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Notes -
The Facebook blame for Myanmar sounds a lot like the justification for Trump and Christian Nationalists and MAGA gaining support via social media. It couldn’t possibly be that people were choosing crime-think when given freedom to choose, it must be the algorithm (and you better change it to support the neoliberal ideology or else) or Russia (who somehow manages to look and sound like ordinary white Americans dissatisfied with The Narrative) or literally anything other than “they don’t like us”.
The problem is that you can’t use an algorithm to push things that are not happening. Nor can you get support for ideas that are not at least latently relevant and popular in the base of users. I don’t believe for a second that you could use the algorithm to push Americans to start pushing Buddhist Nationalism— Theres no organic support for that, as few Americans are Buddhist or interested in becoming Buddhist, and even among those who are, there’s no support for the idea of Buddhists controlling the government. There is support for Christianity and Christian Nationalism in America that comes from the bottom up. It’s existed for a while. The entire Pro Life movement was predicated on the idea that God forbids abortion and that Christians should do what they can to end it because God forbids it and God is above government. Opposition to gay rights, while not as successful (so far) runs along the same lines — God forbids it, so we must oppose it. Immigration opposition is likewise organic. If the general public was happy about immigration you simply cannot spread anti-immigrant sentiment among the public. But people see the results so when it pops up on social media, they agree with it.
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