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Each of us must live with our own conscience. If one Dehomag worker had engaged in "activism" to stop their collusion in the Holocaust, she'd have disgruntled

by rexpop 7y ago

Each of us must live with our own conscience. If one Dehomag worker had engaged in "activism" to stop their collusion in the Holocaust, she'd have disgruntled 5,000 "silent" Nazis. The fact is, Facebook's algorithms mediate our cultural superstructure. They either do so publicly, and explicitly, or privately–and then we're subject either to their whims, or an unknowable, unpredictable black box. One cannot disappear the room by covering one's eyes.[1] 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10970937 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10970937

cal5k 7y ago
Godwin's Law is still alive and well, it seems. While your choice of comparative examples is patently absurd, you're actually arguing for a principled approach to governance rather than an activist one. And on that we agree - I think decisions should be made based on principle rather than based on who yells the loudest. As for Facebook "mediating our cultural superstructure", this is a completely untestable and probably ideological claim.
- PhasmaFelis 7y ago
  > As for Facebook "mediating our cultural superstructure", this is a completely untestable and probably ideological claim. To the contrary, there's been quite a lot of research indicating that Facebook has an outsize influence on culture to the point that it's substantially affected elections (and not just America's). Google "facebook influence research" and you'll see plenty of interesting results.
  - cal5k 7y ago
    I'd like to read the research. But it's almost certainly a) ex post facto, and b) based on a hypothesis that is infinitely more specific than "does Facebook mediate the cultural superstructure". "Cultural superstructure" is a term ripped right out of Marxist literature, so it's already so burdened with ideological implications as to be inappropriate for serious research.
- rexpop 7y ago
  Fulfilling Godwin's Law is not a fallacy, but invoking it is.

by rexpop 7y ago

cal5k 7y ago

Godwin's Law is still alive and well, it seems. While your choice of comparative examples is patently absurd, you're actually arguing for a principled approach to governance rather than an activist one. And on that we agree - I think decisions should be made based on principle rather than based on who yells the loudest. As for Facebook "mediating our cultural superstructure", this is a completely untestable and probably ideological claim.

PhasmaFelis 7y ago
> As for Facebook "mediating our cultural superstructure", this is a completely untestable and probably ideological claim. To the contrary, there's been quite a lot of research indicating that Facebook has an outsize influence on culture to the point that it's substantially affected elections (and not just America's). Google "facebook influence research" and you'll see plenty of interesting results.
- cal5k 7y ago
  I'd like to read the research. But it's almost certainly a) ex post facto, and b) based on a hypothesis that is infinitely more specific than "does Facebook mediate the cultural superstructure". "Cultural superstructure" is a term ripped right out of Marxist literature, so it's already so burdened with ideological implications as to be inappropriate for serious research.
rexpop 7y ago
Fulfilling Godwin's Law is not a fallacy, but invoking it is.