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Garbage outrage bait. For more than a decade these same people cheered and clapped for every benefit of the web and algorithms and software and automation and

by borplk 8y ago

Garbage outrage bait. For more than a decade these same people cheered and clapped for every benefit of the web and algorithms and software and automation and social media and all of that. Now it's becoming fashionable to turn around and point fingers at completely obvious and trivial consequences of it and act as if the citizens are helpless infants and the corporations are the babysitters responsible for anything and everything. "OMG lies found on the internet" "Facebook accused of allowing people to lie" "children allowed to view slightly creepy animations on YouTube ... oh wont somebody think of the children" "Public information shared on the internet was scraped and sold to 10 companies ... everybody go nuts" I'm happy that these concerns have finally reached the mainstream but there's an alarming "brain dead" theme to these waves of news articles. Like just a particular flavor of news articles becomes fashionable and then every journalist pushes out every possible variation of that topic at all cost just to stay relevant? How do you go for more than a decade not caring at all about any of these concerns and being so dismissive to suddenly turning around in such extreme way? If it was more of a balanced transition from not caring to caring I'd understand better. But this pendulum swing makes me think that not many people are thinking for themselves anymore. They just go with the group-think mindset of the year.

perl4ever 8y ago
I get the feeling there's been a persistent campaign to attack whatever is deemed the current symbol of American hegemony, for quite a while, but every now and then people move on in a coordinated way. I distinctly remember when there was a constant focus on fracking for a while. Fracking is still around and the US is still one of the top oil producers in the world, but it's as if someone decided attacking it wasn't fruitful, and everybody moved on in more or less unison. This is conspiratorial thinking, but I can't seem to shake it. It was recently reported that the Jade Helm conspiracy theories of a few years ago were encouraged, if not originated, by a Russian disinformation campaign: http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/cia/386156-ex-cia-chief-says-russian-bots-fueled-jade-helm-conspiracy http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/cia/386156-ex-ci... That's not the same thing as the majority of the media being controlled by a single entity though, so I still have no idea what is happening. But it doesn't feel natural or spontaneous.
- burfog 8y ago
  It's partly because news feeds on itself. Something is news because it is news. The "news cycle" is a thing. Remember the "pink slime" issue that was a big story until one day it wasn't. See also: Kardashians It's also because lobbying is directed toward the media. Fracking in the USA is a huge threat to Russia, Saudi Arabia, and others. These nations will naturally find ways to push the story that fracking is bad. It is a weird sort of attack on the US economy, done to prevent the US from getting an advantage.

by borplk 8y ago

perl4ever 8y ago

I get the feeling there's been a persistent campaign to attack whatever is deemed the current symbol of American hegemony, for quite a while, but every now and then people move on in a coordinated way. I distinctly remember when there was a constant focus on fracking for a while. Fracking is still around and the US is still one of the top oil producers in the world, but it's as if someone decided attacking it wasn't fruitful, and everybody moved on in more or less unison. This is conspiratorial thinking, but I can't seem to shake it. It was recently reported that the Jade Helm conspiracy theories of a few years ago were encouraged, if not originated, by a Russian disinformation campaign: http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/cia/386156-ex-cia-chief-says-russian-bots-fueled-jade-helm-conspiracy http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/cia/386156-ex-ci... That's not the same thing as the majority of the media being controlled by a single entity though, so I still have no idea what is happening. But it doesn't feel natural or spontaneous.

burfog 8y ago
It's partly because news feeds on itself. Something is news because it is news. The "news cycle" is a thing. Remember the "pink slime" issue that was a big story until one day it wasn't. See also: Kardashians It's also because lobbying is directed toward the media. Fracking in the USA is a huge threat to Russia, Saudi Arabia, and others. These nations will naturally find ways to push the story that fracking is bad. It is a weird sort of attack on the US economy, done to prevent the US from getting an advantage.