That's really the tragedy of America's two-party system, where both mainstream parties have more or less no other choice than to absorb the people on the fringes of their side of the political spectrum. In Europe, those people are dumped into far-left/right parties which typically dont wield a lot of power. Also makes it easier to limit their influence on the public discourse, so that their voices only break through if they really REALLY got a point.


Another factor is the increasing polarization, which leads to the balance of power in American politics hanging by a thread. When 100-500 thousand votes out of 120+ million votes cast can flip an entire election, both parties become dependent on appealing to the fringes. The more elections are decided via turnout instead of persuasion, the more the radicals will get empowered.

the two party system was able to ignore the fringes and keep polarization in check before the internet and social media changed politics. both are symptoms of the internet's effect on life in America. people are moving left/right because of exposure to more extreme beliefs that previously newspapers and tv news ignored. then as the internet created this massive demand for fringe ideas to be heard those same papers and channels were forced to embrace the polarized demand or die.

"i just want the facts once they all come in" is the more repeated lie in america.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Sep 1 2020 08:54am

https://news.yahoo.com/teenage-kenosha-shooting-suspects-possession-213257875.html

in today's news Kenosha shooter expected to use 2nd amendment right as a defense for his illegal firearm possession. in WI if you're illegally carrying a weapon any crimes that follow are your fault, dissolving otherwise prudent self defense claims that could be raised. this claim will also all but guarantee an elevation of the case to SCOTUS ruling at some point, potentially shattering or bolstering 2a precedent on the books currently.

as an aside the gofundme accounts he got for legal defense will now be 100% needed through the appeals process, and then some.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Sep 1 2020 08:58am

I fundamentally disagree with the notion that the internet or social media are the root of the polarization. Imho, it's globalization, more specifically the neoliberal version of globalization that we have experienced over the past 40 years. Globalization has increasingly divided every society into winners and losers, in particular, it has led to people of different education levels living increasingly disparate lives and having increasingly different values. That's why you see college-educated folks gravitate toward cosmopolitan ideologies while non-college folks become increasingly nationalistic.

Globalization and how news has evolved aren't mutually exclusive imo. I think both are in some ways responsible for this divide. The way so much is covered nowadays to me is more relevant as a causer at least in the short run for the shit storm. There are social issues like race like religion that do have something to do with globalization but only tangentially.

globalization is yet another symptom of the internet and computer technology.

it really all comes back to Bill Gates.

look at the time the computer and internet come into being, its the causal event for all of these upticks in our woes. yes global corporations existed previously, but their ability to strategize, network, and organize through this technology caused a massive increase in the pace of globalization. automation went from basic to scary in 10 years because of programming, and the manufacturing of automation likewise has gotten 10x cheaper speeding everything up.

the internet in a causal sense is like sugar in america, it's in everything.

globalization already picked up pace during the 70s and 80s, while the internet only became relevant in the 90s. it also doesnt have anything to do with the rise of china and the outsourcing caused by that.
computers arent to blame for the oil price shocks, the exodus of the textile industry, the outsourcing of the production of cheap but labor-intensive products to countries where unskilled labor is cheap and plentiful, etc.

when IT, the internet and automation came into the mix at scale, it gave those trends another boost, like the sugar rush from downing a 2l bottle of mountain dew, but the trends were definitely already there.

but we're getting off-topic.

all of the issues we're discussing have a common denominator, and that is the internet. that is the most succinct way i can put it.

errr npr npcs executed the wrong code “without evidence” instead of “he used a fully semi-automatic rifle of mass war destruction to mow down innocent peaceful protesters”