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The cognitive dissonance on HN at play is frankly hilarious. One minute, Apple and Google are monopolistic abusers that should be broken up. The next, we’re act

The cognitive dissonance on HN at play is frankly hilarious. One minute, Apple and Google are monopolistic abusers that should be broken up. The next, we’re actively cheering on selective enforcement of deliberately vague ethical standards and laws, simply because the other team is bad. Downvote systems make this issue nearly impossible to discuss, so I’m not even sure why I’m posting this. All I can say is: fighting polarization starts with treating people you disagree with as fellow citizens and human beings, not as Others to be removed and excommunicated.

mangamadaiyan 6y ago
In a sane world, maybe. The rot has set in too much to stem it. Also, what you say has to work both ways. You might be prepared to listen, but what do you get in return when the other side is not prepared to listen to you?
sillysaurusx 6y ago
Remember that HN consists of millions of people now. There are plenty who would agree with you, myself included. But unless you put in effort to write substantive, thoughtful comments, your points will be lost. I encourage you to; it's worthwhile.
- poisonborz 6y ago
  > But unless you put in effort to write substantive, thoughtful comments, your points will be lost. This is really important. And one of the naturally occuring effects of this community, that makes me optimistic on this being possible on a larger scale as well, if done right.
downandout 6y ago
To your point, I believe this is the year that decentralized social media will take off. Social media companies have proven that they can and will abuse their moderation powers to suppress free speech. In this case, it seems that they were emboldened to suppress conservative free speech by the Democratic wins in the 2020 election. What they don’t understand is that telling nearly 150 million people to shut up and sit down will have profound business consequences for them. As decentralized solutions quickly flourish in response to their suppression efforts, they will learn the hard way that those who abuse their powers eventually lose them - whether the abuser is Donald Trump, Google, or Twitter. The technology exists to simply bypass and strip these platforms of the power and profits that come with being a gatekeeper. It’s been a long time coming.
- ceilingcorner 6y ago
  Yes I think this is what will ultimately happen. The idea that millions of people will simply disappear / change their political views because corporations and the government said so is absurd. Anyone with the slightest exposure to rural American conservatism would know that. In fact, it’s almost a fantasy scenario, confirming whatever bizarre conspiracy theory of the week. Absolutely the wrong way to solve this problem.
jgillich 6y ago
> fighting polarization starts with treating people you disagree with as fellow citizens and human beings So what if those people think you're subhuman and want you dead? This is the kind of talk that happens on these platforms every single day. You've just had a violent insurgence on your capitol and you still think the solution is to ask these people to be nice? It's CLEARLY not working, and it's time for social media to rid themselves of open calls for violence and the conspiracy theories that fuel them. People on the left have also been suspended for similar issues, and rightly so. If your movement cannot remain on a platform without adhering to a policy as simple as "do not threaten violence", then your ideology has a fundamental problem and deserves to be banned to the fringes of the net.

mangamadaiyan 6y ago

In a sane world, maybe. The rot has set in too much to stem it. Also, what you say has to work both ways. You might be prepared to listen, but what do you get in return when the other side is not prepared to listen to you?

sillysaurusx 6y ago

Remember that HN consists of millions of people now. There are plenty who would agree with you, myself included. But unless you put in effort to write substantive, thoughtful comments, your points will be lost. I encourage you to; it's worthwhile.

poisonborz 6y ago
> But unless you put in effort to write substantive, thoughtful comments, your points will be lost. This is really important. And one of the naturally occuring effects of this community, that makes me optimistic on this being possible on a larger scale as well, if done right.

downandout 6y ago

To your point, I believe this is the year that decentralized social media will take off. Social media companies have proven that they can and will abuse their moderation powers to suppress free speech. In this case, it seems that they were emboldened to suppress conservative free speech by the Democratic wins in the 2020 election. What they don’t understand is that telling nearly 150 million people to shut up and sit down will have profound business consequences for them. As decentralized solutions quickly flourish in response to their suppression efforts, they will learn the hard way that those who abuse their powers eventually lose them - whether the abuser is Donald Trump, Google, or Twitter. The technology exists to simply bypass and strip these platforms of the power and profits that come with being a gatekeeper. It’s been a long time coming.

ceilingcorner 6y ago
Yes I think this is what will ultimately happen. The idea that millions of people will simply disappear / change their political views because corporations and the government said so is absurd. Anyone with the slightest exposure to rural American conservatism would know that. In fact, it’s almost a fantasy scenario, confirming whatever bizarre conspiracy theory of the week. Absolutely the wrong way to solve this problem.

jgillich 6y ago

> fighting polarization starts with treating people you disagree with as fellow citizens and human beings So what if those people think you're subhuman and want you dead? This is the kind of talk that happens on these platforms every single day. You've just had a violent insurgence on your capitol and you still think the solution is to ask these people to be nice? It's CLEARLY not working, and it's time for social media to rid themselves of open calls for violence and the conspiracy theories that fuel them. People on the left have also been suspended for similar issues, and rightly so. If your movement cannot remain on a platform without adhering to a policy as simple as "do not threaten violence", then your ideology has a fundamental problem and deserves to be banned to the fringes of the net.