More proof that the internet is the most awesome thing ever!
The Awesome Foundation distributes a series of monthly $1,000 grants to projects and their creators. The money is given upfront in a paper bag full of cash by a group of ten self-organizing “micro-trustees,” who form autonomous chapters around geographic areas or topics of interest. The Foundation provides these grants with no strings attached and claims no ownership over the projects it supports.
Internet; most awesome thing ever??? Hold the phone here, could the internet be responsible for the big increases in alcohol consumption that,s being noticed world wide??? Australia reported inquires into AA treatment centers rose 400% in one year, are you drinking more while you are surfing the web??? Secondly, it,s become an excellent tool for spreading myths and lies about important issues, google health care, global warming, or the economy and see how accurate the information is. The misinformation highway may be partly responsable for people holding on to myths, misconceptions and out right lies, there are no effective libel laws in place to combat any trash some one wishes to circulate, This medium may not be a device for promoting democracy and justice at all, just the opposite may be the case, it,s a propaganda tool cleverly disguised as a mecca of “real facts” and information.
I know this is not a popular idea but the objections to Darwin,s theory of evolution seemed to have found new life on the internet, google intelligent design and check out the slick web sites that promote that, or google global warming is a hoax and see all the slick sites that perpetrate that lie, and don,t forget the birthers while your at it, this kind of fringe mentality cannot be found at your local library, libel laws there are effective.
Just saying; beware the side effects of this miracle in the making.
Good points. However, I’d say that it is their older media (radio and TV) that are doing all of the heavy lifting when it comes to keeping the weak minded enslaved to ignorance and fear.
The older media has a less informed and more confused public to pray on, time was you went to the library and pulled a book on, say health care, and obtained a broader view of the problem, now people pick a web site that,s already proved them correct on other matters and they than adopt myths and lies as their common knowledge, and the media goes with the flow.
STI,
Valid point. But, all of my life I have trusted the publishers and editors at the NYT to bring me the facts, and I still do for the most part. And yet, those folks brought us Judith Miller. Even a trusted source can be hoodwinked some of the time. Especially if that is the government’s goal. On the other hand, we learned about Judith Miller’s duplicity on the internet. I guess we need both.
Auntie Dem; The NYT is a business looking for readership and ad revenue, now that the wing nuts have been drawn out of the dark places where they use to dwell by the internet they must be catered to. William Krystol was giving the title of columnist by the NYT, so if your a Times reader you have noticed this shift to the right in the past 8 years. The right wing has used the internet to pump up the volume on all they support, a clubhouse for morons is the down side of the web.
Personally i use both books and the internet and by it,s nature I retain very little of what I read here, the tendency is to read short bursts on a variety of topics, where a 300 page book makes you focus on one topic for 5 or 6 days. On the web I learn a little about everything but not enough about anything and that,s not what I call real wisdom.