Clearly, the qualities Poles admire in a secretary of state - foreign languages, diplomatic experience, even sense of humor - are emphatically not those desired in a head of state: So be it.
Anne ApplebaumRead
Quite a lot has been written, including by me, about the effect of social media on politics, and in particular the way in which the algorithms built into Facebook and YouTube are more likely to spread angry, extremist and deliberately provocative political language.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Social media algorithms tend to amplify extreme and provocative political rhetoric.
In this quote, Anne Applebaum discusses the significant influence of social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube on political discourse. She highlights how the algorithms used by these platforms are designed to promote content that elicits strong emotional responses, particularly anger, which can lead to the proliferation of extremist views and divisive language in the political arena.
Themes
Social MediaPoliticsAlgorithmsExtremismCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about social media's role in modern politics.
More from Anne Applebaum
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Birtherism surely increased Americans' distrust of politics, though in ways that are hard to pin down. By contrast, when anti-vaxxers persuade parents not to vaccinate children, the result can be sickness and even death.
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As a journalist, I know what it is like to incur the self-righteous wrath of people who denounce you for things you didn't say or didn't mean.
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If we can't have a public debate because the information space is so polluted, or because people are afraid of the reactions of organized trolls, then we can't really have meaningful elections anymore, either.
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Elections are always a Rorschach test - people look at the results and see what they want to see.
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