[lbo-talk] On social media

lbo83235 lbo83235 at gmail.com
Sun Feb 6 12:51:59 PST 2011


"What we are witnessing then (at least in Egypt) is not a spontaneous movement. Rather, we are witnessing the spontaneous transition from a grassroots protest movement into a populist mass one, a transition unmediated by elites (liberal, leftist, or Islamist) but by another mass uprising, that of Tunis. And this is where the new social media can be situated as an agent rather than a producer of revolt. Egyptians watching the Tunisian uprising unfold became convinced that their unmediated grassroots protests were the right path to freedom. Social media sights [sic] disseminated this convictions across internet and other new media (like SMS or Twitter) users. All that was missing was the stamina to outwear the repressive state apparatus that had managed to stifle their earlier mini-uprisings in the past."

http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/457.php



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