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There is a larger point here about being human that's not related to tech or democracy. 1. We do not know what is good for us. We only know what we like and do

There is a larger point here about being human that's not related to tech or democracy. 1. We do not know what is good for us. We only know what we like and don't like. (We know this because we can look back in our own lives to times in which we did what we liked and it was not as good as if we had did something else, sometimes disastrously so.) 2. Many times we have to be annoyed by ideas and other concepts we don't like for a while until we realize that there is some bit of great value here for us. The logical conclusion to points 1 and 2 is this: there is some degree of being annoyed that is a normal and healthy part of living. Too much aggravation? Probably not. But you can definitely have too little. Too little aggravation would be far, far worse than too much, in fact. So goods and services that seek to reduce/eliminate everything we don't like are not actually acting in our best interests, whether they're some social media tech or a new brand of opioid. A bit of this kind of thing at the appropriate time is great. Too much is disastrous.

saudioger 8y ago
"Everything in moderation, including moderation"
SolaceQuantum 8y ago
I don’t know if too little aggravation is worse than too much. Admittedly I’m thinking of the edge case of legitimately harassing or abusive behavior, where your very understanding of reality is questioned with the explicit purpose to make you too insecure to engage in conversation with any confidence. I’m unsure what too little aggravation looks like, since even echo chambers result in self-aggravation to some extent?
dboreham 8y ago
Another larger point to consider is that what we perceive as "just politics" is a (big) business to the participants: politicians, parties, pressure groups, media organizations, journalists. These folks exploit basic human traits (outrage, fear, tribalism ...) for monetary gain. Put another way : the trolls aren't trolling because they're deranged (sometimes, ok..) but because that's their business. Long watch but quite relevant and interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg4IqrIpuQU&t=2440s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg4IqrIpuQU&t=2440s

saudioger 8y ago

"Everything in moderation, including moderation"

SolaceQuantum 8y ago

I don’t know if too little aggravation is worse than too much. Admittedly I’m thinking of the edge case of legitimately harassing or abusive behavior, where your very understanding of reality is questioned with the explicit purpose to make you too insecure to engage in conversation with any confidence. I’m unsure what too little aggravation looks like, since even echo chambers result in self-aggravation to some extent?

dboreham 8y ago

Another larger point to consider is that what we perceive as "just politics" is a (big) business to the participants: politicians, parties, pressure groups, media organizations, journalists. These folks exploit basic human traits (outrage, fear, tribalism ...) for monetary gain. Put another way : the trolls aren't trolling because they're deranged (sometimes, ok..) but because that's their business. Long watch but quite relevant and interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg4IqrIpuQU&t=2440s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg4IqrIpuQU&t=2440s