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How Facebook is destroying the Left.

Mark Zuckerberg | 11.07.2010 20:11 | Globalisation

Facebook might not be what the Left want to use: but there is a growing, urgent need for it to become a tool of radical activists. If the Left fail to do this then the repercussions will go far beyond the first round of spending cuts.

Facebook's funding was led by a company called Greylock Venture Capital., Greylock invested the sum of $27.5m. One of Greylock's senior partners is called Howard Cox, who is on the board of In-Q-Tel: the venture-capital wing of the CIA.
( http://www.iqt.org/)

None of this is news. What is news is that David Cameron is asking, via Facebook, for ideas for spending cuts. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10575235.stm) Specifically, a party political question. Given that most on the left refuse to have any truck with Facebook, this might seem a little stupid to post onto Indymedia. Far from it.

Politically motivated Americans (remember the American Friends of the BNP?) have always seen the Internet as a way of delivering their message. The EDL are successful at putting across a message that frequently has the left running around after them rather than being ahead of them. All in all, the "non-story" of Facebook is somewhere that radicals should be.

Sorry for all those people who think that it's an endless round of gossip and sewlf indulgent tripe. It is. But it is a powerful political tool. Cameron, along with his ideological peers are about to use it to indoctrinate the largely young demographic into their worldview. So, a generation that never experienced "Tory Cuts" first hand are about to have their "views made important".

It is a marvellous way to brainwash a generation. It worked for the EDL (more likely Tory Test Marketing than a genuine bunch of fascist wankers). It will work for the mainstream Tory Party. The demographic of Facebook is first time voters. You can see the attraction for a government that is likely to get kicked out when september ends and the October Spending Review arrives.

It's not about gestures like getting Rage Against the Machine to number one. It's about millions of lives being manipulated because "well, you told us through Facebook and we listened". It is the kind of politics that is genuinely killing the left. Unless people on the left are prepared to engage with and change the debate within Facebook then there will be fewer and fewer outlets for genuinely radical politics. Cameron is allowing Facebook to claim "he" is responsible for such things as open access to government data. It is not a lie, but it will become the recieved wisdom of first time voters at the next election.

Just because it is trivia and endless (relentless) advertising does not mean it is not a place to go and agitate. The truth is, without agitation in Facebook - on a massive scale - the political wisdom of the next decade or so will be dicated by a Californian Libertarian. The kind of political position that sees the NHS as being as evil as the Soviet Union. The kind of political position that see's government (and government spending) as a hinderance to free markets. Hip enough to attract the admiration of anarchists for the anti-government stance but actually, just like Thatcher.

On to the trolls. Remember: I know Facebook is crap. But I also know that Diaspora is not ready yet. I also know that capitalism is not my preferred economic system. I know that the EDL are undesirables. But that does not mean that I refuse to do something about it.

Mark Zuckerberg

Comments

Hide the following 8 comments

Bollocks to Facebook

11.07.2010 23:06


Facebook is just a website - it is just a way of communicating.

If you are experiencing problems with communication then it's all too easy to blame or praise one particular tool or person or group.

Instead you should perhaps look at what it is you are trying to communicate and to whom. Criticising the "left" for not using Facebook is a very poor argument. If there is something to say, a clear intended outcome and an audience then whether we use Facebook, e-mail, postal mail or carrier pigeon really doesn't make any difference.

Better still, instead of accumulating pseudo "friends" on Fakebook groups, why not make a point of meeting real people and campaign in real life?!

internet insider


the left

11.07.2010 23:54

It seems you think that people who don't hold "the left's" view (ie. your viewpoint) are misguided and manipulated. Thats really arrogant.

There are many people who don't hold to the left's viewpoint. They also think that the left are misguided and manipulated. I don't feel that the left has all the answers. They are quick to point out the faults but I dread to think of what their solutions would result in.

There are also plenty of people who support (lets see - all the tory voters?) the tory cuts, because our deficit is out of control. It is interesting to note that many people who support the left are 'victims' of over-borrowing and debt, because they have a credit-card mentality. The people who support the cuts are generally cautious people who have their finances in order because they don't go around borrowing excessive amounts of money.

I'm happy with the cuts. If the deficit isn't reduce now then the country is going to be more fucked than it is. When you borrow lots, at some point you have to cut back so you can pay it back. Yet millions of people can't get that through their heads. It isn't for banks or businessmen to do this. The government are the ones who makes the rules and it is for them to sort it out.



state me


our deficit?

12.07.2010 00:46

state me said: "our deficit is out of control"

who the hell is 'our' in this case?

how much money was given to the banks again to bail them out?

it's not 'our' system, it's not 'our' debt.

not a banker


Fashbook!

12.07.2010 00:49

I agree and hope you'll look at my page 'being a bit left wing'. If you can bring yourself to use the 'like' function without hating yourself too much that would be cool also ;)

 http://www.facebook.com/pages/being-a-bit-left-wing/116165815096783?v=wall&ref=ts

Guido
- Homepage: http://www.facebook.com/pages/being-a-bit-left-wing/116165815096783?v=wall&ref=ts


Internet Insiders get it wrong.

12.07.2010 08:14

Dear Internet Insider,

I know Facebook is a bunch of old toss. In fact, real internet insiders have commented that over 60% of facebook profiles are not used after the first week. So the fake friends are fake friends of....

anyhow.

The point is that Facebook is a powerful ideological tool regardless of the underlying vacuity of it. It is being used to promote particular ways of thinking. Without any critical presence that promotion ceases and becomes indoctrination. Which is an indoctrination of the least experienced section of the population.

You see: looking out for class interests is not just about doing the things you want to do. It is also not just about doing the things you want to do in the places you want to do them. Sorry: having any kind of radicalism means actually being committed. Which might well mean doing things you despise.

Such as telling the tories on facebook that they are talking crap to avoid the tories in the real world saying, "well facebook said...".

Let the tories take any inch of where you exist and you lose something. Being an internet insider will not defend from that.

Mark Zuckerberg


hello mark, are you rightist2 ?

12.07.2010 09:55

are you rightist2 by any chance, your essays sound familiar

joseph stalin


Facebook V IM

12.07.2010 12:22

I can't see how facebook is the right vehicle for setting out the nations finances. Surely its just a gimmick by the coalition Government to try to convince people they have some role to play in the coming finances review.

We have far more to gain by sticking with IM. It is a far more serious and experienced resource and anyway, Facebook is based on IM. In fact, the whole 'social networking' thing is based on IM!

I'm just in it to ensure the Government take the right course and set UK domestic policy out with the people of this country in mind, not to use it to continue with some pointless occupation of another country.

Facebook is dubious, leave it to the Americans!

Joseph Stalin


Josef You miss the point

15.07.2010 03:03

That Facebook got itself mentioned at Prime Minister's Question Time today. This allows shameless commercial endorsement from Downing Street in return for Trusty Boy Dave getting to look all tough on a dead man.

Dave never mentioned the exact role of the police in Raoul Moat's death. Maybe he did not want to prejudice any enquiry by making ill considered statements such as: "It is absolutely clear that Raoul Moat was a callous murderer, full stop, end of story," despite the fact that there is an enquiry into what exactly happened.

Facebook + Cameron. A winning PR team.

Mark Zuckerberg


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