[CamperBob2]

It’s, in fact, very scary and it’s astounding it works at all.

It no longer does. Social media was the tipping point.

Religion wasn't enough to break democracy, newspapers weren't enough, radio wasn't enough, TV was almost enough... but now, with social media as the proverbial last straw, the bug is fully exploited, completely unfixable, and likely fatal.

[idibiks]

Oh, I agree. I think it more likely than not that we have invented a combo of technologies that produce an environment in which liberal democracy cannot exist outside maybe smallish countries with tight controls on incoming media from outside (so, also fairly tight foreign capital ownership rules).

The medium is the message, and I think the “message” of the global Web + social media + (now) generative AI may not include liberal democracy.