propaganda. Unlike other German politicians in the democratic Weimar Republic, Hitler was eager to use the latest technologies — sound amplification, airplanes, film, early versions of TV, and most crucially radio, perhaps the smartphone of its day — to advance his message.
Another sentence from Mein Kampf also resonates today: “Propaganda is a terrible weapon in the hands of an expert.” And now, we live in a world in which social media allows everyone to be an expert.
Free speech is vital to a democracy, and one hopes that in the marketplace of ideas “counter-speech” will win out. But history is also a reminder that the unthinkable is possible and of the dangers of wishful thinking and unintended consequences. It often feels like the rapidity of technological change and impact have outstripped our ability to
consequences. With antisemitism and racism ongoing problems, all the creativity and innovation that built social media needs to be harnessed to address these issues. And it will require more than talented