Comment by tevon 19 hours ago
Because if Zuck or Musk does something bad with said power, we can do something about it.
We can't really jail the CCP. Additionally, Zuck and Musk don't have armies to back up their propaganda. We shouldn't let foreign powers own the means of broadcast...
Who is we, though? I can't do anything about it. Can you?
Isn't this true for literally all problems in a democracy? Do you have a better solution?
Hopefully we'll get AGI soon and it'll take over and rule as a benevolent overlord. Short of that, everything in your comment feels like it has always applied to every societal problem, and always will.
> Isn't this true for literally all problems in a democracy? Do you have a better solution?
Create a level playing field where money does not amplify speech. Our existing democracy is basically a spending contest with a very small component of eloquently persuading voters to vote against their own interest. The richest of the rich have voices and can manipulate the platforms on which others express their voices, and so those rich people either pick the victors or become them.
For democracy to survive we have to get past the idea that a "free market" approach to speech leads to democratic outcomes. It doesn't, it leads to plutocratic outcomes, which is painfully obvious on both sides of the aisle right now. Americans haven't had a true representative of the people in generations.
US is not a democracy in a strict sense, it is more like plutocracy (people with money have the power).
- the electoral college where winner takes all, so minority opposition vote is always suppressed
- gerrymandering that dilutes and suppresses the minority opposition vote
- oligopoly of two parties
- unchecked financial influence by allowing unlimited funding via PACs
- legalized lobbying/bribery
- influence of special interest groups
- the influence of legal system with expensive lawyers (that only rich can afford)
> Because if Zuck or Musk does something bad with said power, we can do something about it.
We can? Like what? What's the chance of that happening?
> Zuck and Musk don't have armies to back up their propaganda.
I'd like to note the seating arrangements published for the upcoming presidentia inauguration ceremony.
The TikTok CEO will also be sitting in the same row as Zuck, Musk, and Bezos.
I'd like to note that TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, a former Goldman Sachs banker and venture capital investor, joined TikTok in March 2021. He is from Singaporean and is married to Vivian Kao, an American of Taiwanese descent.
Unlike Zuck, Musk, and Bezos, Chew did not found the company with which he is most associated, and his net worth is somewhat less than a billion dollars.
Who is we, though? I can't do anything about it. Can you?
The people who can do something about it are the people who are already in power in the US. They understandably don't want to share with the CCP, but most of them came to power by manipulating enough voters into voting for them. They stay in power by ensuring that enough voters continue to want to vote for them. Which means that someone like Zuckerberg or Musk has an insanely inordinate amount of influence over whether these people who are in power stay in power.
Yes, I think it's marginally better that that influence remain out of the hands of the CCP, but I would rather that that influence not exist at all. It's too dangerous and too prone to corruption.