How Twitter poisoned politics • Hacker News Board

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#51

Post by abtinf » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:39 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…

> Was there a time when politics wasn't full of poison?

No. Reason made this short video about the political attacks from the election of 1800

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_zTN4BXvYI

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#52

Post by someguydave » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:40 PM UTC

gassed wrote: post #46

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.

Mass-democracy was well-known to be a terrible idea by many wise people in history, for the precise reasons that Twitter is revealing.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#53

Post by ntsplnkv2 » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:45 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…

The US fought a civil war over politics.

But there are times where it is better/worse than others.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#54

Post by chiefalchemist » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:48 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…

> "Was there a time when politics wasn't full of poison?"

Short answer: Nope.

A couple years ago I read "Freedom for the Thoughts That We Hate." Aside from the history of the 1st Amendment, my #1 takeaway was: "politics has always been ugly and dirty."

That said, I think what's difference now is more and more people are less and less aware of history, as well as the fact that the MSM has finally figured out how to make money in the internet age (i.e., a "news" cycle based on controversy).

Editorial: Say what you want about Trump (I'm not a fan either) but even at his worst he's no where near as dangerous as Dick Cheney. To believe otherwise is only a sign of not understanding Cheney's nastiness.

Even if you compare DJT to BHO, BHO was no saint either (e.g., Wall Street was "pardoned" but Snowden was a Most Wanted). However, the MSM's narrative of BHO was one that over-glorified the upside and completely ignored the darkside. Unfortunately, playing to that manufactured extreme contrast today is good for profits in the DJT era.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_for_the_Thought_That_W...

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#55

Post by dphack » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:49 PM UTC

someguydave wrote: post #52

gassed wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Mass-democracy was well-known to be a terrible idea by many wise people in history, for the precise reasons that Twitter is revealing.

Lol, the Orville had an episode called 'Majority Rule' that is a funny take at a total democracy.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#56

Post by travisoneill1 » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 5:57 PM UTC

burlesona wrote: post #15

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…

I'd just call it "road rage." There's some research into this and my high-level understanding is that when people feel "safe inside their armor" - whether that's the metal of the car or the semi-anonymity of the internet, their animal instincts come out. It's fueled from both directions. In a tweet you don't really have context or body language or any of the other signals to tell you how someone means their message t…

This. How many times have you said casually "I'm going to kill ...?" Probably a lot, but now with Twitter it's a death threat. I post under real name to protect against that internet anonymity psychology.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#57

Post by PhasmaFelis » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:03 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…

America wasn't like this 20 years ago. Politics has always been bad, and there's times it's been even worse, but that doesn't mean it's not trending downward right now.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#58

Post by iak8god » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:05 PM UTC

ola wrote: post #45

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…

> 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.

It sounds like your company needs to fire these toxic individuals ASAP before the company gets taken to the cleaners in a lawsuit for allowing this to go on.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#59

Post by ola » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:09 PM UTC

iak8god wrote: post #58

ola wrote: post #45

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…

> 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. It sounds like your company needs to fire these toxic individuals ASAP before the company gets taken to the cleaners in a lawsuit for allowing this to go on.

I phrased that badly, these aren't individuals inside the company but people we play against or play with if we don't have enough for full teams.

Re: How Twitter poisoned politics

#60

Post by cheeseomlit » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:16 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…

Many have a justified distrust of any 'reputation systems', just look how the concept is used in China. Whoever controls the system has great potential for social engineering