Social Media Spotlight On: The Government
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NEW YORK – Greece is in political and social turmoil, public sector workers are on strike again in the UK, and the majority of western countries are still licking their wounds inflicted by the Great recession in 2008. Since the general assumption seems to be that the world is far from being out of the woods of the financial crisis, it’s perhaps not surprising that people are expressing their disappointment in governments, political systems and their leaders in social media and on Amplicate.
We already reported that Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron is losing on popularity with each passing month as his country continues to struggle, but upon considering opinions on the government, it also became clear that it too has no support in social media and Amplicate. Out of over 20,000 opinions left on Amplicate, Twitter and Facebook, 75 percent claimed to be unsatisfied with the government.
The Government: Sentiment trend in the last 12 months:
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Although the government never had much support in social media and on Amplicate, the chart shows dissatisfaction levels continuously rising in 2011. Each month this year there were over one thousand negative opinions about the government, with a noticeable spike in April 2011, when negative opinions surpassed the final months of 2010 by twofold. According to the data, the disapproval of country management is very much present and growing.
Amplicate users have some very strong opinions on the issue. “Don’t steal, the government hates competition.”, says one while another one is rather cleverly asking “Where is anarchy when we need it?” Democracy, which is a synonym for government in the West only generated a 54 percent support, and one of its main faces the American president Barack Obama scored a 52 percent support. The opinionated opposers say democracy is the leadership of the uneducated, who are also elected by the uneducated, and a military invention that only exist in theory. Anarchy on the other hand, has 91 percent support on Amplicate and in social media. All these things considered, things are looking pretty gloomy.
Highest rated opinions:
“The Government is synonym for everything wrong with the world.”
“If the government was my baby I would have aborted it long ago.”
“Where’s anarchy when you need it?”
The question is, if people are saying no to government in general or are they just saying no to the current governing elites? Or is perhaps democracy the one that is under siege here? Or maybe just specific leaders are giving the government a bad name? And if any of this is true, where is the alternative?
Tell us what you think: Do you Love or Hate the government and what are your reasons?
Amplicate is an online opinion collating resource that accounts for more than 100 million public opinions of social media users.
