I don't like the world right now

Tech companies are increasingly able to influence public discourse and government policies. They use algorithms to shape public debate so they can make bigger profits and they have an unfair advantage in shaping the narrative. 

I don’t think it is possible to say that more people are becoming sociopaths as people use the term ‘sociopath’ to mean different things. It’s definition depends on which part of the world you are in. Perhaps tech companies are merely facilitating those with the loudest voice and worst behaviour.

I often wonder who the "silent majority" are?

Personally I think social media has a lot to answer for, there are to many keyboard warriors out there, spiiting hairballs of malice at people who they'd never hear of otherwise and have probably never met or will meet.

I'm woke and proud to be so, but I think it's a term thats much abused, is it wrong to challenge things that we know or believe to be wrong, such as racism, homophobia, domestic violence, rape and sexual abuse, to question the "respect" given to people who if they lived today we would abhor? We can't and shouldn't try and rewrite history, but we should question it, we should be critical in our thinking and not accept what we're told. We should ask questions about the motives of those who tell us what is real and what is not, no matter what end of the political spectrum we or they are on.

Honestly I think all that nastiness has always been there, it might not have had the platforms that it has today, but it didn't come out of nowhere, it is down to all of us to challenge attitudes and opinions we don't like and do it in a way that promotes dialogue before resorting to abuse and violence, although sometimes it's really really hard not to lose your head and go after someone who i deliberately trying to incite violence and abuse. It's one of the things I've noticed about rightwingers, they want to dish it out but they can't take it back at them and do try intimidation, abuse and violence, I've met a couple of them, needless to say I wasn't intimidated.

Iain said:

wokeness

An unpleasantly loaded word.

Desmond1979 said:

entering the Government and Corporate World; imposing their Worldview on us.

I find there are many people (even here) who often want ot impose their world view and values on us.

It isn't just the "big corporations" pushing this but many virtue signallers too.

The problem is the Industry imposing a 'One Size Fits All' society. Aided, and abetted, by the Counterculture Advocates, from the Seventies and Eighties, entering the Government and Corporate World; imposing their Worldview on us.

Jamesmac said:

More and more people are becoming sociopaths and being misled by other sociopaths to follow hateful ideologies that I'm pretty sure EVERYONE used to agree were bad

I think that is is just that the wokeness that has become more common has given those with the "bad" ideologies are now allowed to have much more of a voice than they used to have in the interests of "equality".

For example people who worship the devil are now positioning themselves as just having a different religious preference to those who worship whichever form of God the mainstream choose. Technically it is a perfectly valid choice as the likes of christianity has taken Lucifer and painted him as being bad when he is still an angel. When you lay out the logic it is a smear campaing so they have every right to be recognised.

The same goes with fascism - it is being promoted as capitalism and dressed up to appeal to the issues that their supporters want to have "dealt with" - all perfectly valid under freedom of choice.

In the end is there really "good" and "bad" or just perspectives that differ? Society and laws evolve so something that was bad 50 years ago is not quite acceptable (think homosexuality for example) so who is to say that what we believed growing up is still valid today?

Life is so many shades of grey that I no longer believe in good and bad in such monochrome terms - there are just laws that constrain peoples expression of things and their actions. These will almost certainly adapt with time in most cases and others will change to only apply to certain groups (it seems only the rich get away with stealing, lying and fiddling with kids now).

Social media seems to be accellerating it but I noticed a lot changing even back in the 1990s so to me it just looks like the evolution of society to meet the laws of entropy.

The Silent Majority will, one day, raise their voice.

What you have to remember is that those that are not “sociopaths” still exist. They’re just quieter than those that follow hateful ideologies.