> “It’s democracy at stake, it’s our culture at stake,” Anderson said.
Christ, the self-importance of the Twitterverse is astonishing. What they don't say out loud is that Trump and Brexiteers and others they oppose have used the platform to effectively end-run the media, they hate that, but they can't figure out a way to stop them. A little bit of plain speaking would be refreshing.
Be happy that today it's not life on this planet or the universe itself that is at stake. ;)
In my experience, there are primarily three kinds of people that regularly claim there's a lot on the line, and it doesn't matter what their political views are. 1) young people that are inexperienced, 2) people that need to feel good about fighting for something important, and 3) people that exploit the other two by appealing to that. It's a good tactic to motivate your base, but like crying wolf, it loses it's effectiveness when done too often.
More than a dozen democracies have fallen in the last twenty years. Many times that over the last century, making predictions of that correct. Obviously neither life nor the universe have ended as many times in that period.
Furthermore, I know of no well informed people that have ever predicted the later but many who have successfully predicted the former.
I'd be mildly interested to see a list of these failed democracies. My other question is, did they fail because Twitter allowed unfettered tweeting of all kinds of unsavory thoughts and ideas? Or are they places where most people don't know what Twitter is?
Edit: It also begs the question of whether democracy is the best form of government for every country, but I leave that aside, since I'm not sure we've reached agreement on whether Twitter is really that important or influential in the lives of governments and societies.
> More than a dozen democracies have fallen in the last twenty years. Many times that over the last century
Is "the party I prefer has lost the election" the same as "a democracy has fallen"? Because I really don't see a dozen democracies that left democracy behind, and certainly not many times that. I suppose it depends on your definition of democracy, but for anything close to the common understanding of a modern liberal democracy, that just sounds ridiculous.
Christ, the self-importance of the Twitterverse is astonishing. What they don't say out loud is that Trump and Brexiteers and others they oppose have used the platform to effectively end-run the media, they hate that, but they can't figure out a way to stop them. A little bit of plain speaking would be refreshing.