3 ms·

Nobody is actually saying we are going to eradicate these ideas completely. Seems like a lot of comments here don’t want to do anything because it won’t comple

Nobody is actually saying we are going to eradicate these ideas completely. Seems like a lot of comments here don’t want to do anything because it won’t completely eliminate the idea. I don’t expect these ideas will ever be eradicated but my issue has always been that these platforms, especially Twitter and Reddit and especially YouTube, present these “underground” ideas alongside “mainstream” ideas and amplify it and suggest it to people that otherwise would have never stumbled upon it. And they present to the user as content of equal quality to ideas that are actually based in science and real research, not manipulation and cherry picked data. The internet has plenty of space for everyone, but we don’t need to raise bad ideas to the same table as good ones. Just as we shouldn’t be covering “intelligent design” alongside evolution to our kids as an equal alternative.

shrimp_emoji 7y ago
>Seems like a lot of comments here don’t want to do anything because it won’t completely eliminate the idea. The nirvana fallacy seems like a very popular defense for gatekeeping changes to something. >we don’t need to raise bad ideas to the same table as good ones. Just as we shouldn’t be covering “intelligent design” alongside evolution to our kids as an equal alternative. If you don't find it surprising that people can be influenced by their social environment (spoiler: you shouldn't), this seems like an unavoidable conclusion. The "marketplace of ideas" is an idea that puts a little too much faith in rationality. It seems as dysfunctional as other markets in that a lot of people make irrational decisions, which have consequences, without caring about (or noticing) the externalities.