The Trump administration has started to panic about the spiking price of oil.
While senior Trump aides had anticipated some brief surge in oil prices in the first days of the war with Iran, the size and sustainability of the market reaction caught them off guard, people familiar with the internal discussions told CNN.
Now, as oil prices hover near $100 a barrel just over a week into the war and US gas prices are moving sharply higher, it’s prompted a belated rush to try to reassure investors and seek ways to tamp down the impact. But the administration is confronting the limits of its power — and the reality that Donald Trump’s decision to wage war abroad threatens to wipe out some of his key economic accomplishments at home.
Ironically, sites like this very one we’re on now seem tailor-made to enhance that effect.
Like what someone said? Upvote and respond with supportive comments. Don’t like it? Downvote, denigrate, block, defederate. Eventually people sort themselves out into communities where they “belong” and stop seeing what other people are saying, and they start to think that everyone shares their views.
I try not to lock myself into a community like that. I like data and fact supported by evidence. I tend to filter myself as needed. Federation has a tribalism problem but I haven’t seen it as toxicity present in most of the main spaces. The fringe server like hexbear…sure. I keep my nose there too. They’re funny. The smart phone and social media in general has wrecked our ability to self regulate in public digital spaces. And the algorithm broke the upvote system that used to help show a level of class solidarity between people in different backgrounds. I can’t say how much was intentional and how much we slipped into, but we all need to make an effort to regulate ourselves.
Tribalism is the enemy of progress.
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Even more ironically, my point is illustrated by my comment itself. It’s already getting downvoted heavily.
Guess that’s not an opinion that people want to see here, eh?
There are plenty of reasons to not want to engage with the “other side”. Exposing yourself to different viewpoints in general? All well and good. Having a discussion with people who think a fascist bombing Iran means Biden is responsible for rising gas prices? What exactly does that add to my life? Until MAGA cultists can prove they understand basic reality their opinions are useless (at best) cult propaganda lies that should be shunned from public discourse.
Granted there aren’t too many trumpets on the fediverse, but in light of the gas price comment OP of this thread I don’t think lemmy shows the echo chamber you accuse it of.
Yeah, I’m tired and got snippy myself. It’s late and I should be asleep. There’s a thread-bare line between keeping a line of dialogue open and being suseptible to brainwashing. It’s hard to self-regulate sometimes.
Sorry about that. The instinct to just bark at someone online is pavlovian. Trained into us by doom scrooling and positive reinforcement from having the behavior upvoted.
I wrote a paper on it actually. More people should try to be aware of how many ways they’re getting happy chemicals from comments and upvotes.
I try to keep social media (in general) framed as a casino.