> The current political climate has mainly happened because capital interest has taken control of unregulated news and opinion

This has always been the case for as long as society has been consuming the news. “Business tycoons” have bought up newspapers and media outlets since forever to push their narrative.

I think one component that has changed is the sheer volume and diversity of media makes competition for your attention (clicks) all the more fierce. Enter The Algorithm and optimizing for metrics above all else.

I dunno. That doesn’t invalidate anything about the original question about what present day would be like without Facebook. Would something else similar have replaced it? Is Facebook really “the problem” or is it algorithmic content because algorithmicly driven content was going to happen facebook or not.

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Eisenstein 4 days ago | parent [-]

It wasn't that bad when we had the Fairness Doctrine, which was removed in 1987. From there you could see a steady slide in US politics as polarization increased, from the Clinton scandal, to Gingrich and then Bush 2000. By the time Facebook hit it was already too late.

	▲	rynohack 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		The Fairness Doctrine had a very limited influence on the media in general. It's power has been vastly over stated as of the last 15 years. It was only applicable to broadcast media, and rarely enforced. Nearly all of the enforcement was on behalf of private individuals wanting free airtime to respond to negative new stories about them. In my opinion it's a very bad idea to want political appointees to decide when an issue hasn't been given fair news coverage. The very idea that there is only 2 sides to an issue reinforces the two party system that has made media so biased in the first place