I think it's hard to overstate how big a deal it has been to be able to get information on things like police violence and protests directly from people on the ground. Even those of us whose basic political orientation is quite far to the left, I feel like prior to social media had a very hard time appreciating how strong the centrist and right-wing biases of all mainstream media outlets are, and just how normalized cop-ass journalistic malpractice is.
Traditional media have also been gutted again and again going back to before twitter and facebook even got going; that's a long term trend. Especially at the local level in most markets.
This is also where I start to go โน๏ธ at people on alternative social media who are like, "don't doompost or I'll defederate you" motherfucker there's a lot of doom out there. I don't want to think about it either, but people are dying, and the right has been busily buying all the public squares.
