Mark in the Middle • Hacker News Board

Re: Mark in the Middle

#221

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 24, 2020, 6:21 PM UTC

scottlamb wrote: post #179

_qulr wrote: post #87

Politics aside, many Facebook employees come across as rather childish, incapable of taking care of themselves. The big complaint is about lack of snacks! Zuck has to scold them by asking rhetorically whether they joined the company for the free food. And one employee asks if they can go live on an island by themselves, apparently like Lord of the Flies. Of course one may fairly ask whether Facebook's hiring process…

> The big complaint is about lack of snacks! Free food , including meals. If Facebook is anything like Google, some single people were literally using that for every meal and snack 5/7 days per week. It's tasty, nutritious food, and you don't have to prepare it or do dishes. Sure, an adult should be able to take care of this on their own, but this is a major perk, not just a box of granola bars on a shelf. It might c…

[deleted]

Re: Mark in the Middle

#222

Post by saeranv » Thu, Sep 24, 2020, 6:21 PM UTC

grawprog wrote: post #203

So, facebook employees are mad they're not allowed to censor things they disagree with that people post on facebook? I don't understand how facebook came to be responsible for policing political opinions anyway. In fact, I don't understand why employees at tech companies believe they have the right to police people's opinions period. I see it amongst commenters here too. What gives any of these people the right to po…

This is a strawman argument. No one cares about other people having and sharing different opinions. However the argument for moderating content on Facebook is centered around misinformation, and incitement of violence. There has now been multiple instances where right-wing populists have posted fake information on Facebook with political consequences. In Myanmar this incited in genocide[1].

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebo...

Re: Mark in the Middle

#223

Post by dsbleia » Thu, Sep 24, 2020, 6:22 PM UTC

I think this actually made Zuck's leadership look solid. Of course it's a little naive to say "we aren't political", but he's probably just doing that because it's the calculated thing to say. Almost every other company says things like that, except for a few ideological ones in Silicon Valley.

I don't know how anyone takes these employees at FB seriously. They are complaining about the lack of free snacks? Anyone complaining about a 'lack of free snacks' is someone you should certainly ignore.

Re: Mark in the Middle

#224

Post by scarmig » Thu, Sep 24, 2020, 6:22 PM UTC

pirocks wrote: post #78

jcims wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/

Not sure what your saying. But if your saying they got it wrong they gave trump a 25+% of winning. Things with a 1/4th probability happen all the time.

Sure, they happen, but how often? One in hundred times?

Re: Mark in the Middle

#225

Post by godshatter » Thu, Sep 24, 2020, 6:22 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #55

loxs wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an outsider (from a different continent), it doesn't seem at all likely that there is a chance for Biden winning. It probably looks the same from where Zuck is sitting. We might, of course, both be wrong :)

My money is on Biden receiving the most votes in the popular vote, but Trump still being in power next year, and a huge amount of litigation and riots in the meantime. (Not sure why this got downvoted; Clinton won the popular vote last time, I see no reason that won't happen again?)

I would hope that Biden's team learned from Clinton's run that they need to focus on winning the most electoral votes this time and not just the most votes, period.

Re: Mark in the Middle

#226

Post by lalaland1125 » Thu, Sep 24, 2020, 6:24 PM UTC

actuator wrote: post #197

lalaland1125 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think it would be "illiberal" to hound someone for believing that white people are inherently superior to black people? To keep things in context, JK Rowling has stated that she believes that biologically male people are inherently a danger to biologically female people. This is fundamentally the paradox of tolerance: is it intolerant to be hostile to intolerant beliefs? JK Rowling's essay explaining her stanc…

I never said if I agree or disagree with her, but seeing her experience with assault in the past. Can you see why she might feel like that? I sympathise with her and the groups she referred to as well. We all are a product of our experiences and hardships, at the end of the day that shapes our opinions. We can disagree with her but do we really need to resort to these methods.

I understand why she has these sorts of terrible beliefs, but I still think she deserves criticism for having them. Did you know that some anti-black racists also justify their beliefs based on their personal experiences? One person's individual experience is not an excuse for having terrible beliefs.

It all comes back to the fundamental question: is it ethical to criticize racists/sexists/homophobes/etc? You seem to be proposing that it's unethical to criticize such people?

Re: Mark in the Middle

#227

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 24, 2020, 6:24 PM UTC

buhhh wrote: post #196

krapp wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It appears FB is essentially a right-wing mouth piece, idk if that is a controversial opinion, but the data appears that way, I think. Given that the common narrative around Facebook is that it, along with all other social media, is engaged in a leftist conspiracy to purge all conservative and right-wing speech from the internet, I'd say it would be.

Projection is a great tactic, isn't it?

[deleted]

Re: Mark in the Middle

#228

Post by justanotheranon » Thu, Sep 24, 2020, 6:24 PM UTC

krapp wrote: post #189

notional wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last 24hrs top-performing pages in the US, for anyone who can't click the link. 1. Dan Bongino 2. Dan Bongino 3. Breitbart 4. Fox News 5. Robert Reich 6. NPR 7. Ben Shapiro 8. Dan Bongino 9. Mark Levin 10. Bernie Sanders This is curated by https://twitter.com/kevinroose I had to look up most of those names but if you're wondering, looking back a couple weeks it's usually 9/10 or 10/10 right-wing talk hosts/sources. I…

>It appears FB is essentially a right-wing mouth piece, idk if that is a controversial opinion, but the data appears that way, I think. Given that the common narrative around Facebook is that it, along with all other social media, is engaged in a leftist conspiracy to purge all conservative and right-wing speech from the internet, I'd say it would be.

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Re: Mark in the Middle

#229

Post by starkred » Thu, Sep 24, 2020, 6:24 PM UTC

grawprog wrote: post #203

So, facebook employees are mad they're not allowed to censor things they disagree with that people post on facebook? I don't understand how facebook came to be responsible for policing political opinions anyway. In fact, I don't understand why employees at tech companies believe they have the right to police people's opinions period. I see it amongst commenters here too. What gives any of these people the right to po…

I still don't get it and I can't get away from 'printing press' analogies.

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" resulted in countless deaths but who owns that responsibly besides whoever wrote it, read it, and acted on the information within? You could blame it's publishers but that seems pretty off-track.

Also every company I've ever worked at has angry, self-righteous employees who disagree with upper management. We all think we're smarter than everyone else and most of us aren't afraid to share it.

Re: Mark in the Middle

#230

Post by vkou » Thu, Sep 24, 2020, 6:24 PM UTC

grawprog wrote: post #203

So, facebook employees are mad they're not allowed to censor things they disagree with that people post on facebook? I don't understand how facebook came to be responsible for policing political opinions anyway. In fact, I don't understand why employees at tech companies believe they have the right to police people's opinions period. I see it amongst commenters here too. What gives any of these people the right to po…

As long as Facebook picks and chooses what content it displays on my feed, it is not at all inconsistent for it to pick and choose what content it will not display on my feed.

Facebook isn't a dumb pipe. If it feels like it can fiddle with my feed to maximize its profit, its perfectly reasonable for its employees to demand that it does so in an ethical way.

Your argument would work if it were a dumb pipe (Like my phone line is.)