Social media the most powerful propaganda tool of all times.

Hey there!

Social media the most powerful propaganda tool of all times.

In the 1960s you would say the same thing about TV, and you'd be right. Before that it was the cinema. It's not because the mediums as such are inherently evil, but they carry an inherent power that can be used for evil.

There is, however, another element to it, and one that is completely new for social media. That's the illusion that we can actually contribute in a meaningful way by participating.

Nobody believes they are fighting fascism by watching TV all day. Yet, on social media, we waste our time shouting at clouds rather than going out in the real world to actually achieve something. We collectively tread in water as democracy dies, all the while feeling like we are "doing our part".

I participate in the Fediverse because I have hope that we are building something different; something that can derail the large platforms that are used for evil, and where the organization of actual opposition can be possible. I think it might be. But I am also afraid I am just wasting my time.

The Bible and Quran are around for a lot longer tho.

I think propaganda potential is inherently linked with technological innovations - once books came along, they were ground-breaking, and the religions that were quick to adapt to books have been incredibly successful since. It might not be random that Jesus was born around the time that modern-format books were invented:

[quote]Julius Caesar may have been the first Roman to reduce scrolls to bound pages in the form of a note-book, possibly even as a papyrus codex. At the turn of the 1st century AD, a kind of folded parchment notebook called pugillares membranei in Latin became commonly used for writing in the Roman Empire. Theodore Cressy Skeat theorized that this form of notebook was invented in Rome and then spread rapidly to the Near East.
[/quote]

Not to mention the importance of the Gutenberg Bible in the history of the printing press.

The Tanakh was the first Abrhamic writings and is about 3,000 years old. It wasn't like everyone had copies, because pretty much no one could read. But there were copies

Parts of it became the Old Testament, and another part was/is the Torah.

Like, just to be safe I'm going to point out it's literally the same god in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. They're just arguing over who the best prophet is/was/will be.

Do you know when it was first written down? My impression is that it was mostly passed down through religious rules and the word of mouth until pretty much the time of the new testament, but I might be wrong.

I participate in the #Fediverse because I have hope that we are building something different; something that can derail the large platforms that are used for evil, and where the organization of actual opposition can be possible. I think it might be. But I am also afraid I am just wasting my time.

Nobody believes they are fighting fascism by watching TV all day. Yet, on social media, we waste our time shouting at clouds rather than going out in the real world to actually achieve something. We collectively tread in water as democracy dies, all the while feeling like we are "doing our part".

(repeating myself below, please ignore)

There is, however, another element to it, and one that is completely new for social media. That's the illusion that we can actually contribute in a meaningful way by participating.

I guess the Torah is typically in scroll rather than book format, so it makes sense that it's also older. And with the technical limitations of the time the important role of the Rabbi as a teacher also makes a lot of sense.

I have never really thought about the development of religions as related to technological developments before, but I think it makes sense. I guess fundamentally it's also just about spreading state of the art knowledge using the best means in existence in any given moment.

I cannot imagine what sort of monstrosities of religious beliefs could come out of today's media landscape. I guess QAnon, televangelist and Scientology all give us some hints...

Even well after the printing press and people could read/write their local language, there was opposition to letting the public read religious texts.

Catholic mass was in Latin till the 1960s...

Random Catholics didn't know Latin, the priest would read something in Latin, then tell the congregation pretty much whatever.

Switching over to English was a big deal, because then followers could realize Jesus was talking about socialism and free healthcare this whole time and not buying old men fancy hats.

Giving the followers direct access to the texts takes power from the church.