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I'm not sure I see the causal relationship pointed out by the article. J&J's products, on paper, killed 3 people and no one in their right mind was going to ri

I'm not sure I see the causal relationship pointed out by the article. J&J's products, on paper, killed 3 people and no one in their right mind was going to risk being killed just because they had a headache. They recognized immediately that by not solving this issue for the consumer they risked tremendous losses. James Burke took a huge step and not only squashed the potential risk of his products but actually made them even safer. What lives did FB put at risk here? If there's even an analogy to J&J it's that a few claims on the bottles label weren't true for _some_ of the consumer base.

jimnotgym 9y ago
I suppose it could be argued that losing democracy often results in significant loss of life and a reduction in everyone's quality of life.
- chronid 9y ago
  Blaming Facebook for "loss of democracy" would be ridiculous. Democracy is being lost when you start having low turnouts. When citizens lose interest in the matter of the state. When certain positions essentially always stay in the same family(ies). When there is zero confidence in the ability of the politicians to run the country. When it does not matter who you would vote, because the end result (for you) will always be the same. Loss of democracy is a process, not an event.
  - jimnotgym 9y ago
    What about when a mass media service that is pushing propaganda? Does that not subvert democracy?
    - chronid 9y ago
      Isn't pushing propaganda what mass media do all the time? So are we looking at the pot (the "old school" mass media) calling the kettle (facebook&co) black? Paladins of freedom (if you ignore the obvious conflict of interest) and democracy (if their ideas are your ideas or somewhat similar), indeed. At least Facebook, differently from "old school" mass media (granting for the sake of the argument that facebook is a mass media "entity") had no actual intent to push propaganda. It sold ads. To the wrong people? Maybe (granting for the sake of the argument that its selling ads to those people moved votes). Democracy has been decaying from the start. It's decaying even faster now, but people putting the blame on facebook and the crazy guy that got elected president in the last round make me laugh. Sorry. :)
  - ferdbold 9y ago
    I don't think we're suggesting that Facebook is responsible for the loss of democracy rather than being an agent in the process.

jimnotgym 9y ago

I suppose it could be argued that losing democracy often results in significant loss of life and a reduction in everyone's quality of life.

chronid 9y ago
Blaming Facebook for "loss of democracy" would be ridiculous. Democracy is being lost when you start having low turnouts. When citizens lose interest in the matter of the state. When certain positions essentially always stay in the same family(ies). When there is zero confidence in the ability of the politicians to run the country. When it does not matter who you would vote, because the end result (for you) will always be the same. Loss of democracy is a process, not an event.
- jimnotgym 9y ago
  What about when a mass media service that is pushing propaganda? Does that not subvert democracy?
  - chronid 9y ago
    Isn't pushing propaganda what mass media do all the time? So are we looking at the pot (the "old school" mass media) calling the kettle (facebook&co) black? Paladins of freedom (if you ignore the obvious conflict of interest) and democracy (if their ideas are your ideas or somewhat similar), indeed. At least Facebook, differently from "old school" mass media (granting for the sake of the argument that facebook is a mass media "entity") had no actual intent to push propaganda. It sold ads. To the wrong people? Maybe (granting for the sake of the argument that its selling ads to those people moved votes). Democracy has been decaying from the start. It's decaying even faster now, but people putting the blame on facebook and the crazy guy that got elected president in the last round make me laugh. Sorry. :)
- ferdbold 9y ago
  I don't think we're suggesting that Facebook is responsible for the loss of democracy rather than being an agent in the process.