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> Before the internet, they’d mostly be unable to find each other. With the internet, they can build self-reinforcing “communities” on the basis of hate, intole

> Before the internet, they’d mostly be unable to find each other. With the internet, they can build self-reinforcing “communities” on the basis of hate, intolerance, or really anything. If they just stayed in that bubble it’d be fine, but unfortunately sometimes they bring machine guns to department stores. I don't think the internet is fundamentally different here. You could have made the same argument when the printing press came out.

islon 7y ago
The printing press is heavily moderated.
- mrkstu 7y ago
  Where and how exactly is traditional printing regulated? I can buy a high end typesetting laser printer and print anything I want on it- if it isn't child porn/top secret/libelous I can print anything I want that I've originated. Can I steal other's content and sell it, no, but I would call existing regulations almost non-existent for original content.
  - stcredzero 7y ago
    Where and how exactly is traditional printing regulated? Publishers. There are documented cases of writers and genres being blacklisted and suppressed. (Though in fairness, you might find more than a few of them unsavory.) I can buy a high end typesetting laser printer and print anything I want on it- if it isn't child porn/top secret/libelous I can print anything I want that I've originated. Sure, but good luck with the promotion and distribution.
    - mrkstu 7y ago
      Neither of which are regulation/moderated- just expensive or needing domain expertise and manpower. It may be 'moderated' in the sense of an optical cable vs a copper one- by its nature there is impedance in the copper one limiting its potential carrying capacity. In that sense the internet vs traditional publishing have a different ability to scale. But Hitler's rise didn't need the internet- Mein Kampf found fertile soil due to economic depression and already extant racist attitudes latent in the populace. China finds ideas contained in books by Locke/Milton/Paine or the Magna Carta to be extremely dangerous- and that they are and I'm sure they're be ingested wholesale in Hong Kong right now, where the Great Firewall isn't in full effect. We need to counter evil thought with the only available agent that will actually work- better argued thought that seizes on vigorous ideas that instill a deep abiding respect for their fellow men/women and the potential of civil society to overcome the divisions we've placed among ourselves.
  - laughinghan 7y ago
    Moderated. Not regulated. You could spread your message further by printing lots of posters and putting them up in your city, but it would obviously not be comparable in reach to the Internet. Newspapers that do have reach comparable to the Internet all choose to exercise their legal right to decide for themselves what is too hateful to spread. Cloudflare has now chosen to exercise that same right, to a tiny extent.
JoeAltmaier 7y ago
When a problem gets orders of magnitude bigger, it can be considered a fundamentally different thing. Requiring different solutions.
- the_snooze 7y ago
  I feel this is something that technically-inclined people tend to downplay too easily. Scale matters. Scaling something up changes its very nature and implications. Just because we can enjoy party poppers doesn't mean we're cool with flashbangs exploding near us.

islon 7y ago

The printing press is heavily moderated.

mrkstu 7y ago
Where and how exactly is traditional printing regulated? I can buy a high end typesetting laser printer and print anything I want on it- if it isn't child porn/top secret/libelous I can print anything I want that I've originated. Can I steal other's content and sell it, no, but I would call existing regulations almost non-existent for original content.
- stcredzero 7y ago
  Where and how exactly is traditional printing regulated? Publishers. There are documented cases of writers and genres being blacklisted and suppressed. (Though in fairness, you might find more than a few of them unsavory.) I can buy a high end typesetting laser printer and print anything I want on it- if it isn't child porn/top secret/libelous I can print anything I want that I've originated. Sure, but good luck with the promotion and distribution.
  - mrkstu 7y ago
    Neither of which are regulation/moderated- just expensive or needing domain expertise and manpower. It may be 'moderated' in the sense of an optical cable vs a copper one- by its nature there is impedance in the copper one limiting its potential carrying capacity. In that sense the internet vs traditional publishing have a different ability to scale. But Hitler's rise didn't need the internet- Mein Kampf found fertile soil due to economic depression and already extant racist attitudes latent in the populace. China finds ideas contained in books by Locke/Milton/Paine or the Magna Carta to be extremely dangerous- and that they are and I'm sure they're be ingested wholesale in Hong Kong right now, where the Great Firewall isn't in full effect. We need to counter evil thought with the only available agent that will actually work- better argued thought that seizes on vigorous ideas that instill a deep abiding respect for their fellow men/women and the potential of civil society to overcome the divisions we've placed among ourselves.
- laughinghan 7y ago
  Moderated. Not regulated. You could spread your message further by printing lots of posters and putting them up in your city, but it would obviously not be comparable in reach to the Internet. Newspapers that do have reach comparable to the Internet all choose to exercise their legal right to decide for themselves what is too hateful to spread. Cloudflare has now chosen to exercise that same right, to a tiny extent.

JoeAltmaier 7y ago

When a problem gets orders of magnitude bigger, it can be considered a fundamentally different thing. Requiring different solutions.

the_snooze 7y ago
I feel this is something that technically-inclined people tend to downplay too easily. Scale matters. Scaling something up changes its very nature and implications. Just because we can enjoy party poppers doesn't mean we're cool with flashbangs exploding near us.