What if Detroit’s most infamous citizen, Eminem, hadn’t tweeted the words “one opportunity” on the morning of Nov. 2 to accompany a special Joe Biden-dedicated version of his ballad “Lose Yourself”? What if there had been no Covid-19 pandemic? Who would be the next president of the United States? History […]
Democracy
Twitter and Facebook labels on Trump’s posts won’t save democracy
Facebook joined in, flagging Trump posts with the line: “Ballot counting will continue for days or weeks.” Were the labels a win for democracy? They were a win for Twitter and Facebook public relations, which got to look just responsive enough to avoid being blamed for botching another election. But […]
‘Democracy punishes solutions that take time’: How food can fight COVID-19 and racial inequality
America is what it eats: Food fuels the pursuit of happiness. It powers our ambition, ingenuity and constitutions. We spend tremendous time and money filling our bellies. After putting roofs over our heads and paying for transportation, food is Americans’ greatest expense. But America’s feast is not dished out equitably […]
Political microtargeting is overblown, but still a danger to democracy
We learned this week that the Trump campaign may have tried to dissuade millions of Black voters from voting in 2016 through highly targeted online ads. The investigation, by Channel 4, highlighted a still little-understood online advertising technique, microtargeting. This targets ads at people based on the huge amount of […]
