Fair point, probably the major missing piece in my demographic analysis.
It's still data though. Underhanded shit to either drive voter engagement or make people apathetic, depending on what either party is trying to achieve.
Both parties are literally businesses. Their goal is to get as close to 50/50 as possible to make people believe democracy is a legitimate form of government and not a de facto plutocracy. Add in universal suffrage and it’s retarded. Add in shitskins? It’s a joke. They are businesses. The government is big business. They utilize big tech and AI to create a platform to make it as close to 50/50 as possible. Welcome to the future. It’s all data. You are literally a piece of data in a database and that is your worth to those in power. Watch porn and Netflix and buy products you absolute fucking domesticated human (I don’t think you are I’m invoking their thoughts on you)..
Yep, it's corporate feudalism really. Really big business usurped national governments in all but the very biggest economies more than a decade ago. Polarizing people right down the middle or as close to the middle as possible is a familiar tactic. There's as much bullshit out there saying that climate change is real as there is saying it's a bunch of bullshit. And honestly, containment zones like Reddit and yes, Voat are somewhat part of the problem as well. It's hard to imagine but the internet was originally billed as a vast melting pot where any and all ideas challenged and a new consensus forged. Instead, we associate withlike minded individuals and create virulent echo chambers. The turning point was the smart phome obviously.
The idea that “in a crucible of free speech the best ideas win” is a forgone conclusion in a world where capital is so fucking powerful that it creates hyperreal versions of reality for human beings using memorized tricks of psychology. This is not the 19th century anymore and the truth is whatever big capital say it is (de facto). Of course absolute truth does exist but it is that much harder to find when the internet becomes more and more controlled by said capital. Where does the teenager go to learn the truth? Wikipedia. What if Wikipedia is compromised? What if the cosmopolitan culture says something is the truth when it isn’t? What if the successful believe in the lie simulacrum larping as a truth? It means the world gets weird. The internet was simpler when there was a barrier for entry like in the early 2000s. It was young White men. We may have been libertarians at that time but we evolved as we say how evil the world could be. The fact that the “right” thinks big capital is something to worship is just absolutely unreal. It is an unfeeling grey goo that will commodify everything in its path including your race and culture. The only defense is a third way forward that puts material wealth below something else.
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