2011-07-26, 12:23
#1849
Ed West i the Telegraph om ABB, konservativa högern och internet.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/ed...me-directions/
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/ed...me-directions/
Citat:
For decades discussion about immigration and multiculturalism has been off-limits due to a fear of the violence it would provoke. Yet all sorts of violence is committed for various causes, and Right-wing, racist violence is just one small part; the 7/7 bombers killed in opposition to the Iraq War, but that does not mean that the Iraq War was right. The IRA’s violence does not negate the work or cause of the SDLP. We should not hold off criticising the excesses of capitalism because of the Red Army Faction and other Leftist terrorists. The centre Right isn’t responsible for the extreme Right any more than the Liberal Democrats are responsible for Pol Pot.
But what is true is that the internet has a dangerous ability to encourage extremism on an issue. Websites which focus exclusively on one issue – Islamic immigration into Europe, for instance – allow people to radicalise themselves to a dangerous extent.
In his book Going to Extremes, Cass Sunstein noted that people’s peer groups could shift their political views in extreme directions, so that “social networks can operate as polarisation machines because they help to confirm and thus amplify people’s antecedent views”. In the age of the internet, where people can seek out like-minded souls across the world, this effect is amplified, the echo chamber impact of self-selecting peer groups driving some people to ever more extreme views.
But what is true is that the internet has a dangerous ability to encourage extremism on an issue. Websites which focus exclusively on one issue – Islamic immigration into Europe, for instance – allow people to radicalise themselves to a dangerous extent.
In his book Going to Extremes, Cass Sunstein noted that people’s peer groups could shift their political views in extreme directions, so that “social networks can operate as polarisation machines because they help to confirm and thus amplify people’s antecedent views”. In the age of the internet, where people can seek out like-minded souls across the world, this effect is amplified, the echo chamber impact of self-selecting peer groups driving some people to ever more extreme views.