this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
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Canada Politics

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A number of MPs say Canada's democracy is under pressure from a series of threats — from social media to extreme partisanship.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

"This sounds like I'm an old man. And maybe I am. But if I could get rid of one thing in society, it would be the cell phone," said Conservative MP Stephen Ellis, who represents the riding of Cumberland-Colchester in Nova Scotia.

"Sadly, I use two of them every day."

I often half-joke that Steve Jobs ruined our society by inventing the iPhone. He made the internet accessible to everyone by exchanging a mouse and keyboard for sausage fingers. Every Joe-lunchbucket can spread their opinions by smearing it on a screen, like a fingerpainting painted with raw stupidity.

(I know this is all flawed; you don't have to tell me. Steve Jobs didn't invent the iPhone. And if it wasn't Apple, then some other company would have invented a similar device.)

Either way, forcing people to sit down at a desktop/laptop to access the internet added a slight barrier that demanded some modicum of competence. That's been gone for 15+ years now, and look where things are at.