26 ms·

The USA is such a mess. Can't have free speech because too many voters are conspiracy nuts. Can't ban content because free speech. The level of ignorance has

The USA is such a mess. Can't have free speech because too many voters are conspiracy nuts. Can't ban content because free speech. The level of ignorance has to be seen to be believed, on sites like 4chan. Education can clear this impasse, but is it too late?

manigandham 6y ago
Free speech the concept is different from the First Amendment, which is different from private companies and private property. The fringes will always be there, they're just more visible and vocal now. The real issue is whether a platform will choose to be moderated or not, and what tools it offers to users to control their experience. All major platforms are still working on that balance, especially as they become increasingly dominant mediums of expression.
- thephyber 6y ago
  > The fringes will always be there, they're just more visible and vocal now. And the fringes have enlisted bots to amplify their message, which includes accusations of serious criminal behavior with no evidence that would stand up in court. I suspect media platforms won't actually be able to fix these problems because they are codependent on the outrage that they create.
  - manigandham 6y ago
    I agree. Communications have been mechanized and "social" has expanded in scale beyond any human limit.
s5300 6y ago
For the uniformed: At least, long ago, in the beginning of 4chan, nobody believed this. They purposely made it up for fun and trolling. I seriously don't understand how there are some people unaware of this. They then purposely pushed it from 4chan to places it would be believed, other forms of social media like Facebook. The general populace (of social media users) are the ones who eat it up. They eat shit up from an anonymous image board that has always said that "The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact." tl:dr "civil" society has quite literally proved it's simply not ready for the internet. Wonder if this will go down as the Great Filter.
- amiga_500 6y ago
  My hunch is every single qanon story is just that, a story. I would imagine groups of students have competitions to come up with the most absurdly plausible story, with the winner able to perceive the odd conspiratorial mindset that so many in the USA seem to have. When a story goes viral they are laughing in some private chat room. Watching the movie Slackers (2002) recently was eye opening. You'd think this weird conspiracy thing was recent, but Slackers shows it predated the mass adoption of the internet. I find it hard to imagine where this ends.
hindsightbias 6y ago
The thing is, people like Musk are scared of super-intelligent AIs, but all you really needed is Russian MLbots more intelligent than the median American.

manigandham 6y ago

Free speech the concept is different from the First Amendment, which is different from private companies and private property. The fringes will always be there, they're just more visible and vocal now. The real issue is whether a platform will choose to be moderated or not, and what tools it offers to users to control their experience. All major platforms are still working on that balance, especially as they become increasingly dominant mediums of expression.

thephyber 6y ago
> The fringes will always be there, they're just more visible and vocal now. And the fringes have enlisted bots to amplify their message, which includes accusations of serious criminal behavior with no evidence that would stand up in court. I suspect media platforms won't actually be able to fix these problems because they are codependent on the outrage that they create.
- manigandham 6y ago
  I agree. Communications have been mechanized and "social" has expanded in scale beyond any human limit.

s5300 6y ago

For the uniformed: At least, long ago, in the beginning of 4chan, nobody believed this. They purposely made it up for fun and trolling. I seriously don't understand how there are some people unaware of this. They then purposely pushed it from 4chan to places it would be believed, other forms of social media like Facebook. The general populace (of social media users) are the ones who eat it up. They eat shit up from an anonymous image board that has always said that "The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact." tl:dr "civil" society has quite literally proved it's simply not ready for the internet. Wonder if this will go down as the Great Filter.

amiga_500 6y ago
My hunch is every single qanon story is just that, a story. I would imagine groups of students have competitions to come up with the most absurdly plausible story, with the winner able to perceive the odd conspiratorial mindset that so many in the USA seem to have. When a story goes viral they are laughing in some private chat room. Watching the movie Slackers (2002) recently was eye opening. You'd think this weird conspiracy thing was recent, but Slackers shows it predated the mass adoption of the internet. I find it hard to imagine where this ends.

hindsightbias 6y ago

The thing is, people like Musk are scared of super-intelligent AIs, but all you really needed is Russian MLbots more intelligent than the median American.