How we fund the means of our dysfunction
“If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly.”
― Thomas Sowell
While a college student, Mark Zuckerberg may have envisioned Facebook as a nice family-friendly platform that would encourage photo and menu sharing. It is also possible that he envisioned a platform that would allow him to take the billions of dollars it would provide so he might remake the world more to his liking. A world in Mark Zuckerberg's image.
It might surprise you to know that Facebook, today a substantial news platform, took a small part of its billions and funded some controversial political activism during the last election cycle. Millions were funneled into progressive organizations to affect an election outcome that would benefit the agendas of those organizations. Steve Miller with RealClearInvestigations researched and then wrote extensively of Mr. Zuckerberg's funding of a variety of nefarious organizations. You may read his findings here.
Unfortunately, states don't have laws that prevent these organizations, funded with millions of dollars from the likes of Mr. Zuckerberg manipulating the system. And with Zuckerberg controlling so many eyeballs, it is unlikely we'll ever know the full extent of what money can do to corrupt an election system. Much of what was done might be seen as unethical but it generally wasn't illegal.
Facebook and Zuckerberg are mostly enabled by their vast sums of money. Money earned because billions find the platform compelling and waste worthy. If our eyeballs were to find other objects of fascination, then perhaps these oligarchs' ability to assert themselves in elections would be diminished. Only then will we no longer feel like a dog biting its own tail.
Read the essay here.