fluxion

This clown supposedly cares about "consumer fraud" after 4 years lying about the results of the 2020 election

As a vim user who constantly/unintentionally types "kkk" whenever I'm sharing my screen with co-workers...i feel this

You let the fox in the henhouse. Why would he listen? He's not planning to win over hearts and minds

Nice to see some people keeping the dream alive

Wow no way

Nice low-effort distraction from endless high crimes against America maybe.

And presidential immunity

So much for those background checks they finally agreed to. Here comes the dumpster fire.

Good job SK. Don't give up your democracy, don't tolerate those who would take it from you, don't underestimate the lengths these people will go to silence you.

This all seems so pointless while sites like X thrive.

And now I'm realizing Musk will ensure it does get banned so he can slurp everyone up into his own foreign interference cesspool.

Hopefully they all go to BlueSky instead.

Yes, burn like our newly-elected leaders have essentially promised. Are you offended that I'm acknowledging that reality?

And no, the internet won't let truth ring out to the world. I thought the same when I was a wee lad too. The information superhighway. The end of oppressive government censorship.

The Information Age.

But no, maybe it's not apparent in your neck of the woods yet, but it is here, and China, and Russia, and countless other backsliding nations: the Internet wasn't our saviour, and bad ideas don't naturally die if they are pushed to the masses. They thrive.

Lying trolls are downvoted on lemmy, we don't give free passes and call everything "free speech" and remove voting buttons so we don't hurt feelings. But sites like X where there is much larger reach don't even offer that level of self-regulation. Bad ideas are boosted purposely and relentlessly. News channels have degraded to similar levels under increasingly partisan private ownership.

The Disinformation Age.

But between relentlessly spreading Trump talking points, one thing partisan networks like Fox News and OAN refused to push were claims about rigged voting machines, even when interviewing Trump in person.

Because they got sued. And lost. Badly and expensively.

Because libel has always been illegal in this country. Because we all inherently understand that free speech does not cover spreading blatant lies about people/companies.

But no person/entity pursues this in scale against even the most egregious far-reaching examples. Like when Musk boosts an article to millions claiming the MAGA nutjob who tried to beat Nancy Pelosi's husband to death was his gay lover. Nothing. When Trump continues to declare the Democrats stole the 2020 election despite it being settled by every court case. Nothing.

Despite having provenly effective tools to keep people honest we've let things degrade to the point where nobody even needs to give a second thought as to whether they are expressing an opinion or just slandering/manipulating people because we are afraid that calling out blatant lies is violating "free speech". Meanwhile a fascist regime abuses that to dismantle our democracy, frequently threatens any press who speak against them, threatens to jail prosecutors who cross them while performing their duties, political opponents who don't bend to their will. And if that's the case, then our democracy will burn, and then we'll see what not having "free speech" really looks like.

There was a time in this country when we had policies like the Fairness Doctrine, upheld by the Supreme Court, enforced by the FCC, where bias in media was actually regulated. Throughout the most prosperous time in this country, from the late 1940s until, like many things that began our rapid decline, Reagan killed it.

Now even leveraging the much weaker tools remaining, in the face an existential threat to our democracy, is seen as some radical idea.

Honestly I'm speaking more about rebuilding from the ashes once everything burns. Sort of like how UN, NATO, and the beginnings of the EU were only made possible through extreme circumstances. Hopefully not that extreme, but this country is going to endure turmoil that I don't think most Americans are ready for.

But maybe if we survive it we'll be more willing to assess the circumstances that lead us there and take real and drastic action to prevent it from happening again. Or not.. But I don't want to give up hope completely.