There is strength in weak ties, as the sociologist Mark Granovetter has observed
Weak ties, or acquaintances, build people up and empower them. People are less likely to be hesitant with strangers or acquaintances than they are with close friends and family. We tend to "not give a damn" about how people that don't know us well actually view or judge us.
“Without Twitter the people of Iran would not have felt empowered and confident to stand up for freedom and democracy,”
It's interesting how Twitter and FaceBook allow people to voice their opinions and stand up for what they believe in, without direct repercussions. Society tends to feel "empowered" when they agree or disagree with a stance on something. People tend to be fearless, almost courageous, when using social media.
These events in the early sixties became a civil-rights war that engulfed the South for the rest of the decade—and it happened without e-mail, texting, Facebook, or Twitter.
Yes, these events did occur in the early sixties without social media, but imagine how much suffering and ignorance could have been avoided over the past 50+ years had we been able to teach and be informed through the use of social media on race related issues.
Have we actually become so selfish and scared that we don’t even want to consider whether some things trump safety?
Why have we become so selfish and self centered as a country that the loss of lives has become so routine?
Is monstrousness why no serious public figure now will speak of the delusory trade-off of liberty for safety that Ben Franklin warned about more than 200 years ago?
What does this mean?
Have we actually become so selfish and scared that we don’t even want to consider whether some things trump safety
I see what you did there. Trump!