4 ms·

Facebook is a mimetic competitor and thus a huge target: https://jakeseliger.com/2018/11/14/is-there-an-actual-facebook-crisis-or-media-narrative-about-facebook

Facebook is a mimetic competitor and thus a huge target: https://jakeseliger.com/2018/11/14/is-there-an-actual-facebook-crisis-or-media-narrative-about-facebook-crisis/ https://jakeseliger.com/2018/11/14/is-there-an-actual-facebo...

creddit 6y ago
I like this framing! Very interesting way to think about it.
richk449 6y ago
Sure, Facebook and the conventional media both compete for the same eyeballs and ad dollars. The conventional media is critical of the upstart Facebook in part because of legitimate complaints (spread of fake news, triviality, etc.) and in part because they are jealous. What does the Girardian analysis add? Is mimetic competition different than regular competition? Is a Girardian scapegoat different than a normal scapegoat?
dwaltrip 6y ago
Thanks for linking this interesting article. While reading it, I followed a link to what turned out to be another great article, "Why everyone hates the mainstream media": https://maxpolicy.substack.com/p/issue-45-why-everybody-hates-the https://maxpolicy.substack.com/p/issue-45-why-everybody-hate...
- pnexk 6y ago
  Reminds me very much of Walter Lippmann's work, Public opinion, part of a time of his debate with Dewey on democracy's functions. This was in 1922 and he already emphasised the role of the media in validating existing worldviews in a sense. There's much to benefit from Lippmann's insights, one of which is this concept of psuedostructures we all construct and caricatures in those pseudostructures. Philosphize This episode: https://youtu.be/6QJYsSJGR8I https://youtu.be/6QJYsSJGR8I https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_(book) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_(book)
- buran77 6y ago
  I think Facebook is particularly vilified (rightfully in my opinion) because it developed the biggest "village" where it privatized the profits and socialized the costs by asking the village to police itself, and by relying on or expecting its government bodies to handle the enforcement of any regulation. I get that policing billions of users you just gave a voice to is hard but so is counting all those profits they bring. When corporation profits were at stake everybody threw money at solutions that instantly and automatically solve the issue to everyone's advantage but the users' - copyright infringement. Now we get the "policing is hard, man" discourse from one of the biggest companies in the world, with the biggest userbase in the world. Indeed, the solution to this problem may not be technical but they're still miking everything for profit while claiming it's hard to come up with a solution and people are rightfully skeptical of their stance and vilifying them.
- coolgeek 6y ago
  > Judgements about status are embedded in almost everything aspect of the news. To read the news is to be insulted — which is why people are fleeing the mainstream media in droves. Except that the people that are "fleeing the mainstream media" are going to media sources (on the right, and the left) that are even more judgmental, and even more insulting. That pretty much annihilates his argument.
  - dwaltrip 6y ago
    These other sources conform more strongly to the existing beliefs and values of prominent groups, right? So they are only more insulting for those outside of that group.
    - coolgeek 6y ago
      For better or worse, mainstream media is the closest thing we have to a consensus view that resembles reality as it exists (affirmatively, not normatively). Retreating into safe spaces (either on the right, or on the left) isn't the answer.
strenholme 6y ago
While I enjoy what is written here (I don’t agree with everything said, but do agree that “Year of the Linux Desktop” was a folly), its use of Gentium Book Basic as a font is problematic on Windows 10: The strokes have inconsistent width, which makes things hard to read. ttfautohint may be able to resolve this issue; another solution would be to use either Source Serif Pro or Vollkorn for the body text (i.e. the class “wf-active”), which, like Gentium Book, have a traditional look to them, while rendering more nicely in Windows 10. My workaround is to use Firefox’s document inspector to make the font a mixture of Bitstream Charter and Charis SIL, but reader mode is another workaround.
- jseliger 6y ago
  Thanks! Should be fixed now.
  - strenholme 6y ago
    That looks really good! Georgia has a very readable and slightly old fashioned look, is available everywhere (including Linux desktops once people legally add the Microsoft Core Fonts themselves) except on Android phones, but the substitute on Android phones looks quite nice too. I still wonder if Gentium Book Basic (which, yes, looks great in PDF files; it is a beautiful font) can be salvaged on Windows devices if we run it through ttfautohint.

creddit 6y ago

I like this framing! Very interesting way to think about it.

richk449 6y ago

Sure, Facebook and the conventional media both compete for the same eyeballs and ad dollars. The conventional media is critical of the upstart Facebook in part because of legitimate complaints (spread of fake news, triviality, etc.) and in part because they are jealous. What does the Girardian analysis add? Is mimetic competition different than regular competition? Is a Girardian scapegoat different than a normal scapegoat?

dwaltrip 6y ago

Thanks for linking this interesting article. While reading it, I followed a link to what turned out to be another great article, "Why everyone hates the mainstream media": https://maxpolicy.substack.com/p/issue-45-why-everybody-hates-the https://maxpolicy.substack.com/p/issue-45-why-everybody-hate...

pnexk 6y ago
Reminds me very much of Walter Lippmann's work, Public opinion, part of a time of his debate with Dewey on democracy's functions. This was in 1922 and he already emphasised the role of the media in validating existing worldviews in a sense. There's much to benefit from Lippmann's insights, one of which is this concept of psuedostructures we all construct and caricatures in those pseudostructures. Philosphize This episode: https://youtu.be/6QJYsSJGR8I https://youtu.be/6QJYsSJGR8I https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_(book) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_(book)
buran77 6y ago
I think Facebook is particularly vilified (rightfully in my opinion) because it developed the biggest "village" where it privatized the profits and socialized the costs by asking the village to police itself, and by relying on or expecting its government bodies to handle the enforcement of any regulation. I get that policing billions of users you just gave a voice to is hard but so is counting all those profits they bring. When corporation profits were at stake everybody threw money at solutions that instantly and automatically solve the issue to everyone's advantage but the users' - copyright infringement. Now we get the "policing is hard, man" discourse from one of the biggest companies in the world, with the biggest userbase in the world. Indeed, the solution to this problem may not be technical but they're still miking everything for profit while claiming it's hard to come up with a solution and people are rightfully skeptical of their stance and vilifying them.
coolgeek 6y ago
> Judgements about status are embedded in almost everything aspect of the news. To read the news is to be insulted — which is why people are fleeing the mainstream media in droves. Except that the people that are "fleeing the mainstream media" are going to media sources (on the right, and the left) that are even more judgmental, and even more insulting. That pretty much annihilates his argument.
- dwaltrip 6y ago
  These other sources conform more strongly to the existing beliefs and values of prominent groups, right? So they are only more insulting for those outside of that group.
  - coolgeek 6y ago
    For better or worse, mainstream media is the closest thing we have to a consensus view that resembles reality as it exists (affirmatively, not normatively). Retreating into safe spaces (either on the right, or on the left) isn't the answer.

strenholme 6y ago

While I enjoy what is written here (I don’t agree with everything said, but do agree that “Year of the Linux Desktop” was a folly), its use of Gentium Book Basic as a font is problematic on Windows 10: The strokes have inconsistent width, which makes things hard to read. ttfautohint may be able to resolve this issue; another solution would be to use either Source Serif Pro or Vollkorn for the body text (i.e. the class “wf-active”), which, like Gentium Book, have a traditional look to them, while rendering more nicely in Windows 10. My workaround is to use Firefox’s document inspector to make the font a mixture of Bitstream Charter and Charis SIL, but reader mode is another workaround.

jseliger 6y ago
Thanks! Should be fixed now.
- strenholme 6y ago
  That looks really good! Georgia has a very readable and slightly old fashioned look, is available everywhere (including Linux desktops once people legally add the Microsoft Core Fonts themselves) except on Android phones, but the substitute on Android phones looks quite nice too. I still wonder if Gentium Book Basic (which, yes, looks great in PDF files; it is a beautiful font) can be salvaged on Windows devices if we run it through ttfautohint.