On Sat, 05 Jun 2021 08:33:00 +0700, John B.
wrote:

The, perhaps horrifying, question then becomes are you, or is Tom the
"typical American"? Or to phrase it another way, "has the U.S. become
a nation where unsupported "tweets" have become the truth"?

Well, yes. Twitter, SMS, and texting have become the preferred method
of communicating dissent. It's nothing new. During the Revolutionary
War, the means of discussing politics was in long and tedious papers
such as the Federalist Papers. If one wanted to express disagreement,
it was as an editorial or pamphlet. Move forward to the 19th century,
where improved transportation allowed the political discussions to
morph into long winded political speeches. Disagreement was expressed
as heckling in sentence fragments from the audience. Discussion then
switched to newspapers and printed articles, where dissenting opinions
were cartoons nailed to the nearest telegraph pole. By the 20th
century, political discussions blundered forward into long winded
radio and TV speeches. However, due to limited access to the media by
the GUM (great unwashed masses), it was difficult to express dissent.
This was rectified by the internet and Twitter, which allowed the GUM
to regain their ability to heckle. The length and media might change,
but the basic methods of political engagement have changed very
little.

Whether editorials, pamphlets, heckling, letters to the editor, or
Twitter are considered to be "truth" is dependent on the listener. All
of these have been used to incite riots and should therefore be
considered effective and possibly dangerous. For those who believe,
no proof is necessary. For those who do not believe, more propaganda
will usually bring them around towards becoming believers.

Twitter seems to have become the voice of clueless dissent, inspired
by an equally clueless president who uses Twitter as his most
effective means of communications. It takes at least two people to
communicate, which is best done when the two are on the same
intellectual level. If one wanted to communicate with the
intellectuals of the country, one might go back to radio, TV,
speeches, editorials, and essay papers. If one wanted to communicate
with the least educated and minimally informed, Twitter works very
well.

The USA has NOT become a nation of unsupported tweets. We have always
been a nation more inclined to listen to those who expound in short,
badly conceived, and marginally literate brain farts. All Twitter has
done is to make them move visible to a larger audience. The only
saving grace is that tweets are just as easily ignored as they are
created.


--
Jeff Liebermann
PO Box 272 http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558