See, I’ve been reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine, and it’s perfect example of something impossible today.

  • snooggums@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    There was never a point in time where a single person could change even the majority of people’s opinions.

    • bamfic@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      Most change happened with 20% supporting, 20% opposing, and the rest not giving a shit and waiting to get behind whomever wins

  • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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    19 days ago

    Thomas payne’s common sense didn’t change everyone’s mind.

    and there are people today influencing how everybody thinks with tweets and memes.

    language and information is evolving, and that is absolutely changing the landscape of how public opinion is affected.

    Gaza is a great example.

    Israeli has been bombing hospitals and schools and extrajudicially executing Palestinians for 50 years, but now that people can see that information and hear testimony from Palestinian journalists directly, they care.

  • satanmat@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    Eh. One person could be influencing in the recent past…

    Walter Cronkite, declared the Vietnam war unwinnable and “people “ say that changed Americans view on it.

    Today, I agree there are too many voices and too many people have their “own realities” for one person to affect the national discourse.

    I don’t think is aliens landed the majority of Americans would believe their own eyes if their news said it was fake.

  • LengAwaits@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    Too bad more people didn’t have their minds changed by Paine’s “Agrarian Justice”. What a banger.