sus

Well-known member
No one is "chosen" by the "powerful"; rather, there are selection effects in a media economy of attention. Some people are more aggressive or vocal, more prone to outrage/indignation, and less able to see outside their own concerns to the larger system. This is the character profile of ideologues and fanatics—people, indeed, who lack empathy. This isn't to say there aren't real grievances and complaints; there obviously are. But skepticism toward that 15%'s claims is a reasonable stance if you take the selection view.
 

sus

Well-known member
I think it's pretty empirically demonstrable that the (American) black community at large is far less anti-police, far more politically moderate/centrist, etc than a group like BLM which makes claims to represent the American black community as a whole. You can agree with BLM, and believe the group really does represent the black community's best interests, and still say that they're a less moderate political orientation.
 

luka

Well-known member
the bit where you say people are not chosen by the powerful and that in fact its only the most aggressive people who get to be eleveated to those positions when from what i can tell there is no one nearly aggressive enough with a powerful voice. where are the preachers of death? nowhere to be heard cos power wont let them be heard. who is calling for violent and immediate revolution
 

sus

Well-known member
I could go down the list on issues here; see e.g. PETA and vegetarianism. There aren't moderate movements for a reason
 
There’s a couple of movements at play there tho, it depends what kind of power we're talking about. There’s the powerful choosing the most amenable or tame spokespeople to target a certain group (see influencer marketing)

also from the bottom up the most successful voices learn to operate within the logic of social media, the polarisation and sensationalism of twitter auto selects for sass and extremity, simplicity

both different processes that reduce the ideological and demographic complexity gus was on about there to sell a community or grievance or victimhood
 
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luka

Well-known member
There’s a couple of movements at play there tho, it depends what kind of power we're talking about. There’s the powerful choosing the most amenable or tame spokespeople to target a certain group (see influencer marketing)

also from the bottom up the most successful voices learn to operate within the logic of social media, the polarisation and sensationalism of twitter auto selects for sass and extremity, simplicity

both different processes that reduce the ideological and demographic complexity gus was on about there to sell a community or grievance or victimhood

the voice of reason lol
 

sus

Well-known member
It's a combination of self-selection (how can you even question that being an activist correlates with anger at the system? it's almost definitional) and also media selection (no one gets RT'd for widely agreed-upon, bland affirmations; political positions are social signals of tribal identity, i.e. they don't work unless they're against something/someone)
 
It's a combination of self-selection (how can you even question that being an activist correlates with anger at the system? it's almost definitional) and also media selection (no one gets RT'd for widely agreed-upon, bland affirmations; political positions are social signals of tribal identity, i.e. they don't work unless they're against something/someone)

it's these positions that make the tone draining as @entertainment said earlier, boring and humourless. "let's talk about..." , "y'all need to..." theres a finger wagging 'should' based language salient with the young left and its not very exciting to me but extremely effective
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
it's these positions that make the tone draining as @entertainment said earlier, boring and humourless. "let's talk about..." , "y'all need to..." theres a finger wagging 'should' based language salient with the young left and its not very exciting to me but extremely effective
Patronising, pass-agg articles with a title that starts "Dear...".
 

catalog

Well-known member
That's the almost entire problem isn't it? The discourse is not in person, it's online, so it's immediately a big more hostile.
 

luka

Well-known member

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catalog

Well-known member
We went out the other day with relatives and friends, nice day out, got tea and cake at the end of the day, started talking about loafs of stuff, trans and there was an argument but basically it got resolved and was all amicable and I think the simple fact you are face to face does help a bit
 
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