[krapp]

Yes.

Our democracy did actually function better before AI, social media and smartphones than it does now.

Everything was not always as bad as it is now. I know that's heresy and thoughtcrime to suggest, but it is true. Things weren't always perfect in the past, but in many ways they were better.

[Henchman21]

Indeed they were; I lived through it too. So, logically, the solution seems to be: get rid of AI, social media, and smartphones?

[krapp]

These aren't the problem, the systems of power and capitalism using them to exploit people are the problem.

AI is useful in niche circumstances but we could absolutely stand to get rid of 99% of its "use cases."

Social media enables people to network and communicate in ways that would drastically harm freedom of expression if it were removed, and it's so ill defined that banning or regulating it could creep into banning or regulating most communication on the web. Same with smartphones - having a communication and computing device on hand is useful, the problems aren't with the existence of the devices themselves.

The problem with an AI MAGA influencer isn't that social media exists, or that cellphones exist, or even that AI exists, it's whatever deeper cultural and social problems allow MAGA to be a thing in the first place, and AI to be influential. Just banning all the modern things is an easy solution but not necessarily the correct one. I think that we can still have a modern computing and communications infrastructure including social media and smart phones and a working democracy as well.