The Polarization of Extremes

Cass Sun­stein argues that the abil­ity to fil­ter infor­ma­tion on the inter­net is going to lead to a world of frac­tured com­mu­ni­ca­tions, group polar­iza­tions, cas­cades of false infor­ma­tion, finally result­ing in a rise in extrem­ism. It’s a relief to hear argu­ments that do not see the inter­net as an ideal force for democ­racy, but his argu­ment relies on “per­fect fil­ter­ing,” with­out any expla­na­tion for how this is even possible.