How Twitter poisoned politics • Hacker News Board

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#41

Post by davidw » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:28 PM UTC

kibwen wrote: post #9

Part of me wonders if it's possible that there's just something about the nature of the internet that induces instability in otherwise-ordinary people. I think about photosensitive epilepsy and how it was a more-or-less benign feature of the human brain until technological progress caused flashing lights to be absolutely everywhere. I worry that I can't discount the possibility that some heretofore latent feature of…

"The social dynamics of the net are a direct consequence of the fact that nobody has yet developed a Remote Strangulation Protocol." - Larry Wall

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#42

Post by dc2 » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:29 PM UTC

Twitter is like trying to watch a football game where all 40,000 members of the audience have a microphone and each think they should be the announcer.

You turn the TV volume off, but members of the media have been perusing the seats for a interesting cherry-picked "announcer". Finding one, they parrot it to the rest of the world and that guy's opinion shows up on your phone anyway.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#43

Post by komali2 » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:29 PM UTC

I just wish it wasn't full of bots... facebook is my only actual way to put a thumb on political opinions across the spectrum I have access to (friends in SF, Texas, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and then internationally).

Despite subscribing to one of those bot blocklists, it's still incessant. There's just so many bots. It's become a mild hobby of mine to hop on the latest "Twitter Moment" about politics just to refresh my public blocklist.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#44

Post by dlivingston » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:29 PM UTC

brightball wrote: post #19

From the moment that news outlets started reporting on things said on Twitter years ago, I assumed this would happen. With enough bots, you gain the ability to create any narrative you want. Create story, then create the image that you want the supporters of one side to have, followed by the image for the other side. Use bots and retweets to amplify. You gain the power to define what's happening culturally if the new…

The engagement of user responses seems to have no bearing on whether a news article will embed them. I cannot count the times I have seen some CNN, Business Insider, etc. article talking about the latest Twitter 'controversy', and the tweets they link to have a handful (zero-to-five) of retweets and stars.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#45

Post by ola » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:33 PM UTC

It's not only Twitter or politics. I've been playing some Heroes of the Storm as team building with my company and when we are not a full team the toxicity can get intense, with some people going far beyond just in match flaming to harassing with death and rape threats in direct messages long after the match is over.

Mind you this in a no-stakes free to play game and the phenomenon seems common. Sometimes I think our culture is not ready for a substantial part of our communication not to be face to face.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#46

Post by gassed » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:34 PM UTC

ordinaryperson wrote: post #34

Was there a time when politics wasn't full of poison? By the end Thomas Jefferson hated George Washington so much he refused to attend his funeral. And that's just 242-year history of America, you can go back to Rome, Greece or Ancient Egypt and see thousands of years of vitriol inside any large human collective. Modern tools could do a better job, sure. Twitter, FB, YouTube and the rest could use some kind of reputa…

Prob with social networks is that they bring vitriol to the masses, and uncover deeply-seated vulnerabilities in democracy.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#47

Post by pjc50 » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:34 PM UTC

kibwen wrote: post #9

Part of me wonders if it's possible that there's just something about the nature of the internet that induces instability in otherwise-ordinary people. I think about photosensitive epilepsy and how it was a more-or-less benign feature of the human brain until technological progress caused flashing lights to be absolutely everywhere. I worry that I can't discount the possibility that some heretofore latent feature of…

> gone from "totally outwardly normal" to "detached-from-reality, Hillary Clinton is a lizard person"

Millions of dollars of advertising money have gone into making them think that - and into reducing their desire to do critical thinking.

https://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/super-pac-scams-11458...

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/why-conservatives-suddenl...

https://www.vox.com/2015/10/23/9603028/conservative-marketin...

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-long-con (2012!)

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/04/scam-pacs-misleadin...

.. and that doesn't even require involving questions of foreign intelligence agencies and "psyops".

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#48

Post by cirgue » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:35 PM UTC

kibwen wrote: post #9

Part of me wonders if it's possible that there's just something about the nature of the internet that induces instability in otherwise-ordinary people. I think about photosensitive epilepsy and how it was a more-or-less benign feature of the human brain until technological progress caused flashing lights to be absolutely everywhere. I worry that I can't discount the possibility that some heretofore latent feature of…

Twitter is the collective thoughts of humanity when we're on our boring train commute, at home in our underwear at 2:00 am alone in our apartments, trying to waste time at work, in line at the supermarket, and in myriad other situations that put us at our most misanthropic, isolated, bitter, and sad. Twitter generally is a toxic cesspit, and the only reason to go on there is because whatever is going on in your life is worse than that.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#49

Post by sharpshadow » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:38 PM UTC

ordinaryperson wrote: post #34

Was there a time when politics wasn't full of poison? By the end Thomas Jefferson hated George Washington so much he refused to attend his funeral. And that's just 242-year history of America, you can go back to Rome, Greece or Ancient Egypt and see thousands of years of vitriol inside any large human collective. Modern tools could do a better job, sure. Twitter, FB, YouTube and the rest could use some kind of reputa…

During the time of Alexandria they 'hated' each other so much they burned everything down and we had 1000 years dark ages. I hope humanity will not be that stupid again.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#50

Post by pjc50 » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:39 PM UTC

dc2 wrote: post #42

Twitter is like trying to watch a football game where all 40,000 members of the audience have a microphone and each think they should be the announcer. You turn the TV volume off, but members of the media have been perusing the seats for a interesting cherry-picked "announcer". Finding one, they parrot it to the rest of the world and that guy's opinion shows up on your phone anyway.

But when this works well, it's actually one of the things I most enjoy about Twitter: kibitzing live events.