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@jalcine it’s really great! But also probably sort of weird to read now? The core argument is roughly “it is hard to make lasting change based on the very weak ties made on social media”.

Unfortunately current reality tells us something more like “it is hard for (numerous, poor) people to make (positive) change”.

Small groups of people who are already rich, powerful, and thickly connected seem to be doing destruction via group chat and social perfectly well. 😬

Luis Villa

@jalcine and to be clear, I don’t think that invalidates the book; her experience and focus are on things like bottom-up revolution, and I think nothing since she wrote it has disproved her thesis *for that use case*.

But for small, connected groups of the wealthy, SVB, Trump-pilling, and probably more we don’t even know about yet suggest her argument was somewhat incomplete.

@luis_in_brief @jalcine Yes, I have been reading this book closely with my grad students for years now but am wondering if it is time to move on.

It crystallized very powerfully what I saw in Occupy and related movements, and the motivation for my latest book, Governable Spaces—the hope that online self-governance could address the limits she points to.

@ntnsndr @jalcine I admit I can’t read more about the online right (too depressing) but that second one sounds fascinating, thanks for the rec.

@ntnsndr @luis_in_brief @jalcine I imagine you're familiar with it already but Evgeny Morozov's The Net Delusion (2011) seems like it would be an interesting companion read.