It may be controversial but I believe 3 things can be done:
1. Government grants for open source alternative development. Aka fed oversee and what not can apply for grants.
2. Label all social media and phones common carriers.
3. Require common carriers to be subject to FOIA and audits by citizens. This would include source code. They can still profit from being centralized for the time being, because of networking effects that likely won’t change.
My final thought is that social media shouldn’t be tied to ones public identity.
The Overton window is a form of group think that’s pervasive across what people think of as the political spectrum. Outsider views isn’t simply pro and anti X, or even flat earth whack jobs it’s the full realm of possibilities.
It’s easy to think of say communism in reference to the horrors of recent history, but it showed up before the US civil war. In the context of slavery and the often stated “need” to compensate people who owned slaves before freeing them it suddenly seems very different. Which just demonstrates how ideologies are shaped by the time period and why understanding history takes more than a history textbook.
Actually reading old newspapers or political speeches is eye opening in the way that’s hard to summarize. https://www.loc.gov/newspapers/?dates=1920-1929 first page of first newspaper The Evening Star (March 8, 1920) “Income tax on dividends held Invalid by Supreme Court Government To Refund Millions” alongside “President takes ride in Automobile” which was apparently newsworthy including the prohibition of taking his photo. Just as interesting “Woman instantly killed by an Auto” referring to a car accident was a front page story. Meanwhile “Democrats Figure Electoral Victory on “WET” plank” referring to a lighter version of prohibition while still prohibiting saloons and Whisky. “British to Sell no part of West Indies to the US” which shows the past wasn’t just a history timeline it was filled with unrealized possibilities.
It may be my bubble but this doesn't seem that controversial and instead fairly sensible. While I'd also love to see #1 and see it expanded toward infrastructural development (e.g. have a grant funded body research advancements with internet standards), I don't think it's as necessary as #2 and #3. The fact that social media can apply their own moderation standards but still be treated like common carriers is pretty ridiculous.
The principles of the Enlightenment (scientific method) via post-modernism or post-positivism (particularly skepticism of power and of myself, and the fallibility of human perception and cognitive ability) work really, really well in the current environment. They are almost a panacea - very powerful. Simply have some faith and use them; it's not hard; and then you are free from the oppressive weight of it all. (And stop wasting your time reading the other stuff.)
From the perspective of those tools, the problems are brazen - if you accept that there is, effectively, a 'big lie' (without one specific liar). That it's possible for so many to be so misled, for the social norms (groupthink) to be so widespread and wrong, is shocking to experience first-hand. Looking at history, it shouldn't be surprising at all.
What prevents such widespread ignorance is the Enlightenment and post-modernism/positivism. It should not be surprising that the problems are so brazen and that the 'old' tools work so well. It's not coincidence; we got here by discarding them, by (bizarrely) disarming ourselves. The results are completely predictable - discard scientific reasoning and critical thinking and you get lies and conspiracies. Throw away post-modernism and you get, almost immediately it seems, the same cults of power and personality that it protects us from. The consequences aren't overwhelmingly clear to observe. Whoever drives the reactionary movement, one of their first targets was those tools and the norms and institutions that support them: fact, critical thinking, education, all the humanities.
(I'm speaking a bit loosely about the philosophical terms, but close enough, I think, for my point.)
Damn you nailed it down. I wanted to write something similair but your text nails it. This is the problem that people who are enlighted Don’t want to engage into discussions on social media because screaming at each other is not a part of enlightnment. Here at hackernews there is at least the diskussion….once upon a time I got facebook… thats pure imbicil mayhem…
FYI, places like Usenet are still around. Usenet is full of spam, trolls, and obnoxious contrarians, but you can post about whatever you'd like, receive replies for whomever, and never have to deal with upvote politics or comment pile-ons. Ask your friends to join you in these sorts of spaces.
One newsgroup I recommend is `comp.sys.raspberry-pi`. It has a pretty high SNR and is quite active, especially in comparison to some other groups on Usenet.
