I've seen signs of this very thing even right here on Hacker News.
We're all capable of getting stuff wrong, but we've become so tribal that the falsehoods our "side" states just become inconvenient truths that we can't admit to as a people.
Taibbi is hitting on something that only the web and tv could create in tandem.
The loud, moronic voices in a crowded room would just create a silent majority making eyes at them and walking away from them. But when this happens on the internet it creates the illusion these are the only voices, these are the only camps and after a decade of this (or more) people start getting sucked into it and perpetuating it themselves and joining a side.
What would be 2 assholes yelling at each other in said crowded room has turned into a cold holy war between these growing camps.
i fear for the future my son is raised in. Not just b/c we're headed into a Dark Age where tribalism matters more than reality - but because this is just going to keep escalating until it breaks up the country. I don't see an out from this.
Reversion to the mean -- this has been humanity's history for the past several millennia. The post WW2 era until ~1995 was unusual in that mass media worldwide was highly centralized and authoritarian.
We're all capable of getting stuff wrong, but we've become so tribal that the falsehoods our "side" states just become inconvenient truths that we can't admit to as a people.
Taibbi is hitting on something that only the web and tv could create in tandem.
The loud, moronic voices in a crowded room would just create a silent majority making eyes at them and walking away from them. But when this happens on the internet it creates the illusion these are the only voices, these are the only camps and after a decade of this (or more) people start getting sucked into it and perpetuating it themselves and joining a side.
What would be 2 assholes yelling at each other in said crowded room has turned into a cold holy war between these growing camps.
i fear for the future my son is raised in. Not just b/c we're headed into a Dark Age where tribalism matters more than reality - but because this is just going to keep escalating until it breaks up the country. I don't see an out from this.
The internet was a mistake.