But it’s easy when trying to come up with that sort of thing to imagine overly restrictive ethics that would mean nobody has fun on the Internet anymore, they just read white papers or whatever. Which, idk, might be nice but would require a fundamental change to human nature to work

Maybe what’s actually needed is development of more universalizable ethics around how online content spreads. Less engagement with ragebait influencers, more content from recognized experts with limited domains (think Derek Lowe)

And to be honest I’ve always been a little skeptical of that sort of overly-neat historical analogy. But I do think some kind of societal reorientation around this new mode of information-processing still needs to take place

Preferably, though: bite the bullet and just stop maintaining a duplicity between what you’re thinking and what you’re saying publicly. If it’s not possible to do that and still have electoral success maybe this democracy thing is doomed anyway

If there is a way, though, it probably involves strong, unqualified statements about how immoral and illegal this all is, with a focus on “here’s how we’re going to make it stop” but still reiterating “stopping isn’t enough, we have to hold people accountable”

The I word comes later though

I don’t know that there’s a way to “keep your powder dry” until after the election while still signaling to the public “no, really, I’m actually interested in holding this administration accountable.” They’re opposing goals, either you let the public know what you’re thinking or you don’t

The trouble is, Dems are at an all-time low for public trust, even from their own voters, and that same election is when Dem voters need to distinguish between goo-spined temperature-takers and actual committed opposition members.

I always thought in more stable times you’d have a podcast about X-Files, or maybe Star Trek TNG

That means all the fascists need to do is enact their evil intentions with brazen disregard for the law. They get to do what they want, and they get a fragmented opposition for free as a bonus