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ZeroHedge isn't the best news source if you're looking for high quality, well sourced reporting, but if you're looking for hot takes on breaking news, ZeroHedge
by kypro 6y ago
ZeroHedge isn't the best news source if you're looking for high quality, well sourced reporting, but if you're looking for hot takes on breaking news, ZeroHedge is a great site. As a trader, I use it quite a bit primarily because they're not afraid to get things wrong and tend to have different (and even controversial) takes on current events.
The stance Twitter, and now Google have taken against ZeroHedge I suspect will come to define how tech companies will treat the media (and the public) in the years to come. It's become very easy for companies to convince the public that they're taking these actions for the public's own good, especially when the main stream media are more than willing to paint these stories in a positive light to help bury any competition.
Who knows, perhaps these trillion dollar companies will curate the news in our interest. Perhaps it's true that we can't be trusted to decide fact from fiction. Perhaps we need Twitter to restrict tweets and tell us when the president of the US says something they don't agree with. More and more this seems to be the narrative I'm hearing.
A decade ago I used to have so much hope that internet would be liberating for humanity. That seems laughably naive today.
- RhodesianHunter 6y ago> Perhaps it's true that we can't be trusted to decide fact from fiction. A lot of us have seen friends and family lose their minds to the conspiratorial "news" like Zero hedge, Fox, etc. I too thought the internet, and all of humanity's knowledge at your fingertips, would be liberating. Instead it has enabled the ignorant to believe their conspiracies over expert opinions. I for one welcome these sort of moves. Zero Hedge has every right to spread their nonsense and Google/Twitter have every right to refuse to support it.
- siculars 6y agoWhich experts? Galileo was a heretic at one time. So slippery I'm finding it hard to tap this out.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- zaroth 6y agoI’m glad that you acknowledge that the move is obviously politically motivated. I don’t think that dissenting voices should be silenced. The free marketplace of ideas used to be an American ideal. Now it’s a fireable offense, or in the case of businesses, a capital one. Google had a monopoly on internet advertising. They should have no such right to decide who uses their Ad platform based on political affiliation or leanings. There’s plenty enough blame to spread around both left and right for fake news. See just most recently Fox doctoring photos of CHAZ versus many MSM sites falsely misrepresenting a conciliatory Trump quote on Floyd and the recent protests. If ZH is committing libel they should be sued for it and held liable. Taking away their basically sole source of income and blaming it on their comment section is flimsy doublespeak in my opinion. There is a similar effort within Google to try to demonetize Breitbart and other right-wing sites. A higher claim to the truth is no justification at all for silencing dissent. IMO this is just another step in a growing and dangerous trend of politicized de-platforming which I find extremely worrisome.
- gpu_explorer 6y agoRacism is antisocial behavior. Racism is not dissent.
- zaroth 6y agoWho said anything about racism? But even still, we see cases [1] where questioning any aspect of the BLM movement is falsely equated with racism. [1] - https://www.vnews.com/Windsor-High-School-Story-34741525 https://www.vnews.com/Windsor-High-School-Story-34741525
- RhodesianHunter 6y ago>The free marketplace of ideas used to be an American ideal. At what point in American history could you expect to use someone else's platform, regardless of your content, in the name of free speech? That's right, never. Freedom of speech is about government censorship and nothing else.
- collyw 6y ago
- naasking 6y ago> A lot of us have seen friends and family lose their minds to the conspiratorial "news" like Zero hedge, Fox, etc. And how many liberals do you know lost their minds when Trump won the election despite the media assuring them Hillary had the lead, or were convinced that impeachment would finally get him out because the media covered so much "highly suspicious" activity? These were both equally "conspiratorial" stories pushed by the media,just from the other side. Delusion is just going around. > I for one welcome these sort of moves Sure, everyone welcomes oppression that works in their favour. Doesn't make it any less short sighted.
- sjwright 6y agoAs someone viewing this sociological catastrophe from afar (Australia) and who is nominally "left" on most social issues, it's clear to me that the past three years represents the utter failure of the American Left to understand their own country. To use a computing analogy: while the left is buggy and flawed, the right are now hackers cynically exploiting those bugs rather than filing bug reports. Society is complex and requires everyone to act with some goodwill in order for us to reason our way through challenges. But while both sides used to act like white-hat hackers ethically exposing flaws in their competitor's algorithms, the pattern is now much darker. The left is seeing flaws where they don't exist in the right, while the right is straight up exploiting the left's flaws without concern for overall system security.
- vl 6y agoThe irony, of course, that in pre-Obama times situation was somewhat reverse. Notice that Trump is outsider. Establishment got too complacent and detached (first right, then left, which is mostly indistinguishable from centrist traditional right anyway) , and current right essentially is “new” right that uprooted the traditional one.
- thu2111 6y agoWhat flaws of the left are being exploited here? I genuinely don't see that (and I'm also viewing this catastrophe from afar). What I've seen is that since 2016 the left has gone into some sort of meltdown state, over Trump and Brexit primarily but now also Coronavirus. With a large helping of obsession with race and gender too. The right seems mostly weak and timid, constantly being deplatformed, cancelled, threatened and pushed out of institutions all over the place. If there's any exploitation of flaws going on it can't be very effective.
- koheripbal 6y agoZero Hedge was easily a MONTH ahead of the mainstream on the covid-19 crisis. ...and they even today are ahead of the game on the looming USD crisis. ...but you need a good BS filter because there's a lot of nonsense, lies, and speculation on it. So maybe it needs an opt-in warning window on the front. ...and the comments are worthless - no one reads them.
- macspoofing 6y ago>A lot of us have seen friends and family lose their minds to the conspiratorial "news" like Zero hedge, Fox, etc. Let's not let the left off the hook either. Trump Derangement Syndrome is a real thing and I see it drive people insane. It is STRANGE. Huge swaths of people and journalists simply cannot be objective about anything Trump does. >Zero Hedge has every right to spread their nonsense and Google/Twitter have every right to refuse to support it. What about hosting companies, CAs, domain registrars? Should Zero Hedge (which is terrible and no different from 'sputnik' and 'info wars') have the ability to even have a web presence with a .com address and TLS? How about bank accounts and utilities? Any cultural, regulatory, technical and legal infrastructure you put in place to purge the ZeroHedges from the web, will be used against something you care about, or you personally.
- tedunangst 6y agoHow does a news source that gets things wrong help you as a trader?
- nonesuchluck 6y agoBecause he's not trying to learn what reality is, he's trying to see what people THINK reality is. Misconceptions can move markets just as easily as plain facts.
- brentis 6y agoI dont think that is wha the meant. If anything, the opposite. CNN et al highly sanitize their news and hard to see what the real pulse may be. Many ZH articles take an angle which uncovers perspectives but at risk of being wrong. If it pushes their contrarian agenda, so be it. They also first uncovered wuhan flu and the Chinese bio lab association I believe. As well as the shipment from Canada, maybe back in February. Isnt this finally coming into MSM?
- Thorrez 6y agoIf it's right the majority of the time, the gains might average out the losses.
- ezconnect 6y agoAs he mentioned and in my experience they are good at breaking news stories. It will help you decide on your next move or figure out why market moves when other news network have not covered it yet. Being wrong or right is not relevant, there are lots of other news sources.
- tal8d 6y agoThere is a really obvious telegraphing of what is to come: outsourcing censorship to protected classes. It doesn't really matter if it is for political reasons or commercial (advertiser friendly padded cells), groups like the SPLC and ADL are eagerly assuming that role - allowing companies to displace blame onto effectively unimpeachable groups (Don't agree with us that milk is a hate symbol? Are you a nazi?!).
- vl 6y agoWhoever controls Google search, Facebook and Twitter feeds controls the election. Politicians already realized that, and Facebook got the taste of what is coming. Once there is more unity in the office, congress and senate, they will return to dismembering FB, Google, Twitter and friends. I worked at Google at the time of election. Google essentially manipulated search results by showing instant answer cards about Hilary’s campaign and not showing them about Trump’s. VP of my division expressed support for Hilary in division-wide email. They say Zuckerberg has political ambitions. Things like this, apart from being unethical, will not be tolerated in Washington for obvious reasons.
- snowwrestler 6y agoIf your thesis is that Google might control the election, and your proof is that they put their thumb on the scale for Hillary in 2016... well, let's just say I don't find that a particularly compelling argument.
- vl 6y agoIt’s one thing to have power and another one is to exercise it. Back then Google actually claimed to “provide equal access”, but instant answers is just visible and minor example where they slipped. But they will be dismembered by politicians not because they ever manipulated results, but because they can. BTW, notice downvotes coming in. Why parent comment is being downvoted? Does it present incorrect facts? Does it advance implausible theory not worthy of discussion?
- 0-O-0 6y agoAfter reading this post I've noticed that I've skipped parent comment because of its color. Time to add some custom CSS to HN.
- fzeroracer 6y agoSince you say you worked at Google, are you willing to put your money where your mouth is and prove that they manipulated search results to benefit one campaign over another? That could run afoul of election laws, so I hope you realize you have a legal duty to report that thing. Publicly. I'm expecting proof.
- macspoofing 6y ago>ZeroHedge isn't the best news source if you're looking for high quality They definitely aren't the best new source. They are part of the sputnik and info wars crowd. >A decade ago I used to have so much hope that internet would be liberating for humanity. That seems laughably naive today. And it was when it was pushed by idealistic libertarian-types (not just on the capitalist side, but also on the socialist side - like RMS). Then it was gamed when it hit mainstream. Oh well.