James Madison and Mob Rule

redwood66 · Oct 5, 2018

I thought this article in The Atlantic was very interesting and very balanced in the view.

It is quite long.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/james-madison-mob-rule/568351/

LightBright · Oct 5, 2018

This is a very interesting article. I think the author’s assessment that we have become even more polarized since the inception of Facebook and Twitter, due to the ease of communication. Its simple and easy to communicate a divisive thought or photo, whereas it’s complicated and time consuming to actually debate people in person or with well written back and forth arguments. It’s easier to appeal to your faction and you can do it in sound bytes that reinforce ideas which are communicated to followers, not outsiders and that are not being debated. On a side note, I find it alarming that Trump is tweeting in ways that cause half of America to disengage by being really partisan and reinforcing divisions.

I would have liked the author to talk about what’s next and what we can do to counteract these new alarming trends.

redwood66 · Oct 5, 2018

I don't even know what to do next. Trump and some of the more partisan followers he has were one half of what Rosen was talking about. It is such a shame that it has come to this and I hope that we can dig ourselves out eventually.