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Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

theatlantic.com

361–370 of 537 posts

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe what they are feeling is a deep unconscious unease at the realisation that the cancellation culture the leftists have bought to life is bad karma. What goes around comes around.

Isn't that so-called cancel culture has been around forever? Doesn't every group do it?

Perhaps, but the left has the top universities, news media, popular media/Hollywood, much of Silicon Valley, the largest investors (Blackrock, Vanguard), and NGOs on its side.

(That's what makes the current meltdown/full-scale civil war on the left over Israel and Hamas—involving at least four of the above six factions—so hilarious to watch.)

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost as though basing our society around profit maximization yields negative outcomes. But I'm sure this is just a blip that the Market will correct for.

You're right. I think we should instead base society on theories that pretend that humans are better to each other than we actually really are. If it turns out that people don't behave as we had hoped, we can always say that the approach that was implemented is not the true approach.

Because there are only ever two options...

I find solace in knowing that I don't have a say in it. Because regardless of what the idea was, whenever someone tried to force everyone to go along with it and base a society on it, it turned out disastrously.

The only thing we can all do it be open minded, honest, and set a good example for the next generation who will take over and hopefully improve on what we did, while making their own mistakes.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe what they are feeling is a deep unconscious unease at the realisation that the cancellation culture the leftists have bought to life is bad karma. What goes around comes around.

Maybe what they are feeling is a deep unconscious unease at the realisation that the cancellation culture the leftists have bought to life is bad karma. What goes around comes around. This is definitely one of the more interesting fantasies the right enjoys portraying, for sure. Part of standard playbook at this point it's becoming hard to treat these type of comments as organic.

The fantasy is that “cancel culture” is a thing unique to the left, or that it’s somehow new.

Bud Light got cancelled for giving one can of beer to one trans influencer for a social media spot.

I’m old enough to remember the Dixie Chicks getting cancelled for opposing Bush and the Iraq War.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

X isn't dead, nor is it dying. Elon Musk took away a bunch of people's status, people who thought they were important somebodies because some nerds in an office met them in person and/or they paid some money to get a verification mark. That's what happened. It's the election of Donald Trump all over again. One of the few people who actually understood what happened in the 2016 election - and was able to articulate it…

> a lot of the people I followed on X no longer post there. Their loss, not mine. Nothing changed except everyone is allowed to use the megaphone now. That's a weird take. The people whose posts you wanted to read no longer post on X, but also nothing has changed? It would seem you're describing a personally significant change right there .

> The people whose posts you wanted to read no longer post on X, but also nothing has changed?'

He is saying that there was no meaningful change to the Twitter software that would diminish previous value found in posting on Twitter. You post your dumb quip and it shows up in other people's feeds just as it did before Musk.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, you became aware of the most aggressive aspects of algorithmic curation, feel you are immune now, while not knowing the more subtle ways it has influenced your internalized thinking the past 5 years.

Since I'm way out of step with what most people think, I'm not too concerned about that.

I'm curious how you know what most people think?

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m pretty skeptical that it’s possible to be immune to algorithmic content curation. It seems more than a little bit like the people who say “hey, mainstream media is all biased, but that’s not a problem for me because I’ve found the sources that are actually true”. How do you choose which content to watch and how does that process exclude algorithmic curation?

I don’t think it’s a matter of choosing content that is served up by algorithm but by finding the content that the algorithm omits. I find I then have to listen for what are truth statements, for verifiable truth statements, and sift out the emotional language. In fact, the more emotional the tone, the more intention I attribute to the engineering of it being shown to me. This has resulted in me looking at and readin…

How do you know when you found that truth nugget?

Why do you think content that is excluded from the algorithm is more legitimate?

How do you know it was excluded?

What do you think about the notion that many/most people who claim they are neither left nor right end up demonstrating that they are actually pretty right-wing?

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m pretty skeptical that it’s possible to be immune to algorithmic content curation. It seems more than a little bit like the people who say “hey, mainstream media is all biased, but that’s not a problem for me because I’ve found the sources that are actually true”. How do you choose which content to watch and how does that process exclude algorithmic curation?

I've read many books by activists, and by serious historians. After a while, you notice that the style of writing is different. The activist writers use noticeably more emotional language, draw sweeping conclusions based on flimsy evidence, have fewer cites, and no counterexamples are ever mentioned. For a couple activist products, Showtime recently ran a miniseries documentary on Reagan, and HBO one on Kennedy. The…

Do you think that is because the producers had some kind of agenda, or were they pandering to modern sentiments on those figures, or were they illustrating their own biases, or something else?

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#368
post #124

Recently I was thinking about how I am completely out of touch with the culture of younger generations, and was about to laugh it off cause that's how it is with every generation, but then I realized that I don't even know how I would know. In the past if you wanted to know what kids were listening to, you change the radio station to that new loud one you normally skip, or watch that new TV show that people are going…

>> I have a few younger acquaintances/friends IRL, but they would be the first ones to admit that they don't feel like they fit in with their peers, and even a apart from that its generally best not to project too much based on interactions in my own bubble. Sorry to say, but this is the akin to the “We are all different” meme. The quintessence of the internet and social apps is to organize individual and hence form…

10% of population engaging in revolutionary activities is a lot.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#369
post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right. I think we should instead base society on theories that pretend that humans are better to each other than we actually really are. If it turns out that people don't behave as we had hoped, we can always say that the approach that was implemented is not the true approach.

Or we could collectively ask ourselves what we want and do that, instead of leaving the decision to the most selfish of our kind. That was never a good system to begin with.

>we could collectively ask ourselves what we want and do that

That is what democratic countries already do every 3-5 years -- and TTBOMK the system that gets chosen has so far had capitalism as an important component every single time, despite the option to vote for parties that eschew it partly or completely.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#370
post #124

Recently I was thinking about how I am completely out of touch with the culture of younger generations, and was about to laugh it off cause that's how it is with every generation, but then I realized that I don't even know how I would know. In the past if you wanted to know what kids were listening to, you change the radio station to that new loud one you normally skip, or watch that new TV show that people are going…

I was talking to my younger sister (college student) the other day, and she mentioned that she and her friends are very reluctant to post their opinions online, especially under their real names. This was a bit of a surprise to me, because she volunteers for the Democrats and is openly lesbian, so I would have thought her opinions are generally a great match for the current cultural milieu. I think maybe part of the…

Being openly lesbian means being target of right wing in quite a lot of instances.
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