Quote:
Originally Posted by Toy Soldier
The issue is that on a scale like the internet, actual numbers in comparison to ratio become blurred and confused. So if let's say 5% of people hold some obscure view, but they've banded into a group of hundreds of thousands online, and that group is very vocal, it can be hard to assess the scale of the opinion. It can start to seem like "everyone thinks..." or "many people think..." when in fact, it's a small percentage screeching at the top of their lungs whilst most other people whisper. Combine that with the fact that the internet has also made politicians and their actions much more visible, and thus more inclined to pander to their voters in small, but visible ways... and you get some really dumb **** happening that completely flies in the face of actual research and logic.
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Well, yeah, but I don't think the echo chamber of something like twitter makes much difference to the insanity going on inside politics.
As you say, it simply makes those idiotic decisions more transparent. That's only a good thing IMO and far preferable than the OP's notion of everyone just to "shut up". A lot of people hold stupid opinions/thoughts, with or without a website to scream about them on.