The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
taibbi.substack.com
The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
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Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#2If you reject the idea that people are intelligent enough to think about politics for themselves then you reject the idea that they're intelligent enough to govern themselves.
Democracy and free speech are intrinsically linked.
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#3It's crazy what's getting banned.
If you believe in science, then you believe that experts and authorities can be wrong, and likely are wrong about some things. You believe that it is important to question those beliefs. What youtube is doing is against science.
If you believe in liberty, then you know that more than one thing can be right at the same time. That there is more than one way to do things. What youtube is doing is against liberty.
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#4Then what? Allowing false information to fester is wrong, censorship is wrong. The way forward is to ban recommendation algorithms and go back to personal (as in, from other humans you know) recommendation systems.
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#5It's crazy what's getting banned. If you believe in science, then you believe that experts and authorities can be wrong, and likely are wrong about some things. You believe that it is important to question those beliefs. What youtube is doing is against science. If you believe in liberty, then you know that more than one thing can be right at the same time. That there is more than one way to do things. What youtube i…
"question those beliefs" pray, what kind of honest discussion can be had with people that make long videos about how the Earth is flat?
There's healthy questioning and there's people with the intellectual honesty of a used car salesman
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#6“Cutting down the public’s ability to flip out removes one of the only real checks on the most dangerous kind of fake news, the official lie." Perfect summary of the article.
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#7It's crazy what's getting banned. If you believe in science, then you believe that experts and authorities can be wrong, and likely are wrong about some things. You believe that it is important to question those beliefs. What youtube is doing is against science. If you believe in liberty, then you know that more than one thing can be right at the same time. That there is more than one way to do things. What youtube i…
If you believe in science, you also believe that things can be proven wrong, and that repeating wrong things can influence people especially if you have the power to amplify your voice with money.
If you believe in liberty, you believe in the liberty of a set of an individuals (a company) to do what they damn well please with their platform.
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#8It seems that there's a strong component to this argument that such moves inflame Trump supporters. The problem with this is that it has been established that a substantial part of Trump supporters will be inflamed no matter whether the subject at hand corresponds to a real issue, or a completely fabricated one.
Thus the people who should be concerned here are the ones who try to take reality into consideration when judging news, in which case the issue here is really no worse than the coverage and editorial lines that most need media currently hold. Looking from that perspective, YouTube's policy allows by far the broadest expression of opinions in an online property without having to go with less mainstream forums.
For Taibbis argument to be taken seriously, he should address the problems that stem from a section of society to be completely dissociated from reality.
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#9If you reject the idea that people are intelligent enough to think about politics for themselves then you reject the idea that they're intelligent enough to govern themselves. Democracy and free speech are intrinsically linked.
YouTube can choose to keep or delete any content on their platform regardless of truth/free speech/or not. It's in the EULA. You want free speech, go outside and yell. No one is stopping anyone from free speech. What Google is doing is cleaning up content on their service according to their EULA. If you disagree with the EULA, you can gladly go use another service.
I will add, targeting a specific genre of videos looks bad, sure. It's only that we are talking about that genre and not all the others of topics YouTube has removed.
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#10It's crazy what's getting banned. If you believe in science, then you believe that experts and authorities can be wrong, and likely are wrong about some things. You believe that it is important to question those beliefs. What youtube is doing is against science. If you believe in liberty, then you know that more than one thing can be right at the same time. That there is more than one way to do things. What youtube i…
If you believe in science you are likely a neo-religious fundamentalist. Science doesn't need to be believed. The process puts forward propositions. You either think the scientific method has purpose and helps us understand our reality or not.