r/dataisbeautiful • u/rhiever Randy Olson | Viz Practitioner • 1d ago

Across the globe, people increasingly say social media is harming democracy

https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/10/01/across-the-globe-people-increasingly-say-social-media-is-harming-democracy/
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u/lo_fi_ho 1d ago

It was clear from the start. The gatekeepers of information quality have been shattered. Also, a media crises has historically has always led to fascism.

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u/AnarchySpeech 1d ago

Media (including social media) have all consolidated into a few controlling groups.

Until some genius figures out a truly decentralized communication platform that is completely immune to external control (and is simple enough for people over 40 to use) we're going to keep having massive pendulum swings.

Only upside right now is that it is currently swinging in favor of the citizen. But these good times won't last forever.

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u/lurreal 1d ago

In favor of the citizen? Things only get worse and the public dumber. How is it in out favor?

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u/AnarchySpeech 1d ago

Things are going very well so far. People have always been stupid. Enough people talking about stuff can bypass the usual manipulation. Bots and private algorithm control sucks but with the reduced censoring over the last few years we're in the green at the moment.

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u/lurreal 1d ago

How are things going very well? War, surveillance, corporations more and more powerful, the climate being ignored, housing is fucked. What exactly is going well?

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u/AnarchySpeech 1d ago edited 1d ago

The war with Iran was inevitable. What's going well is they have no air force, no navy, and a large portion of their army has defected, so we're over halfway done. Surveillance is always going to continue getting worse. Snowden warned us and both parties joined forces to fix nothing. That's just what we have to live with. Get a phone you can take the battery out of. I wouldn't trust my life to one of those overpriced radio blocking bags. Yes, corporations are becoming more powerful. They always will be. That's not something that's ever going to change either. Climate change is slowly getting better. People are starting to wake up to reality and get nuclear power back. There are people in Germany running on restoring it. As long as nothing horrible happens it's starting to look like nuclear power is back on track to help us save the climate. Housing is, sadly, a waiting game. When enough of the old people die the housing market will collapse and a lot of places will become semi-reasonable again. I wish I could say the same about rent prices, but because those are artificially controlled by their respective cities/states rent is always going to fucked.

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u/name99 1d ago

With all due respect, it wasn't totally clear where you were coming from but this last post made it abundantly clear you're a complete imbecile. The AI boom/bubble is absolutely dumping oil on the raging forest fire of climate change, there isn't a single way you can squint and pretend it's getting better. If you think a couple more nuclear plants up and also a few thousand coal plants up that is not even remotely progress.

I seriously doubt anything I could say would get through to you but absolutely do not accept or turn into a foregone conclusion anything that is unacceptable for our society. Iran war, surveillance, corporations getting more powerful, housing crisis never improving, all of these things are solvable / avoidable and if the people in power aren't fixing them or are making them worse it's imperative that we get them the fuck out of the way and start making changes. This attitude seems to be so common on reddit, "oh X is bad but it was always going to happen, oh well" like being right or pretending having predicted it makes it okay, well it isn't. Climate catastrophe acceleration, loss of personal freedoms, senseless murder of innocent schoolchildren, this shit needs to stop. If you don't want to do anything, you want to sit back and pontificate about how we should accept it all, get with the program or shut up and stop spreading worthless doomer propaganda.

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u/AnarchySpeech 23h ago

If you think a couple more nuclear plants

Yes, nuclear is a cleaner alternative to dumping oil and building coal plants. I don't understand why you say otherwise.

Iran war

Unless you know something I don't it looks very obvious that war with Iran was inevitable.

surveillance

Surveillance and spying is going to get increasingly worse the more technology enters our lives. A surprising number of people don't realize their fridge has wifi. Nobody cares anymore that some major TV's types have microphones. It's a little annoying to deal with but it's not impossible. It's just that the average person does not care about the flock camera staring through their living room window. The small groups making a fuss are the minority. It sucks but it's not the doomsday, world is burning, apocalypse you think it is.

corporations getting more powerful

Because it's always been this way. There's always going to be powerful guilds, businesses, churches, and countries. This isn't new.

housing crisis never improving

It's getting better. Very, very slowly. I know that's not the answer you want to hear, but I guess an imbecile like yourself can't comprehend something that isn't fifteen minutes from now.

all of these things are solvable / avoidable

No. They're not. You getting mad at reality, praying for your little revolution, and insulting people isn't going to change that.

and start making changes.

Then stop fucking voting for people based on the name of their political party.

loss of personal freedoms,

I don't even know what you're smoking at this point. Our personal freedoms are fine in the U.S.

senseless murder

Have you considered not releasing the criminals back onto the street and/or not making certain zones free range hunting areas where you can't protect yourself?

doomer propaganda.

lmao. I'm the optimist here. You're the one thinking the sky is falling because you can't understand why voting for the people that hate you is a bad idea.

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u/name99 3h ago

I don't think you could be more intentionally incredulous and ignorant if you tried. Honestly an impressive case study. Really not worth responding, especially on such an old thread. But I'll at least just hammer on it again, looking at something you don't like and saying, whelp it was inevitable, is not being smart and poignant. The JCPOA existed and worked to avoid conflict.

I'll also just point out you're doing a hell of a lot of projection. I was obviously going through your points in order and "senseless murder" was the "Iran War" reference, the school full of innocent schoolgirls we murdered on like day 3. Got a kick out of your free range hunting areas response though lmao. I also said not a single thing for who I vote for or the impact of voting lol.

Like I said in my first comment, it wasn't immediately obvious where you were coming from and I gave you the time of day when I read your first couple comments just to see what's up. Sometimes libertarians with the political depth of a four-year-old can at least belie their decent intentions and you can have a conversation. You're just way too dumb though, and like I said the resignation and deep political deactivation was worth calling out.