yep agree. I'll just say I'm glad you wrote those words as I perhaps would have been pilloried for it.
I'd add, the alt-right have embraced the internet as much as the left. The internet and particularly twitter has become a battle ground that is quite removed from reality and knows no boundaries. I see people on Twitter in particular arguing across national boundaries and I sometimes wonder...
'if you applied the same energy to your immediate surroundings...'
I've been a union rep for a long time. For personal reasons I tried to give it up (I wasn't very well a few years ago) and I literally couldn't get anyone to put their hand up. I see the people I represent raging on twitter or Facebook about this and that and the other and part of me thinks - it's a cop out, it's just a venting mechanism, you had a chance to DO something and you didn't take it.
That said, I do it too, and the way political parties cynically manipulate social media is really quite disturbing. If you carry on the drug metaphor, it becomes even more so.
One of the reasons I like this site is it is broadly representative (compared to a twitter bubble) and it's also not algorithm driven. You basically see what has been said by an actual person (you can insert the Cat comment here ;-)) and whilst there's a few trolls of all shades, there isn't anything like the same degree of sinister stuff at play as on other platforms.
Arguing amongst ourselves is pointless, but you get ongoing debates and it is a sort of community. When people argue with the whole world on twitter, I think it's really damaging to their mental health.
Right, have a good un. I'm off to do some virtuous things for orphans and trees and self publicise them, wearing a rainbow jumper, powered by organic mung beans and fair trade chai.
I'm not, I'm just going to have brew and have no impact on the world at all.
Man makes point about internet addiction on the internet shocker.
UTMP!