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Too many people have peed in the pool

stephenfry.com

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Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#501

Post by EvanPlaice »

Outdoorsman wrote: post #215
david-given wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My theory is that it's because social media systems encourage and publicise agreement, while discouraging and hiding disagreement. This leads to a huge positive feedback effect on any meme that catches even a tiny number of people's attention, no matter how crazy. On twitter, you signify agreement by retweeting; this takes seconds and permanently adds to the tweet's score. But to disagree, I have to write a message o…

I don't use Twitter, but I agree with your point that crowd-sourced opinion, without constraints--the "dislike" option you offer, for instance--often produces a questionable consensus... Consider 1} Cunningham's Law: "The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, it's to post the wrong answer." Only somewhat whimsical with more than a bit of truth to it...implying that if you post som…

Awesome. I've never heard it referred to as Cunninham's Law but I've used this a lot.

People are overly concerned with being 'correct' all the time. Sometimes I'll talk out of my ass and pick a side on a topic I know little about because usually thr person who knows more will either confirm or correct my assumptions.

It's a surprisingly useful tool to learn in-depth knowledge from others on just about any topic. You just have to be careful not to over use it as blind skepticism has a tendency to piss people off.

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#502

Post by rdancer »

spin wrote: post #464
rdancer wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have found that unfriending/muting people whose contributions to my feed I don't value makes all the difference. Facebook is what you make of it.

I totally agree. I have un-followed a few people and now I only friend people that actually want to be friends with. I try to avoid posting political or technical things (mostly). So now, my FB is mostly just sharing pics and events with friends. (Actual friends, that I see IRL.) (... now if only I could get rid of the ads...)

> (... now if only I could get rid of the ads...)

uBlock Origin

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#503

Post by [deleted] »

ryanlol wrote: post #231
llamataboot wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "professionally offended", I assume you mean mostly marginalized people who are the recipients of torrents of abuse/death threats/rape threats/sexual harrassment/etc nearly every day they are active on twitter.

There's a plenty of people turning being offended into a business, see: https://www.patreon.com/zoe https://www.patreon.com/freebsdgirl

[deleted]

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#504

Post by Kurtz79 »

Dr_tldr wrote: post #458
meric wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like using the 'Well played!' when my opponent makes a horrendously bad move.

Blizzard gave us six inoffensive emotes, and we still find a way to engage in asshole behavior with them. It's kind of inspiring, actually.

With open chat in Hearthstone, wars would be fought, friendships would be hopelessly broken and feuds would run eternal.

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#505

Post by meric »

grahamburger wrote: post #498
meric wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "offence" is required to build human relationships. I find myself say something in a joking manner to my best friend that would be offensive to anyone else. In a way I think it's a test - you test if the relationship is strong enough to withstand the offence, and if the friend gives the appropriate response to show you he in fact did not get offended, the relationship is affirmed and becomes stronger. Here's…

Ah, now this is interesting. I can see that I often fail friendship tests such as yours. I don't actually tend to take things seriously, but I'm particularly bad at showing that I'm not taking something seriously. Or so I've been told, though I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing wrong. Fortunately I have an amazing wife and a few good friends, so making new ones isn't particularly important to me. Which I guess is li…

You're doing fine. I think there's need to be potential for friendship in the first place. If one person don't get the other's humour or the other person don't get the response, I think it could be because there's not enough shared experience or shared perspectives for the two people involved, and that's that. There's nothing you need to do - the kind of person you are, will likely be friends with, the kind of people, your kind of person tends to be friends with, so enjoy. :)

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#506

Post by spin »

rdancer wrote: post #502
spin wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree. I have un-followed a few people and now I only friend people that actually want to be friends with. I try to avoid posting political or technical things (mostly). So now, my FB is mostly just sharing pics and events with friends. (Actual friends, that I see IRL.) (... now if only I could get rid of the ads...)

> (... now if only I could get rid of the ads...) uBlock Origin

Oh, hey! That worked like a charm. Thank you.

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#507

Post by jacalata »

wildmXranat wrote: post #425
randomacct44 wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been playing Clash Royale on iPad (it's a multiplayer battle game set in the Clash of Clans universe that essentially drops the base building element and concentrates on the strategic combat). Generally, competitive multiplayer games can be pretty harsh (devolving into toxic) communities. Clash Royale addresses this problem in an interesting way. You're allowed to communicate with your opponent, but only from a…

>... You're allowed to communicate with your opponent, but only from a fixed vocabulary. This is what Nintendo did, at least in online Mario Kart for WiiU, and it's great. I allow my 6 year old get acquainted with this very safe version of online play and she loves saying all the positive things to the other players.

Kids often get around those limitations pretty creatively: http://lanayarosh.com/2014/06/whitelist-chat-as-a-strategy-t...

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#508

Post by pgeorgi »

jccc wrote: post #14

> 'to turn as swimmers into cleanness leaping.’ I had to look that one up: Peace, by Rupert Brooke, 1914: "A paradoxical image, comparing going to war as an act that cleanses the participants, like a dip in a pool or river." https://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/rupert-br... I'm assuming that connection was intentional, because Stephen Fry is smarter than me.

Just remember that this vision of war was the prevailing attitude in pre-WW1 Europe (maybe also in America, but what do I know?).

It helped that the (thought) leaders espousing such nonsense rarely fought at the front lines. For them the only things that could be bruised by war were their ego and their wallet.

WW1's reach changed that (and WW2 shook it up some more)

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#509

Post by vacri »

reitanqild wrote: post #466
bitwize wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It so happens that Western Europe has settled on a political system or set of systems which aren't perfect, but basically work well for everybody. Europeans have much less "stuff" than Americans, but when it comes to the basics -- health, education, public infrastructure, in some cases even housing -- everybody, rich and poor, has more or less equal access. America, by contrast, has got its shit so not in one sock th…

Don't get me wrong: I enjoy the European system and I think you are mostly right. What I don't like is the constant framing going on from the currently politically correct ones on the left. I do not think it would be better the other way around, just state my wish for a bit of sane discussion. "democracy is the worst form of government - except for all the rest" I guess.

> What I don't like is the constant framing going on from the currently politically correct ones on the left

Speaking of framing, that's a nice job you've done right there.

Everyone in politics reframes things, and constantly, too. It's a fundamental part of politics. People even get hired to reframe things as a profession ("PR Consultants" or "Spin Doctors"), and all varieties of politics hire them.

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#510

Post by ZeroGravitas »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #312
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Twitter is making things worse than they used to be. Society has the problem. Twitter just makes it public. Remember, the US used to have anti-communist witch hunts in which people were forced to give up their careers, it had actual physical lynchings, and it still has a culture where the police can do more or less whatever they want with limited accountability. People being disrespectful or even stalke…

Remember, the US used to have anti-communist witch hunts in which people were forced to give up their careers,... Actually we still have those, and twitter often plays an important role. C.f. Pax Dickinson, Justine Sacco or Brandon Eich. Luckily we've moved beyond lynchings and other such political terrorism in the US. It still seems to happen in Europe, however: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/26/french-ta…

Your prison system has been described as a slow-motion Holocaust and the new Jim Crow. Does that not count as political terrorism?

Or is this the same linguistic problem where 3000 dead in an intentionally collapsed building in NYC is terrorism, but two million killed by intentionally collapsing a middle-eastern state doesn't really have a word that we can use, so it seems harder to grasp somehow.

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