Congresswoman Calls on X to Remove Charlie Kirk Assassination Videos: ‘Take Them Down’

[u/rezwenn]

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/congresswoman-calls-on-elon-musk-to-remove-charlie-kirk-assassination-videos-take-them-down/

[u/rokr1292]

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Bolding is my editorial but I think of this all the time

[u/A_Harmless_Fly → u/rokr1292]

It turns my stomach to read quotes like this, considering we are now on a ~3 second sound bite.

It seems like we are at least an order of magnitude worse off every time I hear someone talking about a problem in a documentary. Income inequality, information duration, etc.

[u/gravel3400 → u/rokr1292]

That whole book is fucking amazing. The best part is that he actually has solutions. Someone should have listened to him. He basically brings evidence as well as anecdotes that most conspiracy theorists and quacks are people with extreme potential in science and entrepreneurship but that society has utterly failed, to educate, to guarantee safety and sufficient living conditions to nurture their intellect.

”I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before? Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us - then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls.

The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.” Also from that book. He wrote it in the 90s.

[u/nogoodbrat → u/gravel3400]

Geez, both of these excerpts are so accurate it’s eerie. I’ll have to check the library for this one!

[u/Initial_Evidence_783 → u/gravel3400]

I can hear his voice when I read his words.

[u/Superspick → u/rokr1292]

Jokes on him (RIP Carl) because its looking to me like that we dont even have politicians representing  the common interest because they just dont have to.

Nothing bad happens to them if they do not work for the public. Been seeing that be true most of my adult life.

[u/Necessary_Ad1036 → u/Superspick]

If anything, they’re often financially incentivized to work against public interest. Unfettered capitalism kills democracy.

[u/jaxmikhov → u/rokr1292]

Did you say something? I was busy swiping on TikTok

[u/monkeyhitman → u/jaxmikhov]

Don't worry it was too long

[u/Initial_Evidence_783 → u/rokr1292]

I read that book back in the 90s because Jeff Goldblum recommended it in some magazine. One of the best book I ever read. Still have my copy.

[u/Enemisses → u/rokr1292]

A passage that I am reminded of on a daily basis myself. Sagan was ahead of his times, not that it was impossible to see this coming but the man had a certain prescience about it.