@niclas for me it feels like the great homogenisator. everything is bland and boring and optimized for profits. e.g. multi-culture societies only work if everyone dilutes their culture so that it is acceptable for the others - at least the public facing elements.

@niclas and mainstream media is the great blender for opinions. ecologists ideas thrown into the blender together with neocons lead to battery electric cars being viewed as something good for the environment. the socialist idea of free healthcare thrown into the blender with capitalism leads to the ultra inefficitent german system of ~300 insurances to pick your forced membership.
the blender leads to boring societies optimized for being mediocre. i think it is popular because it's efficient in providing basic necessities, it falls flat onto the face for anything else.

@bonifartius I think it has been this way (powerful people trying to manufacture opinions) for at least 150-200 years, except people weren't aware of it as much. Difference now is that people can "mass communicate" with each other, without the gate keepers filtering the messaging.

If we all can roll back to a decentralized, open, free (as in freedom) Internet, then I think the libertarian/anarchistic idea can slowly take hold and people realizing that rulers are against us, even in democracies.

@bonifartius I agree to the multi-culture part, but if you have a homogeneous culture everything is "mainstream", and why youth has always sought to "rebel" by some expression the "mainstream" found appalling. Rinse repeat for every generation.

In Sweden;
1940's Swingpjattar - rebels against the rules of the older generation
1950's Rock-n-Roll - rebels
Late 1960s/Early 70s Hippies - rebels
1980s yuppies - Rebels against the rebels. Punk/skinheads - rebels.

(not followed what happened since)