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In this blog I am going to give a brief explination, or, blurb about my opinions of the modern internet and the recent crisis of democracy.
The Rise of the internet has been instrumental in the rise of the current political atmosphere of the world and in the United States in particular, but, no one, for whatever reason, seems to be willing to talk about it, or, point out the elephant in the room, so, I will.
In 1975 a paper was pulished for the Trilateral Commission Called "The Crisis Of Democracy" that outlined a rising threat to the ruling hegemony of european allies and the US (Bourgious.) The paper goes on to explain that the wave of push back against the vietnam war and the on going counter cultural "revolution" is developing a culture of democratic values. This paper goes on to out right explain how people are getting "too involved" in the political process and that only minimal participation of the public in the political landscape is possbile for the continued existence of US hegemony. Else, people will rise up when they realize how powerless they truly are. They truly believe that to much participation; to much "democracy" is a threat to the empire of the United states, and, in a sense, they are correct.
High information political engaugement is indeed a threat to the political establishment and the capitalist system as a whole. The more people that know what is going on the more reason they have to get organized. Anyone who understands history understands that hippy counter culture and the "new left" of the 70s was pretty fangless and was not, in essence, any true threat to the political establishemnt, but, it did indeed shake up some political leaders enough to write this paper.
This brings us to my next point: The rise of the internet.
The rise of the internet has brought with it a massive influx of information. All information is avalible to the masses at the palm of our hands. The internet was basically a giant library back in the day. (And I believe we are experiencing a new Renaissance of the internet in a sense currently that is remincent of this.)
There was a time before the massive enclosures on the internet that people developed their own cultures, identities, friendships and garnered information in the process all free from the proying eyes of the government and corperate actors, but, that is besides the point. My point is that there exists an intersection with the rise of the internet and the spread of information and how easily this information is spread through social networks and media.
I believe that this intersection, however, has begun to awaken a new Crisis of Democracy in the modern era.
The development and rise of social media coupled with information and the ease of which is is shared (as perverse and misguided as propritary corperate software is the infrastructure has still allowed for these things)
More and more people seem to be more aware, not neccesarily, what the true issue is, (The production of commodities and profit under capitalism) But, they are more aware than they have ever been, at least with in recent memory of many political issues. That isn't to say that there are no people who haven't become more aware of the system of capitalism we live under, there has been, I just think that they are less so than, say, some one who believes that america is an oppressive racist system. (Which it is, but, capitalism is the root of the issue)
Firstly, facebook; Facebook was centerfold in the development of web 2.0. Facebook has billions of users still even in its decline and was undoubtably instrumental in the spread of revolutionary ideology and anti-establishment sentiment. More so than any other I would argue. Hell, I myself became a leftist through arguments between ancaps and anarchists on ancap v ancom debate group.
Twitter, tiktoc, Facebook, youtube, have done more damage to the image of the perfect US establishment that was painted since the failures of industrial labor by the powers that be and the cable news network.
The more people who recieve this information about social issues the more people there will be becoming, slowly, more organized and the internet has played an ENORMOUS roll in creating very high information political awareness.
Again, I believe this is the source of the recent new crisis of democracy.
And don't ask me, ask the ruling elite as, recently, a new crisis of democracy was printed which explains exactly this, to my understanding (though I have yet to read it) But undoubtibly, slowly, people are begging to start to understand and I find it strange that no one seems to really be talking about the roll the internet has really played in this.
The next question should be "how do we harness this politicla awareness"
I believe that they best way to harness this political awareness is to get people of propritary software first. Less and less people should be using these platforms and with people being more politically aware it seems almost like facebook and the like are shooting themselves in the face. It shows, too, in their stocks. Facebook is bleeding value. We do need people not to abandon the internet entierly, though, as again this is a tool of mass information, thus, FOSS Free as in Freedom, Free and open source software is the answer to me. You can utilize the political aspect of these platforms, too, in order to further grow political and class awarness. FOSS software would also make organizational aspects easier, though, most organizing, truly, should be done off line.
The biggest hurdle now that the cat is out of the bag is the push back from these very same social media companies. The constant attempt through algorthms to control peoples opnions and white wash radicalism with liberal identity politics, or, right wing skitzo discorse; It's literally divide and conqure. This is why it's important to actually get people off of these platforms. It is the only logical way to push back against the growing controlled opposition and glow nigger psyop bs coming from mainstream media and social media.
I believe that the rise of the internet has lead us to a unique historical point and we cannot afford to miss the boat on this one. Just keep pushing against the narrative that capitalism, or, whatever is inevitable, or, natural, or that glow nigger liberal psyop Extinction Rebellion or whatever the fuck else these think tanks are peddlingthese days. This is just the begging, in my humble opinion.