I feel like the Internet has gone through three distinct phases. The first phase was primarily driven by individuals and a small handful of businesses. Content was highly limited, but generally positive. Lots of niche communities formed and most things had a very amateur feel to them, but everything was new and interesting.

The second phase was the rise of big corporations and the almighty ad. This was the first arms race between ad tech and ad blockers and gave us such evils as the pop up and pop under. A lot of the early charm of the internet was lost here. Everything started to become much more polished and commercialized, but we also saw a rapid expansion of content and functionality. This phase was heavily driven by corporations, and most of the early individual content was killed at this time.

The last and current phase is the social media phase. It's kind of a hybrid of the previous two. We have individuals generating most content again, but it's controlled, filtered, channeled, and exploited for commercial gain by the corporations. This has somehow lead to things being worse as corporations discovered that catering to people's worst impulses is the most profitable decision.

Because the 1st wave of people on the internet were nerds and geeks. People driven by hope and optimist to make the world a better place and using the internet to do things they were already inclined to do... learn and share. You had to read, and write and things were generally long form interactions. Chat rooms required that you write sentences and paragraphs. It was also largely hosted by universities and other non-profit interests. The philosophy of Open Source and Freesoftware was rampant in the 2000s, and then declined as the big 5 took over the internet.

Now the internet is driven by corporate greed and the exploitation of the LCD's lazy monkey-brain interactions. EVerything now is a blurb, a meme, a click, a reaction emoji. A 8 min youtube video is 'too hard' now for the average internet user.

Only those seeking enlightenment or open to it will find it anywhere. The internet has done more to pierce echo chambers. Than any other invention of the last 200 years.

The problem is. It was dropped onto a largely unprepared populous. That was born into propaganda, misinformation, and confirmation bias. Without the skills to move beyond it by design. They vault over the enlightenment at their feet. Working hard digging through mountains of shit to find things to confirm their biases.

I was about to say the same thing applies to AI. But AI is fucked right out of the gate. There's not even a brief window of hope for it being used to better society. Anyone with any awareness on the topic knows these AIs are already corrupted and compromised because they've been using the Internet to train all their LLMs.

The internet has allowed greater collaboration, and the faster spread of information.

It has also allowed the village idiots to find each other and band together...

Trash in, trash out

The internet wasn't on the 1%s leash back then. We can't be free, even digitally. To dangerous to allow such feelings in the wage slaves.

The problem is that even though we share so many of the same problems with the far right they try to solve those problems by doubling down on them. Need food and basic housing? They make social services harder to get and cut the existing ones. Need medical care? Reject Medicaid expansion and try to get rid of the ACA. No retirement money? Go after social security and make you wait longer to get it.

Why, because someone else might get the money that didn’t “earn it” by some arbitrary metric? Or maybe they have darker skin? Or have a drug problem? Or are homeless? So the right would rather hurt themeselves so long as it hurts the people they don’t like more.

Because they have been taught to look in the wrong direction for the causes and solutions. Republican politicians like to cause problems and then blame others for them and use that for their campaigns. Like defunding schools and then yelling about the education system failing.

So this has been the inspiration for my reaching across the aisle approach.

You can’t convince them by calling them idiots. You need to go on their social media and instead of fighting their wrong posts, just hint and gently point them in the class conscience posts.

They are getting there, the issue now is although they do believe power hungry people want to control things. They just think it’s done via committee instead of wealth.

It takes more effort for me to convince a group of people with talking then just buying things out.

What you may not know is that this paper, along with the National Enquirer, were the result of the efforts of Gene Pope.

A guy whose job immediately before buying up and transforming the Enquirer was in the CIA's psychological warfare division.

This was around the time the CIA was upset with national coverage of UFOs. Suddenly stories about them were appearing alongside "Elvis lives" or Bat Boy, and no reputable news would touch UFO stories with a 10' pole.

The internet has shown us that conservatives like to be lied to. But that tendency itself predates the internet. Before conservatives said Obama was a Muslim they said that Eisenhower was a secret Communist. Before conservatives said horse medicine cures covid they said Laetrile cures cancer.

Somebody that fits this description (excluding ACAB) won the Presidency. Self promoting and selfish desires. The "greed is good" era has continued pushing a selfish culture over community driven goals. This is especially true in the large media organizations and social media. Media makes decisions for profits and selfish goals over community engagement, education, and cohesiveness.

But, there are many counter examples in the actual community. The community driven people just make less noise online. I volunteer with college kids and the generosity and desire for community building is really impressive. I would not find this online but in real life it is very evident. But no one makes money selling things to people who care about others more than themselves. So advertising and social media cater to the selfish side of people so that is what we see more often.

It's ACAB not ACAP (all cops are pigs). ACAB doesn't dehumanize police, it is a statement that says the institution itself is rotten and makes bastards out of well intending people. Some people do dehumanize police, and often when they do, they point to the inhumane acts of the police force at large.

Trickle down economics, as a theory, has been around well over 100 years, and it's never been believed in by everybody. Hell, a presidential candidate gave a speech against the idea in 1896

You're correct about misinformation having been around forever, but access to and ease to create misinformation is greater than ever before thanks to the Internet.

Of course the Internet has made it worse. It did so initially by giving a platform to hucksters, fascists and frauds that let them find like minded people that otherwise would not have convalesced around them.

Social media optimized this process, and now algorithms design entire custom made echo chambers that reinforce and amplify the outrageous because it profitable to do so, as rage and violence keep people on the platform, churning though ads.

Youre right that capitalism, the unending profit motive that must increase is the true source of the damage, but the internet has been a powerful engine in its conquest of truth for profit.

You have forgotten the feedback and psychological magnification of technology. Written word was just put out there. Focus groups became more prominent with TV ads. The internet provided a whole new set of tools like algorithms and data analysis to study and more effectively sway people's thinking. Putin has developed a whole new type of hybrid warfare using cyber technology.

I agree. I think what we’re seeing is a lot of Americans being failed by society writ large. Corporate America no longer upholds their side of the social contract (working 40hr doesn’t always guarantee enough money for a person to support themselves, let alone retirement or healthcare). They’re dumping all this money into politics to push their own narratives, and it’s blatantly obvious they’re doing it.

Why trust the process when the process is bad? Of course misinformation is everywhere. Misinformation is a symptom of our societal failures here, the internet and 24hr news is just the delivery method.