broad, deep?”
The primary answer is of course “Tax the crap out of everything”.
The secondary answer is “Let the taxes collected be disposed of by Professor Vaidhyanathan”.
Leftists never, ever quit, they never grow bored or tired.
Until pundits and regulators take seriously the deep perversions of our public spheres we can’t address the problems these universities have generated.
Fixed it
Ban everyone who is not Communist, Socialist or RoP from education and all social media & msm seems to the radical, broad, deep plan.
.
@Pat
+1
And public sector: Cummings thinks 90% of Whitehall staff should be sacked – sounds good to me
‘We need radical approaches to these companies. Our responses must be as broad and deep as these companies’ hold on our minds and purses’
I can translate:
“Kill them and take their stuff.”
I’m with him on this one – destroy Facebook and Twitter, and salt the earth so that no mega-company can rise up in their place and control public discourse like these currently do.
Heavens no, Rob. They’re invaluable. They’re the surest guide to the cvnts to avoid.
“Heavens no, Rob. They’re invaluable. They’re the surest guide to the cvnts to avoid.”
Exactly.
BiS and BiTiN are probably correct on this. People will tend to drift away and let their accounts become dormant unless they are driven to upbraid, expose and shame others which will leave a relatively smaller contingent than today’s happy to devour each other and be devoured.
I have a Facebook account, my wife set it up for me when I joined a triathlon club that uses Facebook as its main way of communicating with members. Other than using it for that I ignore it.
@Stony
Tbat kinda thing ticks me off. For anyone wanting to escape FB’s tentacles altogether, also annoying how many groups, organisations, even work clients, insist on joining a WhatsApp group chat. This is apparently how MPs largely communicate and plot with each other so I do hope it’s as secure as advertised, but the thought of them typing away during their rows like teenagers on MSN Messenger is amusing.
I think and hope things might change when WhatsApp starts sticking ads in – wanting to avoid it may be somewhat normalised.
“I’m with him on this one – destroy Facebook and Twitter, and salt the earth so that no mega-company can rise up in their place and control public discourse like these currently do.”
Do they? You’re on timworstall.com which seems to allow all sorts of discourse not controlled by FB and Twitter. Same with 4Chan, Chateau Heartiste, Samizdata and other places.
I like Facebook. It allows me to share and get photos of what distant family and friends are up to. Millions of people also like it.
The only reason that the likes of The Guardian hate it is that they don’t run it or get nice jobs off the back of it.
@BoM4 I agree. I have learned not to engage in political discourse on FB, as the trolls are poisonous.