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Mark in the Middle

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Re: Mark in the Middle

#91

Post by mythrwy »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #77
secondcoming wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately you'll be downvoted to hell once the US west coast gets out of bed.

Yeh I kind of groked that but when you get Cindy McCain and previous Republican Presidents endorsing Biden. I still maintain that business leaders and journalists have a lot to answer for the rise of far right demagogues that are damaging both Us citizens and pose a threat to world stability.

Seems like those folks endorsing Biden might be a signal that something is wrong with the Biden camp to people who actually want change.

Re: Mark in the Middle

#92

Post by onion2k »

ptsneves wrote: post #75
onion2k wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the way people like JK Rowling have been hounded for not agreeing on every point with some people is very depressing to see, considering that she has been quite supportive in the past of the very groups that are hounding her. She has changed a lot since writing Harry Potter. It's obvious that she no longer believes in supporting marginalised groups or telling people that it's OK to be who you want to be. Her re…

Damn you see the plot point of a serial killer dressing as a woman as attack on trans? I often wonder if I am crazy, because that would never cross my mind. Why would I associate a serial killer with trans? Maybe a woman serial killer that kills women is also an attack on women? I think this kind of reaction actually harms trans more than the story. So out of this world that people will think that trans or gay or blu…

Damn you see the plot point of a serial killer dressing as a woman as attack on trans?

In itself, no. When it comes from someone who has a history of claiming trans people are dangerous and shouldn't be alone with women, yes. Context is important.

Re: Mark in the Middle

#93

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

notacoward wrote: post #81
coldcode wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing remarkable in a company that makes lawnmowers. Facebook is a company that uses its power to change what people think because so many view it as a source of truth. Doing it for money, or doing it for power, is essentially the same thing. If you are in position to manipulate the truth for benefits to you or your friends in high places you will, and he is. If I worked at Facebook and felt the CEO was twisting tr…

> Facebook is a company that uses its power to change what people think I don't think that's a helpful way to look at it. Facebook is a platform that other people use to change what people think, and that's dangerous enough. Without any ill intent whatsoever from Facebook itself, that still creates serious issues with unintentional bias (e.g. via algorithms trained with poor data sets) and manipulation. Those are the…

Doesn't Mark Zuckerberg have the final say on what Facebook algorithms show people?

Re: Mark in the Middle

#94

Post by verdverm »

pjc50 wrote: post #68

> "In my work with Joel, I’ve found him to be ... very rigorous and principled in his thinking [and therefore I'm happy to work with him despite being a Republican]" The set of people for whom this is true is shrinking by the day; remaining Republican requires an increasingly bizarre set of intellectual contortions. For example, you'd have to believe that appointing a Supreme Court justice right at the end of your te…

Historically this is pretty standard, I think 28 times there has been a vacancy in the SCOTUS in an election year. It has (almost?) always followed the pattern of:

- when same party, nominate and confirm

- when not same party, nominate no confirm

We all really need to expand our historical perspectives on many issues instead of being short sighted politically.

Re: Mark in the Middle

#95

Post by C1sc0cat »

mythrwy wrote: post #91
C1sc0cat wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeh I kind of groked that but when you get Cindy McCain and previous Republican Presidents endorsing Biden. I still maintain that business leaders and journalists have a lot to answer for the rise of far right demagogues that are damaging both Us citizens and pose a threat to world stability.

Seems like those folks endorsing Biden might be a signal that something is wrong with the Biden camp to people who actually want change.

People who need to understand that winning and replacing the incumbent is the only priority.

Re: Mark in the Middle

#96

Post by benwad »

croissants wrote: post #73
mcintyre1994 wrote: post #50

I think coverage of Facebook is often too US-heavy and it really misses the point by making it into a US partisan issue - this article mentions Trump but doesn't mention Ethiopia. Here's a Vice Article about how hate speech on Facebook is currently pushing Ethiopia toward a genocide just like it did in Myanmar a few years ago: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xg897a/hate-speech-on-fac...

I struggle with this issue. On the one hand, I think clear incitement to violence is a line that free speech shouldn't cross, so Facebook really should have deleted posts calling for some people to be burned more quickly. On the other hand, the idea that Facebook is culpable here seems to take for granted a large chunk of Ethiopians who'll just do what they're told by Facebook posts, which seems to give very little c…

IMO Facebook should be able to police its own platform, so if it has a large presence in Ethiopia then it needs to police that part of its platform (ideally using employees based in Ethiopia). If it feels it can't effectively police Ethiopian Facebook without amplifying hateful/violent messages then they shouldn't be operating there.

Re: Mark in the Middle

#97

Post by charlesu »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #79
bitxbit wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s no discussion to be had when you’re FOR equality and the other side is arguing against it. There’s equality and fairness. The rest is garbage. There’s no need to meet in between and compromise. If you compromise with sh tty ideas you are gonna get sh t on your shirt.

>There’s no discussion to be had when you’re FOR equality and the other side is arguing against it. Kind of like how there's a subset of a certain political party that believes fetuses have the same right to life as infants. Or how some people believe someone who comes from a statistically high crime demographic, has $120 in their checking account and face tattoos has the same right to own a gun as someone from a low…

What is a "statistically high crime demographic"? Men? It's men, right? Statistically speaking the vast majority of violent crime is committed by men [0].

[0] https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-...

Re: Mark in the Middle

#98

Post by bitxbit »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #79
bitxbit wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s no discussion to be had when you’re FOR equality and the other side is arguing against it. There’s equality and fairness. The rest is garbage. There’s no need to meet in between and compromise. If you compromise with sh tty ideas you are gonna get sh t on your shirt.

>There’s no discussion to be had when you’re FOR equality and the other side is arguing against it. Kind of like how there's a subset of a certain political party that believes fetuses have the same right to life as infants. Or how some people believe someone who comes from a statistically high crime demographic, has $120 in their checking account and face tattoos has the same right to own a gun as someone from a low…

[flagged]

Re: Mark in the Middle

#99

Post by nabla9 »

henearkr wrote: post #83
nabla9 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My argument was that "Google cares foremost" relevant to Facebook only as far as their business allows it, just like Facebook. There may be small percentage of something else but it's the main explanation. This was my main criticism. What is your response to that?

FB could have taken the same stance than Google about carbon-neutrality targets. It could have also pledged to not data-mine user DMs. It did not.

> It could have also pledged to not data-mine user DMs.

To counter my argument you must

1) find an example,

2) estimate the economic burden of that estimate.

It's my understanding that DM' is much more important part of FB business than it is to Google. My argument relies on weighing the economic impact.

Re: Mark in the Middle

#100

Post by charlesu »

blueterminal wrote: post #46
frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #20

Whatever you think of the opinion of some of the employees regarding FB's stance towards politics, they're just never going to get their way without a union. It's exactly right that FB is a monarchy and what we see here are akin to the political challenges you'd read about in a monarchy. The small collective actions seem to be a good step in that direction but still much, much smaller than you'd need to form a union.…

Unions are absolutely detrimental to the society. Thank god we'll never have one for Software Engineers. Great short explanation from Milton Friedman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzYgiOC9cj4

Do you support child labor laws, weekends off, and reasonable working hours? Because if you do, I got news for you...
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