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Twitter Confirms It Halted 'Hang Mike Pence' as a Trending Topic

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Re: Twitter Confirms It Halted 'Hang Mike Pence' as a Trending Topic

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right. No one person can know everything about everything. Heaven's know I defer to experts if I know I can trust their opinion. The issue is trust. And US has about only one institution left that people seem to trust. Military. It does not bode well for the fate of the republic.

I wouldn’t agree that Americans universally trust their military.

Gallup poll numbers are at https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.as....

I don't know that "people" in the original argument equates to "universally", but the only institutions that a majority of people have either a "Great deal" or "Quite a lot" of trust in are the medical system (just barely, 51%), the military (72%), and small business (75%). So small business is trusted more than the military, and basically nothing else is.

6% of people have a great deal of trust in Congress and 9% in television news which I guess are around the percentage of dentists who recommend sugared gum to their patients who chew gum.

Re: Twitter Confirms It Halted 'Hang Mike Pence' as a Trending Topic

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the two sides exactly? There is a group that has produced no evidence for their claims and is threatening and acting out violence - is that one of the sides? There is a point in which a particular group is no longer acting in good faith, and is taking advantage of the tolerance and ability to have discourse. https://kottke.org/17/08/the-paradox-of-tolerance

You just described both sides. Side a: 2016 US election was stolen. 2020 was fair and square. Side b: 2020 US election was stolen. 2016 election was fair and square. Seems that there are a small number of people who think a) both elections were stolen or b) both elections were fair and square. They are being drowned out by sides a and b. If you fit side a or b above, you might want to some logical thinking. Pretty si…

More like:

2016 US election had foreign propaganda interference (damn our algos weren't good enough!)

2021 Open violent attack on democratic process to certify president election.

Re: Twitter Confirms It Halted 'Hang Mike Pence' as a Trending Topic

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We've got these two sides. Regardless of the merits, each side believes they know the truth, and that the other side is delusional. You're partially right. We have at least two sides. One side is CLEARLY delusional. Fueled by conspiracy theories and lies. We also have other sides, but the two sides that get the most attention are the only sides that matter. We have one side that is most definitely delusional, other…

I'm sorry but just because a small vocal and extreme part of the conservative party has chosen to buy into conspiracy theories does not mean the entire side has. I know many conservatives who have not gone down this path and hate what DJT has done to the party. Calling a huge portion of the country delusional with no basis or fact is precisely what is driving this division. Both sides have a lot more in common than y…

Yes! Democrats and Republicans agree on more than they think. At least those in the middle. We've fallen into this trap of thinking we're totally divided when we argue on the margins about taxes and healthcare (and don't get me wrong, there are some pretty big divisions there).

But today we're not really arguing over the margins; the question before us today is "should we live in a democracy where the people decide the outcome of elections?" 90% of Democrats and Republicans will agree that yes! We should!

Let's secure our democracy, then we can go back to arguing over the tax rate.

Re: Twitter Confirms It Halted 'Hang Mike Pence' as a Trending Topic

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No set of agreed-upon facts? That's just not true. There are good statistics on the number of deaths and positive tests for Covid. There is a reliable and agreed upon process for counting votes in the states, and plenty of avenues to dispute those counts, and a court system that has heard every single complaint from the losing Presidential candidate and made clear rulings based on the evidence. What is abundantly p…

> made clear rulings based on the evidence. At least some, maybe most of those challenges were dismissed on procedural grounds, lack of standing, etc. They never got to the point of examining the "evidence." Maybe the retort to that is the challengers should have foreseen that. But the people filing these challenges were not unhinged randos from Twitter. They were elected officials, lawyers, educated people. They are…

The lawyers refused to lie in court, because their "evidence" was just the lies and empty allegations, which would be a crime to present in court. So they were summarily dismissed, by Trump appointed judges no less.

Re: Twitter Confirms It Halted 'Hang Mike Pence' as a Trending Topic

#155

Like probably most people in the discussion here, I think I’m smarter than the average person, and can discern the truth from multiple conflicting claims. But a little introspection shows me that no, this isn’t really true. I’m not hunting down original sources for everything I think I know, I’m mostly relying on gatekeepers (experts) to tell me what is true. Unfortunately, in social media, everybody gets to be an ex…

> I’m not hunting down original sources for everything I think I know, I’m mostly relying on gatekeepers (experts) to tell me what is true. Very honest! > As much as it goes against my grain, I have to admit that society works better when the gatekeepers decide what the truth is, even though we know they don’t always get it right. No! They don't always get it right?! They are literally there to ensure you get it wron…

We really need to slow down and examine our premises more carefully.

1. Gatekeepers (in this case, any media labeled "mainstream" and any popular social media corporation) exist to spread disinformation.

2. These gatekeepers are part of the government (or governance structure); they operate on the direction of the government.

3. They will not give you "good information." Any of them.

All of this to argue that President Donald Trump, perhaps arguably the most powerful man when acting President is speaking the truth about widespread election fraud, which - in 2016 would make him look better, as he claimed he won the popular vote, and in 2020 would preserve his position of power and influence over you.

To accept that lie, you need to believe that the vast majority of news outlets and social media corporations are all secretly conspiring, planning, communicating and executing alongside election officials, bipartisan judges, etc. and all at the behest of a "deep state" shadow government, but the only people that are willing to "admit" this exists are people that are Trump's biggest fans.

Re: Twitter Confirms It Halted 'Hang Mike Pence' as a Trending Topic

#156

This would be whack-a-mole otherwise, but when I saw this trending the vast majority of the tweets were sharing videos of people chanting that slogan in the Capitol amidst the storm. By suppressing the sharing of that information people are actually less likely to be aware that's what they were chanting (I know I would be less aware because that's where I learned about it). Now I guess there's the potential they were…

Is it enough for other news organizations or even more small time / personal sources to mirror the videos? Possibly something that can convey more context than 280 characters allows?

I think you're right. Getting access to this info would always be possible through other, more in-depth sources. I see this comment here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25705945, which is a good one and pre-internet was the only way these types of things would "trend" in the past (at least beyond some tiny fraction of the population).

Re: Twitter Confirms It Halted 'Hang Mike Pence' as a Trending Topic

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I agree. Me tweeting "it's bad to say 'hang mike pence'" is still letting the concept of Mike Pence being hanged propagate. I mean, we're talking about it right now on Hacker News, even! Toxic ideas are like a virus, and even well-meaning opposition can serve as a host, allowing them to spread rapidly rather than die out.

Then what do you suggest? To we censor the news altogether? They report facts and usually they do it on a very editorialized way. Hiding information from the population is what authoritarian states do.

Well, the government doesn't have any say in Twitter trends, so it's hard to argue this is what an "authoritarian state" does. It's a private company that would prefer its product isn't used in the murder of a politician.

I don't have an answer, and I don't think there is one. I do, however, wish there was more scrutiny of the people spreading the message (aka the president of the united states) than companies trying to navigate this really tough balance.

Re: Twitter Confirms It Halted 'Hang Mike Pence' as a Trending Topic

#158
post #59
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what to say to people who want someone else killed...

Almost everyone (including really terrible people) don't want people killed. That is why it is often necessary to de-humanize the enemy. We give them labels, make them not worthy of the protections of civil society, and then it is justified if they die. Because they are not people anymore.

That’s no longer the case. Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi were called out specifically on Parler posts.

Then again I would also say you’re correct as the people engaging with that violent and vitriolic content probably don’t consider them actual humans.

Re: Twitter Confirms It Halted 'Hang Mike Pence' as a Trending Topic

#159

Like probably most people in the discussion here, I think I’m smarter than the average person, and can discern the truth from multiple conflicting claims. But a little introspection shows me that no, this isn’t really true. I’m not hunting down original sources for everything I think I know, I’m mostly relying on gatekeepers (experts) to tell me what is true. Unfortunately, in social media, everybody gets to be an ex…

The trouble is that our gatekeepers inevitably go beyond being neutral arbiters of truth and allow their personal biases to color their analysis. And they might even believe that they're doing the right thing by guiding society in the "correct" direction. But audience members with opposing views pick up on those inconsistencies and then disbelieve everything the gatekeepers say, even the unbiased truthful stuff.

Re: Twitter Confirms It Halted 'Hang Mike Pence' as a Trending Topic

#160
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s just not true. We have nearly an entire human history to prove otherwise. The only reason why we stopped killing each other is due to nuclear bombs.

You should reread he parent comment. I think you agree. It describe the steps as: 1) Dehumanize the enemy 2) Kill/eliminate the inhuman enemy (no longer considered to be people)

Now we have:

3) Trump designated target

as well.

Doesn't matter which side you think you're on then. At some point they come for you:

Must-see new video shows Capitol riot was way worse than we thought

https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/chris-99178053752

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/09/media/reliable-sources-ja...

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