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The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence

aeon.co

141–150 of 212 posts

Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence

#141
post #9

I have made this case before, but I will make it again. The Internet is the largest information system in the world, and Google is the primary portal into that information system. Google's "organic" results are accompanied by AdWords results, which are based on a mixture of bid price and relevance. These ads are marked with a small "Ad" label that many people miss, and even those who know they're ads can't really "un…

Without AdWords those advertising dollars would be spent on manipulating organic search results instead. That would be far worse.

Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence

#142
post #95

Here is the actual study: http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/E4512.full.pdf I can't see how this is valid at all. We know that polls give biased results unless you are very careful with the sampling. Here people are self-selecting for a poll (eg via mechanical turk). Then you apply a highly contrived scenario that they are googling about a candidate. Then you ask them a bunch of questions, immediately, and proceed to…

I had to stop reading the article when it invited the reader to compare two loosely-related percentages as if they were the same measure:-

"We predicted that the opinions and voting preferences of 2 or 3 per cent of the people in the two bias groups ... would shift toward that candidate. What we actually found was astonishing. The proportion of people favouring the search engine’s top-ranked candidate increased by 48.4 per cent"

Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence

#143

I remember the '90s, when the Internet as we know it was just a baby... The enthusiasm we all shared for it. Of a better future. Of true democracy in the world. Of free people, free minds. The Internet will be the cure for all the social ills that humanity has experienced in the past. People will trade and talk with each other and that's how we can have peace on Earth! We will be able to discuss, collaborate, create.…

Re: "I remember the '90s, when the Internet as we know it was just a baby... The enthusiasm we all shared for it. Of a better future. Of true democracy in the world. Of free people, free minds. The Internet will be the cure for all the social ills that humanity has experienced in the past. People will trade and talk with each other and that's how we can have peace on Earth!" The inventor of television thought it woul…

TLDR, but I'd like a citation for those voter fraud investigations. The usual explanation for reduced voter turnout when voter ID laws are applied is the difficulty of obtaining ID (D districts may be further from the relevant offices than R districtsm, and for some reason it costs money and you can't do it by post).

I'm also confused as to what -285% could possibly mean - voters stopped turning out so hard that they ended up voting for the other party twice over?

Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence

#144
Most people find this a joke, but I don't kid when I say that 4Chan might be the single most influential political force today.

4Chan's 'meme makers' have an uncanny ability to distill an idea to its simplest form. Ideas that emerge on 4Chan end up on Reddit, from where they are picked up by Buzzfeed and HuffPo. Before you know it, what was a dumb little idea spawned by some anon on /b has become a part of 'internet culture'

I've seen firsthand how 4Chan has been able to influence Trump's presidential run. If it weren't for /pol's constant shilling for him, I doubt Trump would've had so much support. 4Chan's memes have changed perceptions of Trump, whether you like it or not

Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence

#145
post #9

I have made this case before, but I will make it again. The Internet is the largest information system in the world, and Google is the primary portal into that information system. Google's "organic" results are accompanied by AdWords results, which are based on a mixture of bid price and relevance. These ads are marked with a small "Ad" label that many people miss, and even those who know they're ads can't really "un…

I disagree entirely.

The essential point I want to make is that just because you have a right to something, does not mean you have a right to the material implementation of that right. (Because that would mean you had a right to the labour and property of others, i.e. a right to violate their rights).

You have a right to free speech. You do not have the right to publish your opinions in any outlet of your choice (because that would violate the publishers' rights). Even if you lived in a small town with only one newspaper, and they wouldn't print your letters to the editor, it still wouldn't be right for you to compel them to print your letters by legal means. They built the audience, its their right to communicate with them as they see fit. (This isn't censorship, because you're still free to hand out flyers in the street, start your own newspaper, sue the existing newspaper if they commit libel, etc).

Your argument is essentially that because Google is "the world's largest information system", we shouldn't be "letting" them put whatever content they want on their pages, for whatever reason they want. The implication is that if someone builds something really useful, that thing should become public property. (People are saying the same thing about Twitter).

AdWords is absolutely moral because a privately-run service needs a source of funding. (I should note that I do think many PPC ad networks are exploitative and immoral, but that's not the case for Google).

Unless someone sets up a nonprofit search engine run by donations, the only alternative is a public, state-funded search engine -- that's the only way to get an "information system not biased by money". On the unlikely possibility that the state could build and maintain such a system, it would be the most powerful tool for potential censorship imaginable.

Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence

#146

Most people find this a joke, but I don't kid when I say that 4Chan might be the single most influential political force today. 4Chan's 'meme makers' have an uncanny ability to distill an idea to its simplest form. Ideas that emerge on 4Chan end up on Reddit, from where they are picked up by Buzzfeed and HuffPo. Before you know it, what was a dumb little idea spawned by some anon on /b has become a part of 'internet…

Reddit is very anti-trump, and liberal. Most reputable media companies in the western world are liberal. Do you have an example of a website like huffpo or buzzfeed quoting reddit about how awesome that beautiful pepe gif of trumps train with no brakes is?

Any trump content is heavily downvoted on reddit. Just click on controversial posts on reddit, filter for today or the whole week, one subreddit will be most prominent.

Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence

#148

Most people find this a joke, but I don't kid when I say that 4Chan might be the single most influential political force today. 4Chan's 'meme makers' have an uncanny ability to distill an idea to its simplest form. Ideas that emerge on 4Chan end up on Reddit, from where they are picked up by Buzzfeed and HuffPo. Before you know it, what was a dumb little idea spawned by some anon on /b has become a part of 'internet…

Reddit is very anti-trump, and liberal. Most reputable media companies in the western world are liberal. Do you have an example of a website like huffpo or buzzfeed quoting reddit about how awesome that beautiful pepe gif of trumps train with no brakes is? Any trump content is heavily downvoted on reddit. Just click on controversial posts on reddit, filter for today or the whole week, one subreddit will be most promi…

Reddit has a surprisingly strong/large pro-trump subreddit: /r/TheDonald, which seems to pop up on the front page with alarming regularity.

Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence

#149

Most people find this a joke, but I don't kid when I say that 4Chan might be the single most influential political force today. 4Chan's 'meme makers' have an uncanny ability to distill an idea to its simplest form. Ideas that emerge on 4Chan end up on Reddit, from where they are picked up by Buzzfeed and HuffPo. Before you know it, what was a dumb little idea spawned by some anon on /b has become a part of 'internet…

Except... the Trump memes were just trolling. Until he took it and posted that image with "Can't stump the Trump". Nobody shills for Trump because they want him to win, it's just a dumb fun thing like holding your hand over an open flame until you get burned. You don't do it because you want to get burned, you do it for the socio-tribal meta-significance of the act.

Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence

#150

Most people find this a joke, but I don't kid when I say that 4Chan might be the single most influential political force today. 4Chan's 'meme makers' have an uncanny ability to distill an idea to its simplest form. Ideas that emerge on 4Chan end up on Reddit, from where they are picked up by Buzzfeed and HuffPo. Before you know it, what was a dumb little idea spawned by some anon on /b has become a part of 'internet…

>Most people find this a joke, but I don't kid when I say that 4Chan might be the single most influential political force today.

I do hope you are kidding, because to say that a fringe Internet forum holds more sway on the masses than TV, newspapers, Super PACs, corporate lobbies, etc, then I think you are seeing things very very wrong.

>I've seen firsthand how 4Chan has been able to influence Trump's presidential run. If it weren't for /pol's constant shilling for him, I doubt Trump would've had so much support. 4Chan's memes have changed perceptions of Trump, whether you like it or not

Trump is winning states left right and center. Millions of Americans are voting for him. After everything that can be said about Trump, I wonder what makes you think this is attributed to, of all things, 4chan? Isn't this a little too megalomaniac?

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