Twitter, facebook and politics

mariaalice

Maybe the wrong forum for this.

Seeing as its the day after the budget and all that.

Has twitter and facebook made politics worse and even more cartoonish.

Instant accessed to politicians had reduced the debate to... na na your not going to get elected the next time....your too fat/thin/small/have a fat head and so on.. or messages about wildly irrelevant issues.

Very little engagement with the actual policies.

Maybe its a new form of activism, personal insults instead of debating the policies will get water metering reversed!.

Davarus Walrus

Thread needs more Biggins.

Anyway, very little serious debate or discourse surrounding politics takes place online. It's usually the same small bunch of far left socialists poisoning the well across all sites. You then have the comments section on a site like the journal. Which makes you question the validity of democracy.

BoJack Horseman

TheJournal is just An Phoblacht by a different name.
All Shinner, all the time.

Social media has made engagement much easier, however its more tribal, angry & far less likely to consider other viewpoints.

Boards.ie is as good as online discourse gets I think.

Creative Juices

Do you think people are paid to go onto social media sites and forums to push the party line?

Davarus Walrus

Creative Juices wrote: »

Do you think people are paid to go onto social media sites and forums to push the party line?

Nah. If you even suggest that you're a FG voter you get the usual goons suggesting you get paid for posting. Usually the same type of tinfoil hat wearing crew who spend every waking hour posting across here, Twitter, Facebook, independent.ie.

mariaalice

Creative Juices wrote: »

Do you think people are paid to go onto social media sites and forums to push the party line?

No, however 'activism' has become the thing at the moment and for the past few years and, and it attracts a certain type with a certain mentality it give them a purpose in life, they are not interested in debating the issues.

It can get our of hand SF had to apologise about a facebook story one of their supporters put out.

BoJack Horseman

Nobody would be paid.

However some parties are represented rather zealously online, far out of proportion with their voter base.

Point out the silliness of DDI on TheJournal & you will be crushed by more respondents than there are actual DDI voters.

Matt_Trakker

Politics smolotics
If your FB/Twitter are full of politics just unfollow the boring twats.
Cannot abide by people who think politics is important.

BoJack Horseman

Matt_Trakker wrote: »

Politics smolotics
If your FB/Twitter are full of politics just unfollow the boring twats.
Cannot abide by people who think politics is important.

More pet and/or baby pics!

shruikan2553

Creative Juices wrote: »

Do you think people are paid to go onto social media sites and forums to push the party line?

I doubt they are paid for it but it does seem like some people would defend FGs new policy on sacrificing every first born to the blood god or think that SF will turn water into gold.

wretcheddomain

The herd mentality of sites like The Journal is shocking. The moment a mild divergent opinion is posted, the herd collectively ridicule and condemn the person and not the opinion. What's more, there seems to be no moderators on threads - it's as if The Journal positively enjoys the abuse hurling.

mariaalice

shruikan2553 wrote: »

I doubt they are paid for it but it does seem like some people would defend FGs new policy on sacrificing every first born to the blood god or think that SF will turn water into gold.

I often wonder If there is some mental health issue involved for some of the posters, because it is so zealot like, very simile to religious mania.

ThisRegard

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

Nah. If you even suggest that you're a FG voter you get the usual goons suggesting you get paid for posting. Usually the same type of tinfoil hat wearing crew who spend every waking hour posting across here, Twitter, Facebook, independent.ie.

That also happens on boards.ie too. But generally boards does political threads better than the above bar the odd "you work for the department/Irish Water/FG/FF/Lab/SF etc etc" if someone posts an opposing view point.

4zn76tysfajdxp

It's great visiting the Facebook pages of the most rabid anti-government commentators and spotting that they're almost always graduates from "the School of Hard Knocks" and "the University of Life." Nothing like dismissing anyone who sneers at educated people.

mariaalice

Maybe its the instant nature of everything now, The journal.ie is the most bizarre of all they seem to get there content by recycling the content of other media.. for example they have an article at the moment that is a verbatim recycling of on interview from the Sean o Rourke radio show this morning.

DamagedTrax

Grayson Tangy Toxin wrote: »

It's great visiting the Facebook pages of the most rabid anti-government commentators and spotting that they're almost always graduates from "the School of Hard Knocks" and "the University of Life." Nothing like dismissing anyone who sneers at educated people.

im a rabid anti-government commentator (not party affiliated whatsoever) and im qualified to teaching level (hdip). privately paid for thru years of hard work, with no help from the government.

why exactly does that give me anymore right to a voice than anyone else? opinions can be wrong but everyone is entitled to their say.

AnonoBoy

People want to be outraged or filled with joy through social media. Nothing in between.

"Look what the evil government in conjunction with the evil corporations are doing to us!"

versus

"What this man said to this other man who had just bent down to tie his shoe despite being a crippled war veteran and a caring animal veterinarian will melt your heart, blow your mind and void your bowels."


People don't want to think that there's grey areas and multifaceted issues to be debated. Things are good or bad. We can fix things with one easy step. Everything will be fine if you just do this, stop this person or go to this protest.

Shout down anyone who says, "well there's other factors at play" or "if we do overthrow the government, what realistic alternative are you offering?"

Rabble, rabble, rabble.

I'm bored.

mariaalice

Could it have some thing to do with the decline of religion and the catholic faith in Irish society, plus nationalism going main stream.

For example if you are a zealot or of a fanatical disposition there is not a lot of outlets in Irish society any more except politics!.

In the past religion was handy, Matt Talbot would be a good example of that or there was fanatical nationalism and offering to sacrifice yourself for the cause of Irish freedom.

DamagedTrax

its PR politics. keep the masses angry, keep them guessing, make them greedy by replacing need with want. an angry public is easier to control than an informed public.

Bernays would be very proud of our current government.