Unsurprisingly posters who project downwards from a non biased moral high ground of common sense seem to struggle with irony.Didn't someone mention irony earlier?
Projection is also off the scale.
I'm not sure I agree that the majority of this forum sit on the left. A forum with 90% middle aged men is quite unlikely to be left leaning.I actually think that social media targets everybody in a way that is far more inclusive than you think. Nothing sums it up more than the title of this thread because I know that Rascal sits on the far left. His views mean that quite literally anything will sit to the right of him so of course the perception will be that social media is dominated by the right.
The majority of this forum similarly sits on the left and sometimes far left so of course many people are going to be concerned on here about this 'rise' of the right. However, the reality is it couldn't be further from the truth, it's just that normal, common opinions appear to be on the right. I mean look at the polling for the next election, if we're all being influenced to the true right then how are Labour set to win a landslide election this year?
What many people on here hate is the fact that most average and relatively apolitical people do not sit on the left, instead they mostly sit in the centre and centrist votes are often not decided by ideological lines. The reason why there is concern over the picture painted to centrists above all else is because it is this group that will decide any election.
At the end of the day you cannot have a socialist utopia or a far right empire unless the centrists agree to it. This is why both the right and left hate the way in which social media operates, it's because social media generates profit from participation from all corners of the spectrum.
There is some emerging evidence that social media lends itself to more effective far-right radicalisation and recruitment than it does far-left because of the differences in how each usually approaches those efforts (intentional or not).i think it’s just made everything more political due to everyone having an amplified platform and we’re far less intelligent as a society than we used to be as a consequence. I don’t really see it too much as a left/right wing thing aside from people going more binary with their thought processes, it’s more that loss of intelligence.
We need to get back to trusting experts in their field and people remembering it’s absolutely fine to say “I have no idea”, they don’t need to have an opinion on everything or always pretend it’s a well formed one.
There is some emerging evidence that social media lends itself to more effective far-right radicalisation and recruitment than it does far-left because of the differences in how each usually approaches those efforts (intentional or not).
The far-right tends to appeal to (oft false) nostalgia, emotional amplification and validation, religious moralism and dogmatic tradition, and “other” blaming, which is better suited to the nature of engagement on social media than the far-left’s tendency to appeal to (oft false) sense of reason and logic, ideas of progress, notions of attainable equality, and individual commitment to social justice.
Far-left recruitment frequently devolves in to belligerent debates between factions with slightly differing interpretations of the rational and logical tenets of the cause and/or the clearest path to progress, resulting in implosions of coalitions under the weight of their own righteousness.
Whereas far-right recruitment more regularly results in a unified, emotionally-exploited cohort of converts, fully invested in to the narrative that their problems will be solved if the “other” group is dealt with and filled with the nostalgia for an ideal time past (that usually never actually occurred).
These are merely the extremes, though, and there is far more to political radicalisation that simply what is described above, particularly that it is not really a continuum but more of a spherical position among many different ideological stances.
I agree all people, regardless of political affinity, can be manipulated via social media and that binary thinking is a plague on humankind.
I also hold that is partly the fault of the users, partly the fault of the platforms (or, more accurately, the organizations running them), partly the fault of governments not providing adequate oversight and regulation, and partly the fault of external entities attempting to manipulate the platforms for their own nefarious purposes.
It has never been as simple as “the social media platforms are bad” or “the users are bad”.
Statistically this is just very unlikely.
What's more likely is that you're a lot further right than you think, and are viewing the majority in the middle as left.
Oh the irony
This is an embarrassing way to tell everyone your understanding of irony is as bad as Alanis Morrisette’s
No and it's not a pop at you particularly. Posters on the political forum have one thing in common and its not their views. Excluding wums everyone on here thinks they are the the voice of reason , the sane one, not extreme but totally balanced.
So when anyone you or me say to anyone else your bias is affecting your judgement its quite funny. The amount of times i have heard posters say oh this forum is full of the right wing or the left wing without even contemplating its their views that make it appear that way.
The comment you made was true from your point of view and that is the irony because it could also be made to you and it woukd be correct from the view of the person person making it.
Social media is a mine field because people always think they are right. And if they are right logically it must mean someone who doesn't agree is wrong.
I know I’m left of centre, although objectively speaking based on desired policies etc not by much. So when I go into the politics thread I know I’m in a minority.
A forum that’s primarily based around 40-60 year old men from Manchester is not going to be overwhelming dominated by left wingers, which is why I made that comment (and knowing the poster) but you’re right if people are going to the politics forum and thinking everyone is far right then it’s because they’re further left than they imagine.