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> Think you're the smartest person on the planet, unaffected by misinformation? Thank goodness someone is calling this out other than me. Sites like these are

> Think you're the smartest person on the planet, unaffected by misinformation? Thank goodness someone is calling this out other than me. Sites like these are filled with people who think they are smart don't need any help, and worse, expect everyone else in the world to be at their level. I too am glad social media companies are finally waking up and taking action against this stuff. Can you imagine a world where Google decided they wouldn't filter spam because it was too controversial?

ballenf 6y ago
How many high profile "misinformation" email campaigns until calls for google to explicitly include political perspective in its indicia of email spam? And then your "imagine a world..." would make sense as an analogy. And there would be people calling for Google to either return to neutrality or stop filtering spam altogether.
steplock 6y ago
>Can you imagine a world where Google decided they wouldn't filter spam because it was too controversial Absolutely. Another solution would simply fill in the vacuum. Google—-Alphabet, rather—-is a for-profit corporation. Their initial success was the result of outperforming other services in a field so nascent that no one really knew exactly what it was. Google is no one’s friend; they’re not subject to anything except clear demarcations of legal statue and the court system. It’s important to realize “this stuff” may, someday, very well become your stuff, my stuff and our stuff. That’s the threat, in my opinion. Information is not harmful. Information we can each investigate and self-audit within our own brains. Google we cannot investigate, and it will never experience anything close to a public-facing audit. Don’t capitulate your God given power away. The power to think. To question. To be wrong. To change your mind. To grow. One man’s opinion.
carry_bit 6y ago
> Can you imagine a world where Google decided they wouldn't filter spam because it was too controversial? It would be like email: you can run an email client with a spam filter. If you don't like how it's filtering, you can configure it or even download a different client without abandoning your email address.
Balgair 6y ago
Here's a little story about one of the smartest people that ever lived, Sir Isaac Newton, and how he went broke along with most of England: https://www.sovereignman.com/finance/how-isaac-newton-went-flat-broke-chasing-a-stock-bubble-13268/ https://www.sovereignman.com/finance/how-isaac-newton-went-f... Note the graph there showing his purchasing events. Newton himself was well aware of his folly afterwards. He was able to admit that he was irrational and learn form the experience. Many people that consider themselves smart would be well improved to learn the same lesson Sir Isaac did.
IanDrake 6y ago
I can't believe how backward and elitists this statement is. HN is at the point of max absurdity. You belittle someone you don't know, decrying that they couldn't possibly evaluate truth. Then prescribed some prescient censor, who you also do not know, to control the flow of information?
- FriendlyNormie 6y ago
  Then downvoted your valid comment to the point that it is invisible. Most people on this site are complete morons and need to be permanently silenced and stripped of any power to exercise their will anywhere. The hilarious irony is that the global microchip implant control grid they’re helping to pave the way for will give them exactly that. Fuck you all.

ballenf 6y ago

How many high profile "misinformation" email campaigns until calls for google to explicitly include political perspective in its indicia of email spam? And then your "imagine a world..." would make sense as an analogy. And there would be people calling for Google to either return to neutrality or stop filtering spam altogether.

steplock 6y ago

>Can you imagine a world where Google decided they wouldn't filter spam because it was too controversial Absolutely. Another solution would simply fill in the vacuum. Google—-Alphabet, rather—-is a for-profit corporation. Their initial success was the result of outperforming other services in a field so nascent that no one really knew exactly what it was. Google is no one’s friend; they’re not subject to anything except clear demarcations of legal statue and the court system. It’s important to realize “this stuff” may, someday, very well become your stuff, my stuff and our stuff. That’s the threat, in my opinion. Information is not harmful. Information we can each investigate and self-audit within our own brains. Google we cannot investigate, and it will never experience anything close to a public-facing audit. Don’t capitulate your God given power away. The power to think. To question. To be wrong. To change your mind. To grow. One man’s opinion.

carry_bit 6y ago

> Can you imagine a world where Google decided they wouldn't filter spam because it was too controversial? It would be like email: you can run an email client with a spam filter. If you don't like how it's filtering, you can configure it or even download a different client without abandoning your email address.

Balgair 6y ago

Here's a little story about one of the smartest people that ever lived, Sir Isaac Newton, and how he went broke along with most of England: https://www.sovereignman.com/finance/how-isaac-newton-went-flat-broke-chasing-a-stock-bubble-13268/ https://www.sovereignman.com/finance/how-isaac-newton-went-f... Note the graph there showing his purchasing events. Newton himself was well aware of his folly afterwards. He was able to admit that he was irrational and learn form the experience. Many people that consider themselves smart would be well improved to learn the same lesson Sir Isaac did.

IanDrake 6y ago

I can't believe how backward and elitists this statement is. HN is at the point of max absurdity. You belittle someone you don't know, decrying that they couldn't possibly evaluate truth. Then prescribed some prescient censor, who you also do not know, to control the flow of information?

FriendlyNormie 6y ago
Then downvoted your valid comment to the point that it is invisible. Most people on this site are complete morons and need to be permanently silenced and stripped of any power to exercise their will anywhere. The hilarious irony is that the global microchip implant control grid they’re helping to pave the way for will give them exactly that. Fuck you all.