Lots of great answers here.
I think one under mentioned cause is the effect of social media algorithms.
All major social media platforms use machine learning algorithms decide what to show in your feed. The algorithms are programmed to show you the things that have historically kept you on the site longer.
It’s human nature to upvote/read/support/engage with the things that agree with our world views, and downvote/dismiss/disengage/discredit the things that disagree with our worldview.
These two facts combined result in you seeing more of the content that aligns with your worldview, and more of the content from people who share your worldview. We’re all funnelled into communities of like minded individuals that repeat what we already believe, reinforcing whatever that is regardless of how factually correct it might be.
Dissenting information that might cause you to reconsider your position or become more politically aware is automatically filtered out.
And it’s not just social media either, even the algorithms behind search engines display this behaviour.
Long before social media existed, Google was tailoring search results to match the things you tend to click on. If you searched for news and typically clicked on the headlines biased towards one side or the other Google would start ranking site with that bias higher.
This wasn’t intentional (at least not originally) it was just a side effect of the algorithm, trying to figure out what you were most likely looking for.
For someone who, for example, believes the Earth is flat. If they were to type “is the Earth flat?” Into a search engine. They are much more likely to get results that “prove” the Earth is flat, then a person who believes the Earth is round, because the algorithm knows that they tend to click on articles that “confirm” the earth is flat.
Algorithms used by social media and search engines today, make it genuinely difficult to maintain a balanced worldview and find unbiased answers to any question. They are all designed to keep you engaged, And it is human nature to engage more with the things we agree with, regardless of truth.
The media and social media are geared towards reinforcing tribalism. You have to pick a team and anyone on the other team is your enemy. It works well as a means of driving engagement and making money at the expense of having an electorate that is informed.
It reminds me of the town hall Bernie Sanders did on Fox News a few years ago. If you strip away the partisan blinkers and have a debate based on facts, specific policy points, and focusing on trying to improve people’s lives instead of scoring cheap points then more people agree than disagree, regardless of political affiliation.
I guess the question is, “who benefits from a divided electorate?”
It looked like a F##k fest so I decided imma go live in my tiny bubble of happiness.
Not like I need more drama and negativity because some old people who know nothing but to never answer your questions with a straightforward answer, tell me what I need to think or do.
I rather go download some ISOs and mess around on different linux distros.
Do you have stats do back that up, though? Like actual data that says people in other countries are less politically ignorant than americans?
Brexit?
Your link just gives information about political awareness in America, there is nowhere anywhere that compares them to any other country like I asked for.
P.s. Trump lost the popular vote.
The question doesn’t compare Americans to other countries. I found some more interesting stats. That seems like a good question to post to /asklemmy.
I definitely specified in my question for a comparison to other countries. You replied to my comment with an irrelevant link. And then now you’ve given me a second irrelevant link. If you can’t answer my question, then stop trying.
Saying “americans are so politically unaware!” Implies Americans alone are unique in being politically unaware. I am looking for actual data that shows specifically americans are less politically aware than the citizens in other countries are about their own countries politics. Showing me information about how bad Americans are at civics tests is not needed here at all.
Do you have stats do back that up, though? Like actual data that says people in other countries are less politically ignorant than americans?
Here’s the statistics you asked for.
Lmao.
Thought so.
Can you explain what you mean by “politically unaware”?
The clear evidence of human ignorance and irrationality in the political arena poses a serious challenge to the popular wisdom. Lacking awareness of basic facts of their political systems, to say nothing of the more sophisticated knowledge that would be needed to reliably resolve controversial political issues, most citizens can do no more than guess when they enter the voting booth. . . . [T]he attempt to influence public policy through such arbitrary guesses is unjust and socially irresponsible.
Dayum.
This is one of those, “Tell us what you really think Michael” moments.
Interesting article. I would agree that most Americans are politically unaware per that article, because most Americans aren’t economists or historians. It was definitely an interesting read, but what I really noticed is that the article failed to compare American political unawareness to a global baseline, or at least provide some comparable country’s numbers, like England, France, Russia, China, Australia, Mexico and Canada?
Makes me wonder if I could pass the US citizenship test…
Edit: 95% on a practice test…
There are practice tests you can take . I bet you can pass it.
Why did the United States enter the Vietnam War?
Not the easiest kind of question to answer with multiple choice…
That was my thought too.
Is it money, it’s always money 💰
Passed that one. It was a little harder than the practice test, but I think it’s about a middle-school level difficulty.
Welcome to America! 🇺🇸
Born here, stuck here.
Anyway, how well do you think American political awareness compares to political awareness of other countries? I honestly haven’t looked yet.
Probably similar to other countries, but the stakes are so much higher because of the $2 billion military budget.
Civics was a single class in highschool.
We need a STEM type push for more civics in highschool and middle school.
Trying to survive
Exactly as planned by the reigning political parties.
Constant defunding of public education, anti-intellectualism, and conservative idealism has made this nation as dumb as a bag of hammers. Being highly educated in America kind of feels like you have a superiority complex but it’s also incredibly frustrating at times.
Can I ask how you cope with the frustration? Touching grass isn’t enough lately.
🍄
Most people everywhere are very politically unaware. Here’s a decent site that demonstrates this. Basically, the knowledge we (by which I mean humans, not just Americans, of which I am not one) have leads us to make inaccurate assumptions about the other stuff.
Neat site.
Foreign and corporate disinformation campaigns aided by consolidation of TV and print media as well as social media monopolies. Combine that with a lack of time or energy from working long hours, long commutes, and a lack of ability to take time off, much less devote energy to sorting out disinformation that is so common.
One argument I don’t think anyone else has made here - we have fewer restrictions on what can be advertised, where and when ads can be played, and how close to true those advertisements have to be than a lot of other countries do. I think this has the effect of wearing down people’s ability and willingness to engage in logical analysis of the information they receive because we’re constantly bombarded with information and most of it is bullshit to sell us crap we don’t need, so we have to skim through and tune out a lot, and in that process I think a lot of information that’s actually true but that people don’t want to believe gets thrown out too.
Our media apparatus and schooling don’t promote critical thinking.
american cultural social norms looks down upon talking about politics in public; which creates an entire country of people who lack practice in engaging in meaningful political discourse.
you combine that with american oligarchs using their influence to steer national discourse away from topics that threaten their interests while simultaneously manufacturing consent and you’re left with recipe for red and blue magas.
Politics and religion are the two things we should be talking about
It’s so much easier to take someone at their word instead of looking into the many interwoven facts and details yourself. In fact, it can take so long fact-checking things these days to combat mis/disinformation that people simply… don’t.
It’s way more laborious to disprove a lie than it is to simply recount a lie.
Russia may not have a decent military, or a decent government, but they are masters at controlling other countries public opinions.
I had a comment removed a few days ago because Lemmy has an automod which accused me of being ablist. In reality I was responding to a comment that was trying to push the narrative that Ukraine started the war, and is responsible for the war. It went on to say many MANY more completely untrue things, but definately tried painting russia as the good guy. I basically accused him of being brain dead, with a word that the automod didn’t like.
But I’m pretty convinced they were a russian disinformation agent.
I wanna know what word you used…
Medical term, used to describe a partially or fully non-functioning brain. In the 80s and 90s it became slang for “idiot”, and somehow became a politically incorrect term. Now people are offended by term. Starts with R.
deleted by creator
If it’s what I think it is that’s pretty mild…
It is. It’s probably exactly what hou think. But bots don’t care, and AI is too primitive to be useful. Yet thats what moderation is sometimes. Especially on reddit.
Russia may not have
Russia is NOT the only problem, they aren’t even the main problem. There’s quite a number of issues where the mainstream media discourse depends almost entirely on whose in office. As an example take a look at crime statistics since 1991 and then align the media coverage about crime with whose in charge at the time. Immigration is another one. 2,000 people or more crossing the border every day may or may not be a crisis depending on which political party is in charge.
Those and other issues aren’t being manipulated, at least not primarily, by Russia Propaganda. That work is being done by mainstream media sources and the only way to know you’re being manipulated into an opinion is by putting in the work to learn the context and history of an issue.
It’s a massive time suck that can require hours, days, or even weeks to get a deep enough understanding to know you’re being lied to and / or manipulated.
imo, awareness is already a problem so i think political awareness is already a big leap.
most news channels are incentivized by money so it serves their sponsors and not the people.
Great point.
