YouTube's tendency to push everyday users toward politically extreme content

Like CNN said, it's up to them to interpret for the people. Now back in line sheep, and get ready to be sheared...

I've noticed this as well, the algorithm hones in on a few topics and videos. Interestingly enough, so does the algorithm on the Quora app. I hate this behavior, I want to use a recommendation algorithm to discover new similar content. My guess is that a "new similar content" algorithm doesn't get the same levels of engagement. Maybe its the same as radio stations playing the same twenty songs on a loop.

Clearly google knows what their doing, its just disheartening that this algorithm is the best for engagement. Also makes me wonder about human habit and reinforcement...

The international corporate media has not been honest in its reporting of the refugee situation in Europe. This is becoming clearer year by year, because some of the facts that were earlier dismissed as racist rhetoric are now becoming very difficult to ignore. For example earlier this year, Chancellor Merkel finally admitted that there are "no-go" zones in the country where even the police dare not go. This is an extremely serious problem.

People flock to this content because they are not getting the whole truth from the corporate media, and that is the root of this problem. YouTube's content would not be compelling if these things were being reported honestly, and given the same degree of volume as other important stories.

In my country, India, there are plenty of places in which the value systems are completely at odds with ideas of gender equality, religious tolerance, racial equality, and LGBT equality. If a western country were to create pockets of populations where people held these values, it would be extremely incompatible with the norm in the societies that they have achieved today. As a result, these places would be radically transformed into incredibly dangerous areas, particularly for women and LGBT folks. It is not bigoted to point this out, it is true because this reality exists in our country, and it is one that we are aware of and grapple with. Of course it will exist in another country if a large enough number of people who hold these ideas are imported en masse. If these values existed in Syria or Sudan or other parts of the world where refugees are coming from, of course this will become a problem for the country that is resettling them. This was a valid criticism that did not get a fair enough deal from the media, and the consequences have been life altering for many Europeans.

The dream of multicultural societies where everyone lives together in harmony requires everyone to buy into it. If there are bad actors, and others are aware of this, it does not make them bad actors too. The media seems to have been hesitant, perhaps because of fears of stoking xenophobia by providing it with legitimate information that could be compelling for their cause. There is never a good reason not to tell the truth about these things, this is the result of what happens when you go down that path. At this point, many are convinced that the news media had sinister and not well intentioned motives, behind why this was done, and as a result trust in the news media too will decline rapidly, in favor of rag tag YouTube operations.

It can be true and racist at the same time.

If you never care about rapes except when it’s a dark skinned perpetrator in a white dominated country, then you are both racist and correct that that rape amongst refugees is an important issue.

Dislikes and "not interested" are important.