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Old 03-27-2017, 01:55 PM   #131
Flint
Snowflake
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Dystopia
Posts: 13,136
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flint View Post
In this thread, 10 years ago, I argued that the only way to bring meaningful change to American politics was to vote third party, and over time, to send a message of non-participation to the two-party system.
...
Since then, partisan politics have become even more polarized, record numbers of Americans are identifying as independent, and both major parties have been hijacked from within, by anti-establishment candidates.
...
05-16-2016, 06:00 PM
Since then: the "populist message" Republican hijacker succeeded in winning the White House, but not much else, due to lack of experience. The "populist message" Democrat hijacker was squashed by the Democrats, who used brute force politics to prolong their positions of power.

Since then: both parties are still quite fractured between reasonable members (called "moderates" on the right, "progressives" on the left) who want to get elected/re-elected by actually serving the public, and ideologues who cater to consumers of opinion-based "news" sources (conservative-flavored on the right, identity-flavored on the left).

This is where we're at: the great enemy of the political change that people are literally taking to the streets to demand, is party loyalty driven by customized news feeds, driven by "big data" analytics.

The great enemy is that facts don't exist anymore. There's no common ground on which to debate, as everyone is in a different flavor of reality.

And if the oligarchs get control of the free internet, the fight is over.
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There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there
it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your
expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever
gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio

Last edited by Flint; 03-27-2017 at 02:04 PM.
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