There's some give and take over time, I grant. But compare the situation today not to the 1950's, but to the early 2000's, when there was a thriving ecosystem of independent blogs and bookstores, to today, where a few big media platforms host the lion's share of conversation, and Amazon dominates book sales.

I think it was easier to maintain an independent voice 15-20 years ago.

I think we've actually never had it so good. There are still a lot of really great blogs out there - I read them all the time, probably most of my reading is online news and blogs. It's just that blogging was always going to be niche and now thanks to Twitter and YouTube all the people who don't like long form writing have a space too, so it can feel like in depth writing has been drowned out. But it's still there. These things weren't subtractive.

I think powerful intermediaries to the common spread of information, like Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube are proving troublesome.

Views like "masks might make us safer from COVID" were suppressed not too long ago. It's a wacky place we're in. Some of the criticism out there (COVID denial, election fraud, etc) is dangerous, but legitimate criticism and nuanced points are getting crushed too in the process. And the entities involved in the suppression are powerful, moving in lockstep, and have limited accountability to the public.

Worse, these platforms have the illusion of being grassroots and open, but you never know when you're getting state-sponsored manipulation or what kinds of content isn't permitted to flow through them today.

> Views like "masks might make us safer from COVID" were suppressed not too long ago.

Are there words missing here? I... don't see this as a viewpoint that is being suppressed at all. Maybe this particular example is more about the people who you follow/listen to?

No. Early on in the pandemic, when the CDC advised against masks... people who advocated for masks had their posts removed by YouTube and Facebook.

Now, espousing the opposite views can get your posts and videos removed :P

I completely agree, but they haven't emerged at the expense of blogs and other types of website that existed in 2000.

I think Twitter and Facebook ate a whole lot of blogs. A lot of prominent, active bloggers drifted to these formats. And blog readership has gone way down.

Not to mention Medium, of course...