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Democracy, They say curiosity killed the cat, but it might be what keeps…

- - - - connects individuals that otherwise would be unable to find in their community due to rarity or stigma
      - access to information, in particular health, they otherwise would be unable to access from traditional sources due to stigma or lack of awareness
        
        Sexual Health Awareness
        
        Consent
      - previously isolated extremists can now congregate in numbers previously not possible
      - amplifies the voice of the marginalised that would often be suppressed or neglected
    - - "Global village"
        
        gossip globalised to a scale hard to regulate
      - Conditions of democratic life are the conversational spaces within which we might encounter the moral reality of others. Encounters of which then demand of us a particular degree of sensitivity, of tact, of responsiveness, of care.
        
        human conversation and non violent persuasion
        
        Abstraction - when an ideology replaces human passion with collective passion
        
        When a person becomes possessed with such a passion, it has the ability to turn human beings into mere avatars, collateral to be sacrificed for some cause.
        
        human beings risk becoming incapable of the kinds of conversations to which upon Democratic life depends
        
        The bias that humans can display, the tendency to be swayed by emotion, is of course a potential weakness in reaching a verdict. But it has also been the impetus for changes in the law.
    - - Manufacturing and spreading misinformation has become easier than ever. Hence, painting an enemy has become easier than ever, allowing the political pendulum to stay in motion
    - - Literature
        
        The purpose of fiction and translation boils down to human connection being the most important thing in life.
    - - virtue signalling
        
        people are more concerned with demonstrating activism and spending less time gathering and planning
    - - Choice feminism insinuates we live in a post-Feminism society, gender equality has been achieved and there is no longer a need for Feminism, thus any choice made must be independent of internalised misogyny, patriarchal and cultural values
        
        the rise of trad-wife content
      - Use of irony in postfeminist media culture is a way of having it both ways, expressing sexist statements excused by their ironic framing as both "harmless and humorous" (e.g. girl maths, "i'm just a girl")
        
        an underlying avoidance of accepting womanhood because, frankly, womanhood is hard, complex, and criticised. This is enhanced when you're not white, cis, straight, thin, or able-bodied.
        
        Womanhood is now a working a 9-5 in a job you don't like, in an age where all that work is unlikely to even afford you a house
        
        desirability of
    - - our self image is promoted opens us up for constant comparison and self criticism becoming extremely uncomfortable with our actual appearance and wanting to become edited or altered digital visions of our selves
    - - Artificial Intelligence
        
        If we are using AI to do out thinking for us, employing AI might atrophy our thinking skills
        
        The invention of the washing machine did not only take over laundry, it reshaped notions of cleanliness and housework and how clothing are manufactured. Because AI is designed to make decisions, there is need to consider it may change our own thought and behaviour.
        
        Algorithms embedded into the technology through which we access so much information could be shaping what information we receive, how we receive it, even how we react to it. And AI might be shaping our behaviour, not as an unintended consequence of its use, but by design. Technology, often aided by AI, is exploiting human psychology to shape how we behave.
        
        AI’s ability to manipulate and process vast amounts of data might push us into giving undue or sole prominence to data-driven approaches to identifying and solving problems. This might lead to uniformity of thinking, even in cases where there are reasons to aspire to variety of thought and approach. It might also eclipse other factors and, in doing so, distort not just our thinking, but our values.
        
        Algorithms are already helping US courts come to some decisions regarding sentencing and parole, drawing on data such as information about recidivism rates, to considerable controversy. There are fears that this can help entrench existing biases against certain groups.
        
        No matter how good at assessing evidence a machine might be, we’re a long way off developing machines with a finely tuned sense of justice, an eye for the underdog, and the moral backbone to defy the apparatus of the legal system.
        
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        Overcoming bias, partiality and irrationality is one way of improving human decision making – especially where issues of value are concerned. This is the strength of AI that has no bias or ego.
  - - - massive increase in amount of diversity in information available
        
        Information overload
        
        Learned helplessness: so much information, much of it conflicting, you can't process it all so you kind of just shut off, generally becoming apathetic, anxious, depressed
        
        eco/climate suicide
        
        Selective exposure: limiting the information you consume to only content that fits your existing worldview (echochambers)
        
        Makes us easier to target with adds as we sort ourselves into organised niches
        
        Digital tracking and psychological targeting can leave you into a echo chamber
        
        echo chamber effect reinforces tribalism and polarisation, making it increasingly difficult to have constructive dialogue and find common ground on complex issues.
        
        illicit influence campaigns are when parties pay people to flood media with content to intentionally information overload people
        
        Chinese government was found to employ people to make posts about positiveness things the government was doing. In fairness, these things were true, but published intentionally and exponentially to dilute negative sentiments being expressed against the government
        
        It's not fake news, just information overload
        
        Propaganda
        
        propaganda is all about the language of "ought", this is what people should be
        
        propaganda papers over differences
        
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        One of the reasons ideology is propagandistic, is that it provides us with us a comforting environment in which things make sense. The reality of weakness, a good and bad, which all smothered within the projection of an image that is whole and beneficial.
        
        modern political communities need to be appealed to and the will of the people needs to be cultivated in such a form that it is amenable to the state. Here there is a tacit understanding the legitimacy of the politician/party if founded on the consent of the opinion of "the people". Propaganda manufactures a stable type of public opinion.
        
        The type of communication that does not invite disagreement rather obedience because the state cannot afford it (lose the war, people rebel against COVID restrictions)
        
        The sickening irony that the exact mass communications which promised to bring peace and connectivity between humans within and in between nations, have instead bought about the greatest in-communication
      - Social media is less regulated than the printing press in part because it doesn't cost no money and significantly less time
        
        you can burn books, but you can't burn down the digital cloud
    - - Defunding of education
        
        Schools rely on corporate funding. Humanities get axed as they don't serve corporate power
        
        Without that language, if you don’t know how to ask the question, you can't begin to search for the answer
  - - - common enemy trope of manufactured consent
        
        a boogyman to fear helps corral public opinion
- - - - Eugenics (racial genetic science) influenced policies leading to forced sterilisations and discriminatory immigration practices in the West.
    - - pertains to the manner in which the cultural norms, laws, ideologies, policies, and practices within a specific society, organisation, or institution lead to unfair treatment, unequal opportunities, and disparate outcomes.
        
        may persist even in the absence of explicit laws, policies, or practices supporting it. The enduring impact of historical norms, laws, policies, and practices often sustains and perpetuates inequalities long after their cessation. This underscores the necessity for actively anti-racist laws, policies, and practices to rectify persisting injustices
    - - The body of the muslim woman, a body fixed in the Western imaginary as confined, mutilated, and sometimes murdered in the name of culture, serves to reinforce the threat that the muslim man is said to pose to the West, and is used to justify the extraordinary measures of violence and surveillance required to discipline him and Muslim communities
        
        How a government makes sense of political violence directed against is usually tells us at least as much about the nature of that government as it does about the nature of its violent opponents
  - - - Colonisation - addition of cultural control
        
        Neo-colonialism - a state whose economic and political power is influenced by external forces
        
        control of natural resources
        
        Culinary colonisation
        
        Thai government provided large subsidies for Thai immigrants around the world to start restaurants and adapted their food to be palatable to broader audience to fit in and for economic gain
        
        Orientalism (Edward Said) - colonisation as a worldview that believes the West is superior to the East
        
        influencing education, media (representations)
- - - - "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" (Who will guard the guards themselves)
  - - - Sweet treat economy
        
        lipstick effect: Lipsticks sales rose during times of economic hardship/recession - people gravitate towards small affordable luxuries in tough times as comfort
      - The beauty paradox: attractiveness the goal to be strived for but to be strived for silently and in embarrassment
      - Neoliberalism
        
        emphasises the importance of free markets, limited government intervention, deregulation, privatisation, and individual responsibility.
        
        Market-Justice: healthcare emphasising individual responsibility
        
        death due to inability to meet medical costs is necrocapitalism
        
        financial instability, environmental degradation, and social dislocation, highlighting the need for a more balanced and inclusive approach to economic policymaking
        
        encourages hyper-individuality, eroding community care in favour of capitalism
        
        Individuality
    - - This is anti democratic - no one voted to be constantly surveyed
- - - - Books are dangerous as they encourage independent thought
      - distraction by media/information, filling our minds with content that does not enrich us, challenge us or teach us, but simply appeals to our sense and our short term emotions
        
        information overload prevents disagreements by robbing people of the ability to develop one's own opinion
        
        through contrary perspectives we become informed enough to form our own opinion
        
        Conformity
        
        The banality of evil, that people would let evil things occur as long as the people around them endorsed it - Hannah Arendt
        
        CS lewis argued evil would be allowed to prevail when people began to believe morals and values separate to the real world
        
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        beleaguered (surrounded; forced to surrender) populace so overwhelmed with information we grow tired of it, relaxing into a warm bath of empty entertainment instead
        
        Contemplation
        
        reflection and thought gives us the freedom to make informed decisions that make sense to us
        
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        Identity
        
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        social media feeds you more of what you like and what others liked so you cannot discover things outside of what is popular making it hard to find individuality
        
        beauty is a signifier of class, the moment an aspect of beauty becomes attainable, the beauty standard shifts
        
        everything becomes profane (secular/meaningless)
        
        In Fahrenheit 451 - books were cut shorter, then even television shows were shortened - oddly familiar to our present day - from books that took days to read, followed by youtube videos often 30 minutes long, and finally arriving at tiktoks no longer than 7 seconds.
    - - fetishistic exaltation of unity and similarity
      - René Girard argued conflict occurs when two people care about the same thing to different ends
      - Violence still takes place, but only between civilians, alluding to concerns not of civilian safety but civil unrest
      - Beatty does not trust others to think for themselves, Granger (exile) doesn't trust himself to think for others
- - - - Acknowledges the increasing interconnectedness of global cultures and diversity of human experience
      - highlights the skepticism of authority after so many genocides, eradication of indigenous communities based on social darwinism
        
        Post-Truth politics
        
        . Only by restoring a commitment to truth and evidence-based reasoning, can we safeguard the integrity of democratic governance and foster a more informed and engaged citizenry
      - Critiques
        
        The moral argument: If god does not exist, than objective moral values do not exist. God's nature (patience, mercy, etc) provide an objective reference point
      - reality, knowledge, and truth are socially constructed rather than objective and universal.
      - Media is produced in such staggering quantities that it has crossed the boundaries into reality itself and hyperreality prevails
        
        cultures are now based on other cultural products, no longer based on an original. e.g. think princess - do you think an actual princess or a Disney princess? A Disney princess is a cultural product not the original
        
        the hyperreality is the fact that in modern period, consumption was part of media, now consumption/ads are part of our lives - at the bus stop, before and between our shows, times squares, etc.
        
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