3 ms·

And frankly, I'm not convinced it's gaining any kind of new followers at all. 20 years ago it was virtually unheard of to encounter a flat earth believer, but t

And frankly, I'm not convinced it's gaining any kind of new followers at all. 20 years ago it was virtually unheard of to encounter a flat earth believer, but thanks to Youtube and the Internet at large all kinds of fringe beliefs are brought to the masses' consciousness. That doesn't mean that those beliefs are finding new adherents. It doesn't give fascists license to crack down on anyone's beliefs either. Google/Youtube censoring anyone over this is literally doing more harm than good in every conceivable way.

scrollaway 7y ago
But it is. No matter how stupid you think a belief is, giving it an audience does give it new followers. The more stupid it is, the more of an audience it needs to gain significant amounts of new followers… but thanks to youtube, you can have hundreds of thousands of people watching a video and that's a drop in the ocean. And it's not flat-earth BS that's actually harmful, it's the spread of other kinds of political propaganda which radicalizes people. For some reason, it's not controversial to say "we're banning ISIS propaganda videos which radicalize young muslims", but it is controversial to say "we're banning political propaganda videos which radicalize young americans". Young or old, actually.
- transreal 7y ago
  I spoke to a flat earther once. Trying to convince her via science - explaining how GPS works, showing her images from space, etc, was not convincing her. So I tried to understand her mindset, and just talked about her life. Turned out she was abused by a parent who was "doing it for her own good" - it was a horrible story. Her whole childhood was a lie, she was trained by the parent not to trust her instincts, and to believe something false so the parent could benefit. My takeaway was that her childhood experience taught her that you can't trust people and that "big lies" are possible, and so she latched onto the flat earth thing due to that.
  - brigandish 7y ago
    This reminds me of something I read of Thich Nhat Hanh's - don't answer the question, answer the questioner. The belief they're espousing is really secondary to the attitude that leads them to buy into it. I find your approach as not only more likely to effect positive change with that, it's just more compassionate and respectful. There's an almost palpable element of dehumanisation among those ridiculing them and wanting to silence them, as if holding on to untruths makes them unworthy to exist in our society.
- RandomTisk 7y ago
  The way to truth is never censorship. SV/Google employees have become the book burning church of the 60's and 70's, complete with shoving their morality down everyone's throats by any means necessary.
  - 481092 7y ago
    So you're going to try to silence, or censor, a company into not choosing a more relevant algorithm? Their original algo changed and it "censored" more relevant content. I had a few videos on youtube giving my own personal experience of 9/11 but they quickly got overshadowed once the algo changed to prefer dramatic conspiracy content over regular content, even if it is more relevant. I don't like being "censored" either and I'd rather youtube change the algo.
- rjsw 7y ago
  Doesn't have to be political propaganda, the anti-vax movement wouldn't be as big without the publicity it gets on social media.

scrollaway 7y ago

But it is. No matter how stupid you think a belief is, giving it an audience does give it new followers. The more stupid it is, the more of an audience it needs to gain significant amounts of new followers… but thanks to youtube, you can have hundreds of thousands of people watching a video and that's a drop in the ocean. And it's not flat-earth BS that's actually harmful, it's the spread of other kinds of political propaganda which radicalizes people. For some reason, it's not controversial to say "we're banning ISIS propaganda videos which radicalize young muslims", but it is controversial to say "we're banning political propaganda videos which radicalize young americans". Young or old, actually.

transreal 7y ago
I spoke to a flat earther once. Trying to convince her via science - explaining how GPS works, showing her images from space, etc, was not convincing her. So I tried to understand her mindset, and just talked about her life. Turned out she was abused by a parent who was "doing it for her own good" - it was a horrible story. Her whole childhood was a lie, she was trained by the parent not to trust her instincts, and to believe something false so the parent could benefit. My takeaway was that her childhood experience taught her that you can't trust people and that "big lies" are possible, and so she latched onto the flat earth thing due to that.
- brigandish 7y ago
  This reminds me of something I read of Thich Nhat Hanh's - don't answer the question, answer the questioner. The belief they're espousing is really secondary to the attitude that leads them to buy into it. I find your approach as not only more likely to effect positive change with that, it's just more compassionate and respectful. There's an almost palpable element of dehumanisation among those ridiculing them and wanting to silence them, as if holding on to untruths makes them unworthy to exist in our society.
RandomTisk 7y ago
The way to truth is never censorship. SV/Google employees have become the book burning church of the 60's and 70's, complete with shoving their morality down everyone's throats by any means necessary.
- 481092 7y ago
  So you're going to try to silence, or censor, a company into not choosing a more relevant algorithm? Their original algo changed and it "censored" more relevant content. I had a few videos on youtube giving my own personal experience of 9/11 but they quickly got overshadowed once the algo changed to prefer dramatic conspiracy content over regular content, even if it is more relevant. I don't like being "censored" either and I'd rather youtube change the algo.
rjsw 7y ago
Doesn't have to be political propaganda, the anti-vax movement wouldn't be as big without the publicity it gets on social media.