You might have heard democracy is dead. But before you hit the wake, hear Sean Parker out:
“When we were thinking about how to engage people in politics, most people say they don’t care about politics. They hate politicians. Congressional approval ratings are at a historic low. Trust in government is at a historic low. From one point of view, the system is about as broken as it can be,” Parker said via TechCrunch.
The app displays a number of cards to the user and encourages them to take a position — for instance, “Medical marijuana should be legal in every state.” You can take a side for or against, and see results from other users in the app. (It hasn’t launched yet, but the beta has about 13,000 users). You can share these results on Facebook or other social media, because that was totally what was holding people back from sharing those opinions in the first place. (Brigade —It’s your Facebook feed, but purpler! They’re hiring.)
However, Brigade does seem to be onto something once you get past the whole “I’m Sean Parker, I’m Saving the World” thing: by turning users loose on issues and giving them information about their ideal choices in elections, politicians may be forced to hone in on these more specific, issue-based ideologies. Which lets down the smokescreen a little. TBD if that’s a good thing.
