This edition of Popular Science has some fascinating articles on where the future may be taking us though technology and innovation. It covers everything from memory to health, transplants, urban futures, work, species and ecosystems, climate change and a world without cars. One of the most intriguing articles is called “Saving democracy” and concerns the profound implications of the Internet and social media and access to information.
The author, Stephen Lewandowsky, is a cognitive scientist at the University of Bristol in the UK. When the Internet first emerged and its potential was realized, “people celebrated the global village, the interconnectedness that would enable democracy to flourish. “This optimistic endorsement crash-landed in 2016 when Cambridge Analytica, Russian bots, Brexit, and the election of Donal Trump revealed the darker side of global connectedness and the ability of large-scale organized manipulation and disinformation to polarize societies and to undermine democracy,” the author writes.
As he points out, we’re only now beginning to understand the implications of this technology. It can “both erode democracy and expand democracy, can be a tool of autocrats as well as activists and…provides a voice to the marginalized while simultaneously giving reach to fanatics and extremists.” He refers to it as a Jekyll and Hyde technology that developed so quickly the full consequences weren’t understood. That’s an understatement.
The problem now isn’t mentioned in this issue. Right wing extremism – the fanatics – are hoping to rewrite the constitution, an idea proposed by Rick Santorum (remember him?) and other conservatives like John Eastman and Sean Hannity. As the Insider reports: “You take this grenade and you pull the pin, you’ve got a live piece of ammo in your hands,” Santorum, a two-time GOP presidential candidate and former CNN commentator, explained in audio of his remarks obtained by the left-leaning watchdog group the Center for Media and Democracy and shared with Insider. “34 states — if every Republican legislator votes for this, we have a constitutional convention.”
So far, 19 states have joined this movement to call for a new constitution. “Article V provides two methods to amend the Constitution. Either Congress can pass an amendment — which is how all 27 amendments to the Constitution were added — or two-thirds of US states can call for a convention to amend the document, which has never been done.”
And you can be sure the result will annihilate more rights, limit the powers of congress, the DOJ and the executive branch.
The Right Is Trying to Rewrite the Constitution to Cement Minority Rule Forever
