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The mainstream reporting was so bad I just started looking on Twitter. I found both pro- and anti-"protest" accounts with video. Even the pro-protest account vi

The mainstream reporting was so bad I just started looking on Twitter. I found both pro- and anti-"protest" accounts with video. Even the pro-protest account videos debunk the narrative that these are peaceful African-American protestors. Whenever one lets the mask slip or shows her hands or hair, it's a young white person. These are night time riots, plain and simple. Surveillance footage released by law enforcement shows that Mike Reinoehl loaded and cocked his weapon lying in wait before he murdered Aaron Danielson. Even the people generally sympathetic to the antiprotest viewpoint are able to publish their narratives using videos from the pro-"protest" side! Even the Kenosha story, the one we cant tell on Facebook, is largely misreported.[1] At this point, these Antifa people (who "don't exist," yet all show up at the same time and place in a uniform and are even aware enough to know who is and isn't allowed to film), the mainstream reporting, the Democrats and Leftist activists seem to want me to believe their words over my lying eyes. I don't anymore. The illusion is shattered. I'm a bit embarrassed that people who profess to be hackers in our industry are actively allowing themselves to be cannibalized by a narrative that is controlled by those with power over information. Ever since I was a kid, wresting access to information from a powerful, ruthless elite is what motivated me to be a programmer and hacker. I couldn't put it into those terms, but it's the same sentiment from my first exposure at age 12. When a billionaire self-described hacker uses his authority as the creator of the largest online social network on earth to censor any evidence that goes against a certain narrative, even to the point of blacklisting, he has ceased to be a hacker, as have any employees who continue to be accomplices in this increasingly absurd information warfare operation. I have no doubt that many of these people believe they are doing the right thing, but they themselves have been cracked and don't even know it or are too fragile to resist. Anytime anyone says "you can't say <X> and you can't look at the evidence we don't endorse," I'm suspicious. Yet that is what we see right now. The largest social networking site in the world will ban posts and even accounts for saying a certain narrative. The largest video platform in the world boosts the "reliable sources" mentioned in the article, and only puts less curated information after it. And the bird application uses trumped up bans, shadowbans and selective enforcement of policies. When did hacker culture sell its soul? [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ro8hkfBDVw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ro8hkfBDVw

Jonnax 6y ago
Hacker culture isn't the entire field of programming. Facebook, Youtube and Twitter are some of the largest businesses in the world and they are also free services. I would bet that the majority of people who code or design software find hacker culture, to be silly. The most read and shared news websites are anti-protest on Facebook. [1] With the President and many politicians supporting the killing in in Kenosha, clearly a portion of those in power support it. There are alternative news sites, forums and even social media. Nobody is locked to these sites, except for an entitlement to an audience. [1] https://twitter.com/FacebooksTop10/status/1301902039425847296 https://twitter.com/FacebooksTop10/status/130190203942584729...
- baryphonic 6y ago
  > Hacker culture isn't the entire field of programming. > > Facebook, Youtube and Twitter are some of the largest businesses in the world and they are also free services. > > I would bet that the majority of people who code or design software find hacker culture, to be silly. I get what you're saying. And yet Facebook HQ's physical address is 1 Hacker Way. Not 1 Big Business Way, nor 1 Status Quo Way, nor 1 Software Engineer Way. Hacker Way. Google used to speak about allowing the whole world to access information with ease, including projects like making libraries accessible. Clearly Facebook and Google at least identify themselves with hacker culture. I'm not sure if Twitter ever professed any sort of noble goals, though it's a dwarf compared to the other two. > With the President and many politicians supporting the killing in in Kenosha, clearly a portion of those in power support it. I'm not sure I'd say anyone supports the killing. I personally think it was a big mistake for that kid to go there, regardless of whether he has the right to. It was a bad decision, and led to a tragic situation where there were no winners. That said, he's not a murderer; if anything, the mob was coming after him (guns firing in multiple cases) to kill him. I also question the de facto power that the president has when the press really is able to control when and how he says what he says. And the press's lies seem to be getting more absurd and brazen. (The personality of the current president does him no favors. It's a negative, in fact.) He holds de jure power, but given his inability to pull 2000 troops from Syria or drop charges against his former National Security Adviser, his legal authority seems like the Queen's royal prerogatives++. The press and entertainment industries, the universities and the bureaucracy seem to hold fragments of power both legally and in the culture, which makes the de jure power a bit weak. > There are alternative news sites, forums and even social media. Nobody is locked to these sites, except for an entitlement to an audience. Twitter and Facebook have strong network effects, which effectively does lock people in. YouTube's are much weaker, which is why I suspect decentralized video will be the first decentralized service if they can get some legal kinks worked out. (There's also a legal argument about monopoly common carriers, even at common law, and how they shouldn't terminate service unless the law is violated.) However, even if we accepted that these were competitive, this kind of competition can only exist when we at least have some level of order and security. The reason.com article seems to indicate how we do not have that kind of basic stability.

Jonnax 6y ago

Hacker culture isn't the entire field of programming. Facebook, Youtube and Twitter are some of the largest businesses in the world and they are also free services. I would bet that the majority of people who code or design software find hacker culture, to be silly. The most read and shared news websites are anti-protest on Facebook. [1] With the President and many politicians supporting the killing in in Kenosha, clearly a portion of those in power support it. There are alternative news sites, forums and even social media. Nobody is locked to these sites, except for an entitlement to an audience. [1] https://twitter.com/FacebooksTop10/status/1301902039425847296 https://twitter.com/FacebooksTop10/status/130190203942584729...

baryphonic 6y ago
> Hacker culture isn't the entire field of programming. > > Facebook, Youtube and Twitter are some of the largest businesses in the world and they are also free services. > > I would bet that the majority of people who code or design software find hacker culture, to be silly. I get what you're saying. And yet Facebook HQ's physical address is 1 Hacker Way. Not 1 Big Business Way, nor 1 Status Quo Way, nor 1 Software Engineer Way. Hacker Way. Google used to speak about allowing the whole world to access information with ease, including projects like making libraries accessible. Clearly Facebook and Google at least identify themselves with hacker culture. I'm not sure if Twitter ever professed any sort of noble goals, though it's a dwarf compared to the other two. > With the President and many politicians supporting the killing in in Kenosha, clearly a portion of those in power support it. I'm not sure I'd say anyone supports the killing. I personally think it was a big mistake for that kid to go there, regardless of whether he has the right to. It was a bad decision, and led to a tragic situation where there were no winners. That said, he's not a murderer; if anything, the mob was coming after him (guns firing in multiple cases) to kill him. I also question the de facto power that the president has when the press really is able to control when and how he says what he says. And the press's lies seem to be getting more absurd and brazen. (The personality of the current president does him no favors. It's a negative, in fact.) He holds de jure power, but given his inability to pull 2000 troops from Syria or drop charges against his former National Security Adviser, his legal authority seems like the Queen's royal prerogatives++. The press and entertainment industries, the universities and the bureaucracy seem to hold fragments of power both legally and in the culture, which makes the de jure power a bit weak. > There are alternative news sites, forums and even social media. Nobody is locked to these sites, except for an entitlement to an audience. Twitter and Facebook have strong network effects, which effectively does lock people in. YouTube's are much weaker, which is why I suspect decentralized video will be the first decentralized service if they can get some legal kinks worked out. (There's also a legal argument about monopoly common carriers, even at common law, and how they shouldn't terminate service unless the law is violated.) However, even if we accepted that these were competitive, this kind of competition can only exist when we at least have some level of order and security. The reason.com article seems to indicate how we do not have that kind of basic stability.