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I’m starting to think that this could actually be good news for left-leaning people. It’s entirely possible that separated from the people they usually fight ag

I’m starting to think that this could actually be good news for left-leaning people. It’s entirely possible that separated from the people they usually fight against, and isolated in their own platform, conservative voices, people who have made careers out of rhetorical conflict, will begin to fight among themselves. and this can only benefit the left. It’s also very possible that Parler will only go uncensored for so long. At some point, if they get big enough, it could easily become apparent that they’re losing ad revenue by hosting certain opinions, resulting in similar changes to those of Twitter and Facebook

kace91 6y ago
> It’s entirely possible that separated from the people they usually fight against, and isolated in their own platform, conservative voices, people who have made careers out of rhetorical conflict, will begin to fight among themselves. The same is true for the left, isn't it? this will just increase the social bubbles we live in. Now instead of different recommendations and content shown in an app, you've got a different app.
- troughway 6y ago
  It's already been happening, with Glenn Greenwald, Matthew Yglesias, Taibbi and others leaving their respective companies because they can't stand the bullshit rhetoric anymore. "The left eating itself" is a trope that goes back a number of years to JRE and others. What a platform like Parler does is that it gives a voice to "the right" and unites it, regardless of whether they are stoking the flames of conspiracy, or are simply "conservative" in whichever way. Having your own turf is a powerful thing. After all, see Twitter and the blue checkmarks. I'm sure more of this is to come in various forms. There is also the reddit alternative Voat but I'm not sure if it took off properly at all. I don't have a dog in this race but it's fascinating to watch it all the same. Edit: Thanks to perardi for corrections.
  - perardi 6y ago
    Minor correction: Matthew Yglesias left Vox, not Ezra Klein.
khendron 6y ago
I am not sure that letting people exist in their own self-validating echo chamber is a good thing.
- ekianjo 6y ago
  You make it sound that it was not always a thing.
  - jeremyjh 6y ago
    It hasn't always been to this extent. People used to share a same basic set of facts about the world, based "mainstream" news media. Now there is little agreement about basic facts.
    - humanrebar 6y ago
      Was "mainstream" the natural state of things or an accident of limited amounts of over-the-air bandwidth in the 20th century?
      - redisman 6y ago
        It was better mainly due to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine
swebs 6y ago
You're thinking in an us-vs-them mentality. Really, we should be working towards a community where people can respect differing opinions, and not just a bunch of isolated sites full of extremists on either side.
- npsimons 6y ago
  > Really, we should be working towards a community where people can respect differing opinions I agree, but there is a difference between an opinion and disinformation. FFS, masks have been made political, and only one group is doing that. Before that it was AGW, before that it was evolution. I don't know about you, but I've recognized a pattern and quite frankly have zero interest in "respecting" it.
  - humanrebar 6y ago
    There's a similar list of left wing politicization of life backed by... less than objectively verifiable facts. And standards being selectively applied. The gaslighting about the right being the only subculture with problems being an example. If you want to talk about covid, there is a demonstrable double standard about social distancing guidelines. There have many "but this is historic!" moments, recent celebrations about the election results included, that don't sit well with folks that have been delaying or scuttling marriage ceremonies, memorial services, and the like.
  - clairity 6y ago
    > "FFS, masks have been made political, and only one group is doing that." no, masks are also politicized by pro-democrat media in an effort to tribalize and maintain attention. npr (and nyt) reports on mask usage in nearly every story regardless of relevance, often in a hysterical tone. it's unseemly, but apparently works or they'd have stopped doing it long ago. judging by the tone, it may be time to back off from partisan media a bit and chat with real humans more (who tend not to be nearly so extreme).
SmokeyHamster 6y ago
I doubt that. As someone who uses a lot of these mostly-conservative sites, I'm not seeing a ton of infighting. If anything, it's been the opposite. I'm seeing it unite a bunch of different factions that used to fight. And to be clear, Parler isn't uncensored. They still censor things. They're a business trying to attract an audience to make money, so they have to censor something just to protect the brand. Like posting a photo of literal shit. (I'm not kidding, the CEO explicitly said they'd ban posts like that) They're just a lot lighter on political censorship, since the big market demand created by Twitter has been for a platform that allows more political expression.
- thinkingemote 6y ago
  4chan also has a lot of moderation and cooperation with LEA beyond the minimum. The moderation line is just defined at a different level. The thing is, to expect attacks on freedom by exploiting fear of chaos and anarchy.
carapace 6y ago
What would be "be good news for left-leaning people" would be if this siphons off the crazy "conservatives" so the actual conservatives could do their thing.
fullshark 6y ago
Just what we need, stronger filter bubbles and less debate across ideological divides.

kace91 6y ago

> It’s entirely possible that separated from the people they usually fight against, and isolated in their own platform, conservative voices, people who have made careers out of rhetorical conflict, will begin to fight among themselves. The same is true for the left, isn't it? this will just increase the social bubbles we live in. Now instead of different recommendations and content shown in an app, you've got a different app.

troughway 6y ago
It's already been happening, with Glenn Greenwald, Matthew Yglesias, Taibbi and others leaving their respective companies because they can't stand the bullshit rhetoric anymore. "The left eating itself" is a trope that goes back a number of years to JRE and others. What a platform like Parler does is that it gives a voice to "the right" and unites it, regardless of whether they are stoking the flames of conspiracy, or are simply "conservative" in whichever way. Having your own turf is a powerful thing. After all, see Twitter and the blue checkmarks. I'm sure more of this is to come in various forms. There is also the reddit alternative Voat but I'm not sure if it took off properly at all. I don't have a dog in this race but it's fascinating to watch it all the same. Edit: Thanks to perardi for corrections.
- perardi 6y ago
  Minor correction: Matthew Yglesias left Vox, not Ezra Klein.

khendron 6y ago

I am not sure that letting people exist in their own self-validating echo chamber is a good thing.

ekianjo 6y ago
You make it sound that it was not always a thing.
- jeremyjh 6y ago
  It hasn't always been to this extent. People used to share a same basic set of facts about the world, based "mainstream" news media. Now there is little agreement about basic facts.
  - humanrebar 6y ago
    Was "mainstream" the natural state of things or an accident of limited amounts of over-the-air bandwidth in the 20th century?
    - redisman 6y ago
      It was better mainly due to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine

swebs 6y ago

You're thinking in an us-vs-them mentality. Really, we should be working towards a community where people can respect differing opinions, and not just a bunch of isolated sites full of extremists on either side.

npsimons 6y ago
> Really, we should be working towards a community where people can respect differing opinions I agree, but there is a difference between an opinion and disinformation. FFS, masks have been made political, and only one group is doing that. Before that it was AGW, before that it was evolution. I don't know about you, but I've recognized a pattern and quite frankly have zero interest in "respecting" it.
- humanrebar 6y ago
  There's a similar list of left wing politicization of life backed by... less than objectively verifiable facts. And standards being selectively applied. The gaslighting about the right being the only subculture with problems being an example. If you want to talk about covid, there is a demonstrable double standard about social distancing guidelines. There have many "but this is historic!" moments, recent celebrations about the election results included, that don't sit well with folks that have been delaying or scuttling marriage ceremonies, memorial services, and the like.
- clairity 6y ago
  > "FFS, masks have been made political, and only one group is doing that." no, masks are also politicized by pro-democrat media in an effort to tribalize and maintain attention. npr (and nyt) reports on mask usage in nearly every story regardless of relevance, often in a hysterical tone. it's unseemly, but apparently works or they'd have stopped doing it long ago. judging by the tone, it may be time to back off from partisan media a bit and chat with real humans more (who tend not to be nearly so extreme).

SmokeyHamster 6y ago

I doubt that. As someone who uses a lot of these mostly-conservative sites, I'm not seeing a ton of infighting. If anything, it's been the opposite. I'm seeing it unite a bunch of different factions that used to fight. And to be clear, Parler isn't uncensored. They still censor things. They're a business trying to attract an audience to make money, so they have to censor something just to protect the brand. Like posting a photo of literal shit. (I'm not kidding, the CEO explicitly said they'd ban posts like that) They're just a lot lighter on political censorship, since the big market demand created by Twitter has been for a platform that allows more political expression.

thinkingemote 6y ago
4chan also has a lot of moderation and cooperation with LEA beyond the minimum. The moderation line is just defined at a different level. The thing is, to expect attacks on freedom by exploiting fear of chaos and anarchy.

carapace 6y ago

What would be "be good news for left-leaning people" would be if this siphons off the crazy "conservatives" so the actual conservatives could do their thing.

fullshark 6y ago

Just what we need, stronger filter bubbles and less debate across ideological divides.