[Herring]

I wouldn't be so sure that it's a bad idea. Look how social media has damaged democracy around the world. US democracy is stuck in a bit of a death spiral - https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/how-stop-m.... I hate repression, but they've been at it for thousands of years and I'm no longer super confident we have something better (see citizens united, roe v wade, affirmative action). China's life expectancy just beat the US.

[nirimda]

The US doesn't have a minority rule death spiral because of social media, it has a minority rule cycle because the constitution literally entrenches minority rule via mechanisms like senatorial malapportionment, supermajorities, the electoral college and judicial review of policy (see citizens united, roe v wade, affirmative action) rather than merely procedure. It has experienced this before, sometimes devolving into outright civil war, without actually reaching death.

The technologies for resolving America's problems are well understood - majority decision making, parliamentarism, representation and participation of electoral minorities rather than inhibiting the work of the majority, a narrower scope of judicial review and/or a more flexible constitution. But as long as people say, as you do, "it isn't the thing that caused the problem that is the problem, it is some fancy gadget that is the problem", then you will be unable to solve the problems

[pessimizer]

> It has experienced this before, sometimes devolving into outright civil war, without actually reaching death.

That's not really enough to establish a pattern, though. People in China have furniture older than the United States.

> But as long as people say, as you do, "it isn't the thing that caused the problem that is the problem, it is some fancy gadget that is the problem", then you will be unable to solve the problems

This is victim blaming. US citizens get no say in governance:

"Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens"

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli...

[ed25519FUUU]

Free speech causing problems for the USA yet again?

[Herring]

I'd say the issue is "factionalism" as the US founding fathers identified it. Some group (elites, landlords, corporations, white people, etc) is looking out only for themselves at the expense of society in general. East Asian countries love enforcing their conformity and harmony.