So, a couple things first:
--I don't want this to be a blame thread. There are plenty of threads for that. I'd like to focus the conversation on at least semi-constructive, forward-looking dialogue.
--I don't want this to be a "fear of what the Trump admin will do" thread. There are also plenty of threads about that.
OK, with that out of the way, what do you guys think is the way to get the country back on the right track? We've now had about a decade of reactionary backlash against what had been steady, if not perfect, progress on many social and economic issues. We have a Supreme Court that will soon have 1-2 more young conservative appointees and an untouchable conservative majority for 20 years, barring court expansion. We have a gerrymandered congressional landscape where Republicans hold a major advantage in numerous states, which matters at both the state level and federal level. We have a something like half the population that has made clear that it's OK with at least a little bit of old-fashioned authoritarianism if they think it means lower taxes and/or more money for them.
So how do liberals get the train back on the track? By which I mean continue to strengthen (or repair, if it's dismantled) the social safety net; resuming progress on climate change and the environment that is going to be rolled back by Republican de-regulation; and maintaining and continuing progress on social issues (gay marriage, trans marriage, abortion/gender equality, racial equality), and generally reversing the slow but deliberate drift of the country towards authoritarianism (and really this has been happening throughout the world).
Here are my big-picture thoughts:
- Find a new approach/paradigm for mainstream media. This election made clear to me, once and for all, that traditional media is dead and beyond saving. I'm not interested in debating the reasons or pointing fingers, but the old model of journalism has become economically infeasible and has proven completely ineffective at combating the rise of social media, and "new" media more broadly. Major newspapers are almost all gone, and the ones that are left either have zero reach/influence whatsoever with the working class (NYT) or have become so watered-down in content, due to economic pressures and/or the pursuit of "both sidesing" (USA Today, for example) that they are effectively useless. Cable networks are falling victim to the same pressures and are increasingly incentivized to offer "infotainment" over straight news. The major news networks are somewhere in the middle, but generally so bland on news coverage that they're no one's first choice and have basically become irrelevant. There is no Dan Rather or Walter Cronkite that the country flocks to. And into the role these media entities once filled have stepped social media and new media, companies that have now captured bigger market shares and a more direct line to people's eyeballs and brains. If you asked a random sample of Americans who they trust more to deliver accurate news, a majority of Americans would likely choose Joe Rogan over any traditional network you can think of. Not only career media people like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens and Megyn Kelly, but also people with no journalistic background like Theo Von and Alex Cooper, are becoming trusted news sources for many Americans. This is reality, and we're not going back. The internet has made media sources too diverse for there to be any broad cultural consensus about objective facts. So how do we deal with that? How do we deal with a media environment that disincentivizes careful research and sober reflection and instead incentivizes chaos, misinformation, and extremism? Outside of the wonky Pod Save American, mainstream liberal journalists have largely stayed out of the fray, but I don't think that's an option anymore. How do you do journalism - real journalism with discretion and judgment and researching and writing - in the next 20 years? Or is it simply not possible? The phrase that comes to my mind about the current online media atmosphere is "water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink." We are drowning in information in today's society, able to find information more easily and quickly than ever before, but the vast majority of that information is useless, and it will only get worse because disinformation is winning everywhere, not just in the US. I mean for pete's sake, we found out weeks out that several influential conservative streamers were directly or indirectly being paid to spread Russian propaganda, and it did nothing to shake their influence or popularity. Because the reporting on it was coming from the government and mainstream media, and the people who like those conservative streamers are already conditioned to disbelieve everything that comes from those sources.
- I don't have a lot of answers here, but we have to find some way to (i) build another social network that can rival and ultimately eclipse Musk's Twitter, and (ii) reach young males with messages less toxic and insidious than the ones they currently get. Make Social Media Fun Again, or Make Social Media Healthy Again, or something.
[continued in part 2]
