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Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

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Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#281
post #15

Reminds me of Dawn Frederick, a literary agent who was "cancelled" for calling 911 on looters who rammed a van into the gas station on her apartment block: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/p... This happened during the BLM protests this summer in St. Loius. The looters she reported were blocks away from any BLM protest, and other looting bands were setting fires on nearby blocks. Frederick w…

I honestly don't know why people use "post what you're thinking" style social media at all at this point. With employers being so sensitive, how can the cost/benefit analysis ever really result in a determination that it's a good idea to be active on Twitter/Facebook (or Gab, Parler, TheDonald.win, etc.)? Maybe that's part of what makes things get so extreme on those sites. The most reasonable people know enough not…

A bit of a tangent but, this is all the result of having people use their real names on the internet. I remember when there was a big push for people to create profiles tied to their real identities with the argument being that everyone would behave themselves if their real lives were connected to the things they did online. That argument is dead as discourse is now. Instead of well mannered discussion between opposing views we got media fuelled echo chambers that now extends right to the top offices of government along with political persecution by online mobs that high five each other as they destroy lives and careers. I don’t know what a good solution is.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#282
post #187
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People seem to be doing what losers do when facing destruction: move away. You see movement in both physical and virtual spaces. In people and in companies to different states. In people moving to different social media. People stop fighting with you, they just avoid you. China is going to be the obvious dominant world power within Biden’s term.

In Germany there is the term "inner emmigration", if people oppose to the current system, but keep silent in fear of repression. This was coined during Nazi time, but also used to describe part of the opposition during socialism in East Germany. What it basically describes people who: - are opposed to the current political system (originally the Nazi regime) - cannot speak their opinion for fear of repressions . cann…

That's most certainly not true for Germany, at least if we are talking about German definitions of conservatism. A lot of GOP members are more close to what in the German political system would be seen as the extreme right, arguably bordering on the autocratic right.

There is representation of the conservative voice both in media and the political system. There is repression, both informal and in the legal code, of Neonazi speech.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#283

Reminds me of Dawn Frederick, a literary agent who was "cancelled" for calling 911 on looters who rammed a van into the gas station on her apartment block: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/p... This happened during the BLM protests this summer in St. Loius. The looters she reported were blocks away from any BLM protest, and other looting bands were setting fires on nearby blocks. Frederick w…

The phenomenon is called "purity spiral", and it's absolutely maddening. Here's a good article on it: https://unherd.com/2020/01/cast-out-how-knitting-fell-into-a...

There's no winning in these situations. Sooner or later they will implode into smaller groups and won't have much power. Look at the different Christian sects that came to be over minor theological differences.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#284
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What percentage of Republicans are the stereotype Parler user? If you were a rabid QAnon nut, why should I hire you? Saying republican is this context is just driving the wedge in too far.

In other words, stereotypes are obviously fun if it is me, an enlightened person, doing them... I had a Parler login since July. Mostly out of curiosity and just to read/lurk. There was a very vocal loony subset, but that is the Internet for you. Kicking people out of work for visiting a hacking forum is about same. After all, for the general public, hacking sounds like crime and sometimes actually is. People who del…

>There was a very vocal loony subset, but that is the Internet for you.

Yeah, no. I am actually amazed the platform lived as long as it did because there was no opposition to members voicing death threats against politicians/activists/what have you. No moderation to keep those in check.

Outside some Neonazi sites, I've never seen anything like it, some Islamist sites probably are similar.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#285
post #63

Just a reminder that Newsweek ceased publication back in 2013, and the rights to its brand were purchased by an odd Christian sect, somewhat along the lines of The Washington Times and the Reunification Church. The new "Newsweek" capitalizes on the brand reputation of the old one, but has no connections to it; a good thing to do with Newsweek pieces is to check the byline and look up what their background is.

That's weird to hear. Newsweek in Poland is one of the most liberal and progressive magazines.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#286
post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other words, stereotypes are obviously fun if it is me, an enlightened person, doing them... I had a Parler login since July. Mostly out of curiosity and just to read/lurk. There was a very vocal loony subset, but that is the Internet for you. Kicking people out of work for visiting a hacking forum is about same. After all, for the general public, hacking sounds like crime and sometimes actually is. People who del…

>There was a very vocal loony subset, but that is the Internet for you. Yeah, no. I am actually amazed the platform lived as long as it did because there was no opposition to members voicing death threats against politicians/activists/what have you. No moderation to keep those in check. Outside some Neonazi sites, I've never seen anything like it, some Islamist sites probably are similar.

From what I have seen and remember, Gab was much, much worse. Especially the level of antisemitism was off the charts. On Parler, you could meet Jewish intellectuals. I do not remember seeing one on Gab during the few hours I spent there.

Parler also had multiple communities depending on language. The Czech community of early 2021 was nowhere as wild as the American one at the same time. We are not close to any election now, though; this might have had a cooling effct.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#287
post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are making a quantitative argument for a case that can very well be a qualitative one. Your statement is not sound and it does not follow. Maybe it consider this an opportunity to educate yourself in logic?

You're being needlessly patronising, but I'll answer in good faith in case you are actually interested. Ceteris paribus, reducing your hiring pool is a negative. Can qualitative factors counteract that? Sure, it's possible. But there is no evidence for it here, only assertion. And the quantitative problem is very large, so those factors would need to be very powerful. Aside from that, it's naive to believe that the q…

So it is a matter of opinion then? Something that needs to be assessed? Where different assessment strategies can produce a different outcome?

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#288
post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why is 'of colour' different/better/at all a good description of someone anyway? It's different in that it's a different phrase. It's better because it's different; terminology in this area is driven purely by fashion. https://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/1988/08/28

When I was in primary school, handicapped was going out of fashion in favour of disabled (wikipedia tells me we were 10-15 years later than the US on that one, culture wasn't so instantly global then). A large part of this was that handicapped had been repurposed as an insult so there was a need for disabled (as happened for the previous terminology for mental disability, also). Of course even "disabled [person/peopl…

"Disabled" is being replaced by "differently abled".

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, this is the Internet. It is an unwelcome, but arguably useful X-ray of the society. I believe that erasing such people from a worldwide forum veers dangerously close to covering an alarm signal on your car's dashboard with black tape because it is annoying and life feels better without worrying about what might be happening under the hood. I prefer living my life without illusions about the rest of humanity,…

No. Letting hate like this fester is more like not treating a disease even when you see the symptoms, and arguing that it is better to know the disease is there. It makes no sense. This kind of hate SPREADS. Letting it be normalises it, and lets it spread. The antidote to this kind of thing is for the rest of society to loudly and clearly reject it, and make it very obvious it is not acceptable. Letting people keep s…

Hate is a mania, a meme that infects the host. It isn't just for us that we seek to stop it, but for the infected as well.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#290
The most deadliest thing about Tech companies is how massive they are and going about their merry things while little ants like us get squished left and right.

Also the whole cancel culture is crazy since it’s so trigger happy. In many ways it feels like a witch hunt. Someone says something, the crowd follows (without much evidence) and makes a ton of noise on social media. The companies see a hit on their brand and do whatever the mob is asking and pretend to be the good guys/girls.

We really do need a society that encourages fact checking and hearing both sides of the story. Amplifying filter bubbles doesn’t end well for our society.

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