I share your feeling about the importance of in-person communications. The most meaningful moral moments are often those based on proximity and chance. (The parable of the Good Samaritan comes to mind.) As you indicate, mass media today is either self-selected or highly-curated, which prevents such encounters and subsequent moral development, personal or collective.
How,en masse, do you get people (citizens) "in cafés and houses of worship, at union assemblies, protests, school board meetings, and even around our dinner tables?" Clearly, the way that is being accomplished in this moment -- angry Repubs at Repub Town Halls, Democrats holding Town Halls in Red states, mass anti-Musk demos at Tesla dealerships, the "Jews say stop arming Israel" demo at Trump Tower -- is largely through social media. You can do lots of things to stir up good trouble,
I agree that stirring up trouble is easier than ever thanks to social media. There's a question, however, about the staying power of such ad hoc demonstrations, as opposed to the difficult, long-term and in-person work of organizing a genuine social movement. The sociologist Zeynep Tufekci's 2017 book "Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest" seems to be an interesting exploration of this tension. A version of the book is available free online (though I admit to having only skimmed it): https://www.twitterandteargas.org/downloads/twitter-and-tear-gas-by-zeynep-tufekci.pdf
A second thought: Is there any greater fuel for firing "the staying power of such ad hoc demonstrations" than the daily blasphemies of Trump, Musk et al.? Outrage ain't going down anytime soon, although I don't downplay at all the extreme difficulty of "organizing a genuine social movement." But it can be done: I was a SDSer in '69...
Outrage is a powerful motive to rally popular support, which can sustain a protest movement over time. But a clear organizational strategy is also needed, and I don't see one emerging from the Democratic party (which used to rely on organized labor for this kind of thing, but can't any more), assorted leftist groups (the DSA, etc., whom you mention in your first comment), or civil society more broadly (e.g., organized religion has also waned since the 60s).
Granted, the "Resistance" is adventitious, ad hoc, guerrilla. But that's b/c while DSA & WFP (at least in NY) exist & persist, they are non-factors. (Look at NDP in Canada, outside of BC a non-factor!) Schumer blew the chance for his party to consolidate & lead the guerrilla Resistance. Maybe AOC (DSA!) can?
From a fellow Blueskyer: "You know who's doing great organizing for us right now? Elon Musk and Donald Trump, that's who. By attacking and alienating more and more swathes of the American public, they're handing us the possibility of a coalition bigger and broader than maybe anything we've ever seen in this country before." The POSSIBILITY. Right now that's all it is, & the Dems can't run away fast enough. So we agree about that, & apparently, DSA is not yet the answer. But till then let's keep the outrage level as high as possible, courtesy of T & M...
I share your feeling about the importance of in-person communications. The most meaningful moral moments are often those based on proximity and chance. (The parable of the Good Samaritan comes to mind.) As you indicate, mass media today is either self-selected or highly-curated, which prevents such encounters and subsequent moral development, personal or collective.
How,en masse, do you get people (citizens) "in cafés and houses of worship, at union assemblies, protests, school board meetings, and even around our dinner tables?" Clearly, the way that is being accomplished in this moment -- angry Repubs at Repub Town Halls, Democrats holding Town Halls in Red states, mass anti-Musk demos at Tesla dealerships, the "Jews say stop arming Israel" demo at Trump Tower -- is largely through social media. You can do lots of things to stir up good trouble,
I agree that stirring up trouble is easier than ever thanks to social media. There's a question, however, about the staying power of such ad hoc demonstrations, as opposed to the difficult, long-term and in-person work of organizing a genuine social movement. The sociologist Zeynep Tufekci's 2017 book "Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest" seems to be an interesting exploration of this tension. A version of the book is available free online (though I admit to having only skimmed it): https://www.twitterandteargas.org/downloads/twitter-and-tear-gas-by-zeynep-tufekci.pdf
A second thought: Is there any greater fuel for firing "the staying power of such ad hoc demonstrations" than the daily blasphemies of Trump, Musk et al.? Outrage ain't going down anytime soon, although I don't downplay at all the extreme difficulty of "organizing a genuine social movement." But it can be done: I was a SDSer in '69...
Outrage is a powerful motive to rally popular support, which can sustain a protest movement over time. But a clear organizational strategy is also needed, and I don't see one emerging from the Democratic party (which used to rely on organized labor for this kind of thing, but can't any more), assorted leftist groups (the DSA, etc., whom you mention in your first comment), or civil society more broadly (e.g., organized religion has also waned since the 60s).
Granted, the "Resistance" is adventitious, ad hoc, guerrilla. But that's b/c while DSA & WFP (at least in NY) exist & persist, they are non-factors. (Look at NDP in Canada, outside of BC a non-factor!) Schumer blew the chance for his party to consolidate & lead the guerrilla Resistance. Maybe AOC (DSA!) can?
From a fellow Blueskyer: "You know who's doing great organizing for us right now? Elon Musk and Donald Trump, that's who. By attacking and alienating more and more swathes of the American public, they're handing us the possibility of a coalition bigger and broader than maybe anything we've ever seen in this country before." The POSSIBILITY. Right now that's all it is, & the Dems can't run away fast enough. So we agree about that, & apparently, DSA is not yet the answer. But till then let's keep the outrage level as high as possible, courtesy of T & M...