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Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

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Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#231

Post by pbhjpbhj »

stcredzero wrote: post #219
airstrike wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A related phenomenon I've been thinking about is the impact of traditional entertainment media (TV, Movies and Music) and the inherent bias in the sample of worldviews that the people who work in those businesses espouse. In other words, we only hear and watch stories from those people who chose storytelling as their career, and if you assume we are inevitably influenced by their views then we're effectively taking a…

In other words, we only hear and watch stories from those people who chose storytelling as their career There has been a transition from culture being produced by members of one's community/village/family to culture being produced by professionals for money. Stories and songs of the past were just as unbalanced and insane as stories and songs of the present. (Both in terms of being fantastical and showing only one si…

>culture being produced by professionals for money. //

There are a couple of other steps beyond the actors/producers usually, particularly for mass media -- there are the owners, or funders who ultimately choose what becomes mainstream; and there's the use of psychological manipulation (advertising, marketing) to direct them to "want" (or accept) what is offered.

There has to be accounting for vagaries and fashions of the time but with those constraints those deciding the parameters for which productions are funded wield immense power.

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#232

Post by jstarfish »

astine wrote: post #222
redwards510 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of when I attempt to send a Snopes link to someone who just forwarded me a chain email. They don't thank you, you get silence or worse.

Yeah, people don't like being corrected when they are wrong. I've bumped into that a lot when discussing things on social media. I find that if you can manage to spare someone's ego when correcting them, it helps a lot. Rather than sending a link and saying something like "You're wrong!" If I can give them the opportunity to decide for themselves that they are wrong, by saying something like "Are you sure about that,…

There's a rabbinical art to being tactful that unfortunately eludes me. The effort is usually wasted on internet discussions.

In more controlled, personal settings my favorite response along that vein is "what factors did you consider that led to your conclusion?" It's a less offensive, more roundabout way of telling someone that their assertion is questionable that also betrays their thought process.

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#233

Post by Nasrudith »

Really outliers have more need to communicate from an information theory standpoint alone. There is no need to preface every post with "I am posting from earth." If it is the norm there is less to say and it is less interesting. Upvotes can have a similar "collapsing" function - just upvoting instead of posting the exact same thing.

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#234

Post by loup-vaillant »

Phenomenit wrote: post #174
loup-vaillant wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the forum. HN emphasises that, by not notifying users that they had replies. Reddit on the other hand colours your mailbox in red so you're aware of replies without actively seeking them. I don't know which foster the best quality discussions, but I feel the HN way is a bit impersonal.

Why is it set up like that on HN?

I have no idea. Perhaps they want to avoid discussions form derailing? Reddit routinely has long sub-threads, but they're hidden behind a link by default.

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#235

Post by mercer »

winter_blue wrote: post #203
gniv wrote: post #157

Most of the comments here are either elaborating on the OP, or justify lurking. I am a mostly-lurker myself, but I felt the need to comment here, since I was hoping to see the discussion go into a different direction. The OP uses the word "insane", not outlier. It's clickbaity, and used in jest, but I think it better captures a subtlety of this phenomenon: The prolific commenters are molding every discussion in their…

I don’t know if these people are really “outliers”. Many thought that an extreme outlier would not “win” the 2016 election, but it turned out there were 62 million who supported and loved his extreme outlierism.

I'd say this shows how much of an effect 'outliers' can have. I'm not generally a proponent of the 'great man/woman' perspective on history, but I do think that the 'right' outlier at the 'right' time can have a huge effect simply because a large number of people can be affected significantly if they're compatible with this outlier, whether this outlier is out to run a cult/new religion, conquer the world, maintain some paradigm in whatever field they're kings of, and so on.

I think this is less because most of us are 'sheeple' and more to do with how we have some (huge) low-level bugs that can be exploited in particular configurations. We care, but our heuristics can steer us wrong. Marketing/PR/propaganda as a way to exploit these things, and the scientific study of these things really kind of scare the crap out of me when it comes to my hope for the future of humanity.

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#236

Post by S_Bear »

sigttou wrote: post #10

Am here for over 2 years now, rarely upvote something, haven't submitted anything and this is just my 2nd comment... Pretty sure this rule holds for close to all kind of forums.

I have a 12 year reddit account and finally hit 700 post karma this week.

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#239

Post by maldusiecle »

XCabbage wrote: post #224
Sargos wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that the contents of the censored site really matters to the point he's making.

While I agree with you, the complaint of the particular critic you're replying to isn't even about the contents of the site. It's that some of Gab's staff have, individually, said bigoted things. Even assuming that's true (and I don't know or care if it is), it's unclear to me why it should reflect on the community. If tomorrow somebody were to leak a tape of Paul Graham or Joel Spolsky ranting about their hatred of…

Not employees, representatives. These are things which employees of Gab have said in their official capacity representing the company (for instance, on Gab official social media accounts).

Re: Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

#240

Post by SolaceQuantum »

stcredzero wrote: post #219
airstrike wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A related phenomenon I've been thinking about is the impact of traditional entertainment media (TV, Movies and Music) and the inherent bias in the sample of worldviews that the people who work in those businesses espouse. In other words, we only hear and watch stories from those people who chose storytelling as their career, and if you assume we are inevitably influenced by their views then we're effectively taking a…

In other words, we only hear and watch stories from those people who chose storytelling as their career There has been a transition from culture being produced by members of one's community/village/family to culture being produced by professionals for money. Stories and songs of the past were just as unbalanced and insane as stories and songs of the present. (Both in terms of being fantastical and showing only one si…

I'm kind of confused here- you mentioned Plato, but wasn't Plato a professional culture generator?
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