Has social media already lost us the upcoming war?

Question

Recently we've seen how social media has negatively effected government attempts to handle covid. We've seen the "covids not real" posts, the antimask/lockdown brigade, all the nonsense about vaccinations containing microchips or being dangerous.
These people have caused covid to drag on and are directly responsible for countless lost lives

Now on the brink of war we're seeing a similar mindset. The wars fake, it's just a distraction, the medias making it up.

I predict people will ignore warnings to take shelter or think their conscription papers are fake. Others will believe a whole lot of nonsense about protecting against nuclear explosions using magic crystals.

Opinions?

WhiteSteve · Accepted Answer

So…I don’t know how to say it politely, so I’ll let George Carlin do it…

Has social media already lost us the upcoming war?

Social media provides a voice for any stupid person who wants one. And what’s alarming is that stupid people usually don’t realize they’re stupid, to the contrary, many of them think that they’re smart. And I don’t have any numbers or studies, just an observational free-swing at it…but I’d wager that the more time you spend on social media, the dumber you might be. And now, every idiot in every developed area of the world can just “say stuff.” Whether that stuff is original-but-erroneous thought, or whether it’s just someone carrying the thought down the line and contributing to it’s spread, any crazy theory can get legs now, that’s really the problem. Enough people hear it to where enough people say it to where enough people believe it, especially if it validates or complements a preconceived notion or gives means to the end that that individual desires. And now they can say “See? I’m not alone! I’m not crazy!”

So like 90-some% of all the doctors and scientists in the world seem to agree that Covid-19 is an issue to be handled with extreme measures. If you don’t want to go to extreme measures and don’t want your lifestyle and routine disrupted, then the second someone else comes along, even one person, or some very small minority, and they say “False! Everything’s fine! Carry on!”, many people, particularly dumb people, but also people just intensely obsessed with personal freedom even when asked to do something for the greater good, will latch onto conspiracy theories, because the true answer of “I’m too stupid and/or selfish to make these sacrifices you’re asking me to make”, that doesn’t play well, obviously they know they’d look like an asshole. So if a rogue doctor comes along, they love that, because now they feel like they have some other reason to point to. Now they have to focus on discrediting that other vast majority of doctors and scientists, because the obvious knock on their take is that it’s only, at best, 1-out-of-10 experts supporting the idea. Or they’ll get some rando who just has a professional camera and studio setup for their YouTube channel that looks legit who gives them a conspiracy theory that simultaneously justifies the position they want to have while also intriguing and entertaining them. I mean, on some level, it’s probably fun to be a conspiracy theorist, taking part in being one of the few people “in the know” about some secret sinister plot…it’s like being in a movie😂😂😂

Also…I’d say the worst thing to come from the Trump presidency was this idea of “fake news.” Sounds catchy, it’s fun to say (this is something that REALLY appeals to “the lowest common denominator”, funny or snarky or just plain catchy slogans and sayings)…. but, man, does it get abused. I’m all for considering sources and agendas, that’s part of being an intelligent thinker, and I’d concede much of the media leans left. But the right has their media too, and they say some WILD shit on there, lmao, so the overall societal effect is a wash, but a very polarizing wash. But the problem with “fake news” is that it gets used as this defense towards any negative news for one party, like if it makes you look bad, it’s automatically fake news from your opponents designed to discredit you. I’m not saying the idea is out of the question, but you can’t just say “fake news” every time you don’t like what you’re hearing, that’s an elementary school argument tactic lmfao.

Running long here, but yeah…. social media is a soapbox and megaphone for a lot of people who, pre-Internet, would have been a small group of looney toons in a basement, but now they have a huge virtual basement for all the loons in the world to pump each other’s tires and tell them they aren’t crazy and this stuff IS happening🤦‍♂️

ragooo8 · Accepted Answer

People are distrustful of the government and what they tell us. In the last 20 years we've had lies regarding 9/11, the Iraq war, the global economic crisis, flynt water, benghazi, hillary clinton email scandal, ATF arming Cartels, obamas drone assassination campaign in the middle east& Africa, false media reporting, corporate lobbying, corporate sponsorship of politicians, the clinton foundation, abuses of power by federal agencies, us involvement in Syria, us government's military interventionalism and regime change policies, Obama funding and arming of ISIS, secret courts, mass surveillance, media witch hunts, obesity promoted, Obamacare, hurricane katrina. This is only in the last 20 years, I'm not including the Vietnam war or the US government experimenting on US citizens with radioactive material, biological weapons, radioactive dust, nuclear bombs, viruses, chemical weapons and so on.

Look at the whole covid thing, the US government with US government scientists paid companies like Johnson&Johnson and Pfizer to research covid vaccines yet the charge governments extortionate amounts for the vaccines and own patents so no other company can produce it. So the US Taxpayer has paid them twice. Covid was nowhere near serious as they said it would be, I'm vaccinated myself but only those with preexisting conditions died from it, it should be a wake up call to Americans about the state of their health but that's been ignored.
We don't want to get involved in Ukraine, Nato has been building up on the boarders of Russia since the end of the cold war and is the most powerful military in the world. The US government has interfered with the Ukraine elections and political system in the economic intrest of large us corporations. We've instigated events in Ukraine and Biden is stirring things up. I think people are justified to distrust the federal government. Will leave you with this...

FreyaRed · Accepted Answer

Believing or not believing in possible war doesn't make your army stronger or weaker over such short time span. Military training and equipment contracts need years to finalize unless the war starts and entire industry is forced to produce weapons and ammunition. Even this transformation takes months. It's in current war scenarios just too long. The only purpose of propaganda in mainstream and social media is to motivate guys who have to serve in case of war. Honestly thousands of untrained conscription soldiers are practically useless in all modern "Blitzkrieg" war scenarios. This makes this pro war propaganda pointless as well.

Jessica405 · Accepted Answer

People want to be important and prominent. They are not intelligent enough or skilled enough to earn merit, so they have to resort to controversial opinions to make themselves heard. They know, in many cases, that they are wrong, but they still fight against reality.

ohshee · Answer

I think Putin is going to be serious I don't think he's going to back down and that's because all of ego I think I'm sure that he's going to fire off some missiles he's going to have to kill somebody before he can back down I had seen something to wear the first shots were taken and it went into a preschool that's just fucking wrong but yeah basically the media is putting words into each other's mouths and piss each other off even more YouTube has all kinds of media blitz on it the sad part about it is I cannot trust any of our three big Networks news anymore so I don't know what's going on but this could be the start of World War 3 that's for sure I would already have my missiles already pointed at Russia I would already have ships moved in place and I would just fucking soak that place with Baum's I would find Putin and I would fucking kill him that's what needs to be done because Putin is never going to stop there's too many countries over there that are right in the middle of this and they're not even in this fight a lot of innocent people are going to get killed and that's just totally wrong

TCredo · Answer

Excellent thought-provoking question. I think every major event or situation will forever be influenced if not marred by social media.

Of course, if social media is used properly and responsibly, it's a great platform for informing, warning, advising, etc.

While I completely believe in free speech, the propagation of misinformation and dangerous conspiracies is similar to falsely yelling "fire!" in a movie theater which even in the US is something not covered by the free speech amendment.

Social media can even be weaponized - just look at how it gets used for elections. Same tactics could be used for war-based outcome influence. This is already happening as it's the ultimate tool for spreading propaganda.

Good timing with your question as recently I was wondering what if social media and all the 7x24 media existed back during World War I or World War II. It's pretty wild to think about.

Anonymous · Answer

No, not at all. There are some nutcases online with ridiculous theories, but at the same time what social media and the internet has also done is enable people to put out and find information which they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to find.

It has basically become harder for those in power to lie. If you laugh at the idea that the media or that the government might lie to you, you’re a complete moron.

I can’t understand bootlickers at all. Our leaders have repeatedly been shown to be completely dishonest. Why would you trust them? The government caused the lack of trust in the government.

Plus the fact that the West is just slowly destroying itself anyway.

exitseven · Answer

Social media sometimes does the opposite of what it was supposed to do. Instead of being a vehicle to unite people it instead causes division.
A society must have self control and must be able to police itself. Social media is controlled by liberals and thus cannot be trusted.

Staximus · Answer

The media is trying to brainwash the people into accepting a war. We don't need another war. You're a fucking donkey if you think fighting a war with the Russians is a good idea. We don't need to start a war with the Russians just to support the military industrial complex.

Luopio27 · Answer

Social medias and smart phones have made people walking cyborgs. Covid has gotten people closer to their devices than in the real presence.

Governments are not always right snd free thinkers aren't always wrong. With or without social media.

PlacentaSalad · Answer

I think social media has already lost humanity in general. Anybody with any power, authority, or influence can observe how reliant people are upon social media and how easy it is to effectively sway opinions by the masses, to benefit whatever goal they have. With how commonplace the internet is in our everyday lives, the most gullible and naïve are easily located and the first to be persuaded into spreading misinformation. It just snowballs from there.

jshm2 · Answer

Nah. People have just fallen into the trap of opinions. Give everyone an equal platform for their opinions, and you let the clowns sit alongside the judges. No civilisation lasts long after that.

VikingWarLord · Answer

The Elites are OBSESSED with Population Control. The fact that you Pro-Vaxxer ! diots can't connect the dots here is mind boggling. The very ones who say the World is way overpopulated are the SAME ONES who want to CURE YOU? Are you outta your gawdam mind?

bean2k21 · Answer

Nah, Biden has real good intelligence capabilities. He knew Putin was going to start the war even before Putin did, just by looking at his shopping habits on Amazon.

normalice · Answer

Its worth noting that a lot fewer people use social media than those who use social media seems to think.

Bel88 · Answer

Here's an idea; if a war really does break out between Russia and Ukraine, why don't we just stay out of it? Wouldn't that be the sensible thing to do?

Tstrbrainer · Answer

It is alright, a full fledged war is unlikely due to economic repercussions.  I doubt the balls of current generation

IMuser · Answer

"Wars are not fought on social media" -Tsun Zu

Recurrence · Answer

If the government actually cared about covid it would be doing more, but Economos hungers, so we gotta throw more bodies into the meat grinder

Waldoe · Answer

everyone has an opinion, it's legal... get the shot or don't... I had mine, so if you don't. And you get Covid, that's not my problem, it's your decision. AND it should be your decision

Godsvengeance · Answer

What about the media in the last, say, 50 years shows that it has an credibility and should be listened to?

Anonymous · Answer

My thoughts are that you’re a brainwashed Lefty who thinks the sky is falling.

jimmy2 · Answer

News here just said this conflict could lead to a war in Europe

Browneye57 · Answer

It's scary how poorly connected to reality one can be. SMH

OddBeMe · Answer

Well…40% of the country at least. It’ll come down to the other responsible 40% and 20% of the low info voters to keep us alive.

Citizenkirk · Answer

There is no winning in our participating in a war.

Has social media already lost us the upcoming war?

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