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What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

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Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#81

Post by cazum »

zzzeek wrote: post #9

[flagged]

The only difference between trump and any other right leaning politician since the 80s is that trump says the quiet parts out loud.

Being a criminal doesn't automatically win you a ~90% party approval rating for wanting to build a massive racism wall or banning Muslims from entering the country. A hegemonic power structure and violent ideology does that. To say that the horrible shit trump has been pushing is not a symptom of a larger structure is to ignore the fact that equivalent horrifying injustices have also been committed by other Republicans (ICE, Patriot Act, invasion of iraq) and Democrats (civilian drone strikes, refugee child concentration camps) alike.

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#82

Post by dredmorbius »

giardini wrote: post #79

What the Hell happened to informative titles?

You can email hn@ycombinator.com if you feel a title is clickbait, requesting a change.

(I have, here.)

"How the shift from information scarcity to information abundance is transforming commerce, education, and politics", from the text, might work, though it's long.

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#83

Post by abvdasker »

jjoonathan wrote: post #15
axaxs wrote: post #6

For anyone just skimming comments - this is a very well written, well researched, thoughtful, and objective piece. That's pretty rare in today's climate. Definitely worth the read. It's the first time I can remember signing up for a newsletter voluntarily, despite my general distaste for those types of popovers.

The introduction's tacky and condescending tone lost me. Does it get better?

Came here to say this. The intro seemed to think it was much more clever than it really is. It's very easy to pick descriptive language vague enough that it applies to multiple subjects. I had to stop reading after that.

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#84

Post by blfr »

What the hell is going on?

These are real trends but I have a different answer to the opening question: the elites are failing, they don't seem better than the rest of us any more.

And I don't think it's just a matter of explosion of information available online. They're really not as sharp and competent as their predecessors, not as good, definitely not nearly as bold.

The reason Trump could bulldoze through two America's most powerful political dynasties is not Hillary's emails on Wikileaks but their weak candidates who had to rely completely on warchests, pundits, media and party machine. And the machine didn't fail them. They failed the machine.

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#85

Post by [deleted] »

throwdaddy425 wrote: post #20
ThomPete wrote: post #4

It's pretty simple in my book and is why I expected Trump to have a good chance of winning the election. Both Trump and AOC are populists. They care less about what's factually true and more about whats emotionally true. Politics is not about being factually correct. You can be correct but still not have it your way. This is what Trump knew. Perception is reality. That's why it never make sense to judge a politician…

People can downvote you, but that doesn't make what you're saying any less true. Analysts agree that Trump used these sorts of tactics to win the election.

[deleted]

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#86

Post by rossdavidh »

On the one hand, some very good points. I think a survey of 20th century history strongly supports the idea that Big Media helped determine what kinds of leadership we got, and so it must be the case that 21st century internet media are doing the same. The comparisons of similar trends in education and commerce are worth reading (if over-long).

On the other hand, the underlying assumption is that the revolt against elite policy preferences, not only in the U.S. but in Europe and elsewhere, is entirely devoid of rational motivation. It discounts without comment the possibility that the pre-internet style of governance had substantive problems which the working class didn't like (e.g. globalization leading to a race to the bottom in manufacturing wages).

Surely the new methods of information access and distribution are having an impact. But it's not the only, or even necessarily the most important, driver.

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#87

Post by astazangasta »

This is a garbage post. I read as much as I could but it is full of basic errors like this: "The cost of a university education grew linearly, as the number of global college graduates grew exponentially. As a result, college degrees aren’t as valuable as they once were."

The number of anything grows exponentially because population grows exponentially. It doesn't mean anything. Earlier they say "big brands are in decline" because GM and Ford lost market share. Well, are big brands in decline or just those two? Were they replaced by a bunch of small brands or just Honda and Toyota?

This is a bunch of incorrect stuff masquerading as a point.

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#88

Post by JasonFruit »

microcolonel wrote: post #5

> Half of you think I’m describing Donald Trump. The other half, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Not really, no. The people who are aware of both AOC and DJT enough to have an opinion are not split evenly in terms of their thinking about each of these politicians. I don't despise AOC, I just don't particularly care for her, and I think the way she was elected by exploiting people's lack of attention to the primary race, an…

What does MOR stand for?

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#89

Post by burlesona »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #31
ThomPete wrote: post #4

It's pretty simple in my book and is why I expected Trump to have a good chance of winning the election. Both Trump and AOC are populists. They care less about what's factually true and more about whats emotionally true. Politics is not about being factually correct. You can be correct but still not have it your way. This is what Trump knew. Perception is reality. That's why it never make sense to judge a politician…

Who do you think the was last president to win on facts and not populist appeals to emotion?

That’s a really interesting question. I don’t know the answer, but the common refrain is that Kennedy was the first president of the TV era - where personality and charisma were suddenly most important. In that case perhaps Eisenhower (his predecessor) was the last of the “facts” presidents?

Then by extension, perhaps Obama was the last of the “personality and charisma” era?

Re: What the Hell Is Going On? Effects of Information Abundance

#90

Post by jokoon »

One thing is sure, I really don't engage in internet discussions the same way I did. I haven't used facebook (where everybody is) for such a long time, all I do is use reddit, and I've restrained more and more to leave a comment.

I'd rather let people yell and be part of a silent majority than participate in crowded internet discussions.

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