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U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

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Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#352

Are there people here on HN that believe the election was stolen? I haven't seen any evidence, most of the lawsuits haven't borne fruit either. However, I also recognize that there may be blindspots/biases. I'd really like to hear from anyone who believes this, to present a cogent argument. I promise not to attack. I want to hear the argument from the other side. I also beseech the rest of HN to please refrain from a…

I believe that allowing mail-in ballots was a mistake and resulted in inaccuracies.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#353
It's the practical erosion of Free Speech. Liberal (small "l" liberal) democracy and liberal science thrives on members:

1. Being willing to admit they may be wrong

2. Having access to a diverse information diet

But the past two decades have shown erosion of not only legal Free Speech, but practical free speech:

* Whereas previously they were just ignored (or even rebutted), today employees, students, and professors are all punished administratively for saying something that contradicts the narrative of the predominant members, or that may be offensive to someone. "If the federal government won't do it, let's restrict free speech on the ground-level."

* It is difficult to broaden your information diet, even intentionally. The platforms of yore that provided a place for free debate are empty, with everyone having migrated to social media where they can form disjoint sets defined by their ideology. Ever try having a dialectic on Twitter with someone of an opposing ideology? Haha, good luck.

* Expanding on ^, folks that aren't actively seeking diversity of thought have no natural avenue of exposure to information that contradicts their ideology. Whatever information delivery mechanism they choose today is, by default, going to agree with them.

* All of the above results in: staunchly maintaining your correctness in the face of opposition is rewarded far more strongly than admitting the possibility of wrongness

* Online radicalization makes in-person dialogue even harder; there are fewer and fewer opportunities for two moderates to debate when the possible participants are further across the spectrum than ever

Although restricting offensive speech has the upfront benefit of not hurting our iddly-widdly-fweelings, this is the price we pay for abandoning free speech.

For further reading, I recommend Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought [0]

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/703086.Kindly_Inquisitor...

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#355

Are there people here on HN that believe the election was stolen? I haven't seen any evidence, most of the lawsuits haven't borne fruit either. However, I also recognize that there may be blindspots/biases. I'd really like to hear from anyone who believes this, to present a cogent argument. I promise not to attack. I want to hear the argument from the other side. I also beseech the rest of HN to please refrain from a…

I believe that allowing mail-in ballots was a mistake and resulted in inaccuracies.

How would mail-in ballots be a mistake this cycle, but not others?

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#356
post #72

How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?

This is not the time for "both sides"ing.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#357
post #72

How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?

Modern social media and the internet is a big part of enabling masses of people to hear what they want to hear, which begets more seeking out and hearing what they want to hear, which reinforces what they've already been hearing. The root of all evil? Unfortunately enough, it seems to be the act of giving everyone an equal voice. Giving a platform for any idea to take hold really means anything ideas can take hold.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#359

Are there people here on HN that believe the election was stolen? I haven't seen any evidence, most of the lawsuits haven't borne fruit either. However, I also recognize that there may be blindspots/biases. I'd really like to hear from anyone who believes this, to present a cogent argument. I promise not to attack. I want to hear the argument from the other side. I also beseech the rest of HN to please refrain from a…

> Are there people here on HN that believe the election was stolen? There are. One sent me to this [1] resource earlier. I do not endorse this source, and have not manually verified their claims myself. If anyone else would like to check the source, that would be good, I intend to manually check their claims myself later, but don't have time now. [1] https://hereistheevidence.com/ Edit: I would ask anyone checking th…

The evidence is just laughably bad. But there is a lot of it and if you wanted to explain why each claim is either meaningless or outright false would take a lot of time. I guess that's the point.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#360
post #72

How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?

The internet allows for mass influence of the population by third party actors. This is largely China vs Russia. I have trouble not playing this out at scale and drawing the conclusion the internet inherently invalidates a lot of the assumptions democracy (as in the American Experiment™ version of it) requires to function. I hope I'm wrong and overly pessimistic.
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