[johnea]

Truly.

"Make the libtards cry"

Was enough of a hate monger campaign promise, to put the most blatantly corrupt president in US history, in office.

The descent of the US population into abject idiocy has been striking.

[archonis]

Smartphones in dumb pockets made it all possible.

[johnea]

I think it almost doesn't matter what pockets 8-/

The routinely noted decline in US "educational achievement" correlates most closely, with the propagation in the school aged population, of "smartphones" and the algorithmic websites at which they're aimed.

I've been saying lately: Apple caused the collapse of US educational outcomes.

[archonis]

Apple certainly played a major part.

The long distance culture war was enabled by long distance visibility.

The whole 'own the libs' thing wouldn't have existed in an era where everybody wasn't paticipating in a medium that made non-local people extremely visible to one another.

[superxpro12]

Smartphones did nothing. The "people" who manipulated the reality within them did.

It's no surprise that conservative billionaires went on a massive left-leaning media buying spree... Washington Post, Twitter, CNN, etc etc etc.

[soraminazuki]

No, we the tech industry are key enablers. For the past two decades, we were obsessed with refining the methods of mass-surveillance and manipulation. We've brought about tremendous harm to society and it's time to start taking accountability.

[archonis]

>> Smartphones in dumb pockets made it all possible.

>>> Smartphones did nothing. The "people" who manipulated the reality within them did.

So those manipulations and their machinations weren't enabled by the existance of smarphones?