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I personally don't find their ability to remain online that surprising. The Pirate Bay and other torrent networks were built by people with a passion for build

I personally don't find their ability to remain online that surprising. The Pirate Bay and other torrent networks were built by people with a passion for building, maintaining and hacking things. People who, even without a solid CS background, would spend hours a day learning new things, developing distributed protocols, evading DNS blocks and hosting their content wherever they could to make it accessible - included the small server in their own garage if needed. And they are used by people who don't mind learning a new protocol or how to use a new client to get the content they want. I don't see the same amount of passion for technology and hacking among the Parler users, nor its maintainers. Those who believe in conspiracy content are people characterized by a psychological tendency to take shortcuts whenever they can in order to minimize their efforts in learning and understanding new things. So when the first blocker hits they usually can't see alternative solutions, because it's not the way their brains are wired. They always expect somebody else to come up with solutions for them, and they always blame somebody else when the solution won't come. And even if they decided to migrate their content to the dark web or on a Tor network, not many people will follow them - both because they don't have the skills, and because they don't want to acquire those skills. Plus, they'd lose the "viral network effect" that they get when posting click-bait content on public networks, the new censorship-proof network will only attract a small bunch of already radicalized people. And even if they wanted to hire some smart engineers to do the job for them, we all know that engineers tend to swing on the other opposite of the ideological spectrum. Those who have built systems for escaping REAL authoritarian censorship would rightfully feel disgusted if asked to apply their knowledge to provide a safe harbour for rednecks to vomit their conspiracy-theories-fueled hate.

koffiezet 6y ago
> The Pirate Bay and other torrent networks were built by people with a passion for building Also by people who know that what they were doing was straight-up illegal in a lot of countries, and grey-area in a lot of others. So this was a real risk. Parler on the other hand, at its core was just a social network, and if you look at the founders/owners, they have a very disconnected interpretation of "free speech", so they were clearly thinking nothing bad could happen.
- citizenpaul 6y ago
  disconnected interpretation of "free speech" Oh yeah whats that comrad?
  - LadyCailin 6y ago
    That saying “hey, let’s violently overthrow the government” isn’t a class of protected speech.
    - jliptzin 6y ago
      And also, they are being thrown off the platforms of private companies, not being censored by the government, so it's actually not a free speech issue at all.
pelagicAustral 6y ago
top kek
watwut 6y ago
> Those who believe in conspiracy content are people characterized by a psychological tendency to take shortcuts whenever they can in order to minimize their efforts in learning and understanding new things I dont think it is that simple. I remember reading finding that smart highly intelligent people are more attracted to conspiracy theories. The complexity of those theories and details those rely on attract them. Also, I may be wrong here, but I remember reading that Parler was funded by some pretty rich people. If that is true, they should be able to pay for tech know how.
- DaedPsyker 6y ago
  I'd be interested on information on that and how it was performed. Ive found that many of successful people who talk about conspiracies tend to be self serving. Like that Texas lawyer that brought a case of election fraud, likely to catch attention of Trump to pardon him due to his own legal problems. Others as a scaremongering technique to influence politics. The only ones that seem to believe in them are those clearly unhinged (McAfee comes straight to mind although his seems self serving too).
- jmcqk6 6y ago
  There is definitely a correlation between lazy thinking and believing in conspiracy theories. Mainly because conspiracy theories do not lend themselves to rigorous inquiry, almost by definition. This is different than "intelligence." It's more about effort and rigor in thinking. It's the quality of the thought, and the willingness to question your own assumptions. And a willingness to recognize the limits of your own knowledge and understanding.
- blacklight 6y ago
  A study recently published on Scientific American seems to prove that left-leaning people tend to have more gray matter in the pre-frontal cortex (i.e. the area of the brain involved in complex planning, understanding of new things and pattern detection), wwhile right-leaning people tend to have more gray matter in the amygdala (the area of the brain responsible for spotting potential danger and refuse something new if it may pose a risk to survival): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/conservative-and-liberal-brains-might-have-some-real-differences/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/conservative-and-.... If that's true, and if indeed conservatives are much more likely to believe in conspiracy theories (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/information-overload-helps-fake-news-spread-and-social-media-knows-it http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/information-overlo... in conspiracy theories), then the opposite of what you state may indeed be true Keep un mind that before a conspiracy theory turns into the perverse mind-twist of a complex theory like QAnon it ALWAYS start simple, and always simpler than reality actually looks like. It can always summarized with "those guys want to harm you, so don't even bother to look further, the explanation is easy": pure and total amygdala stimulation. Then, when they are contradicted by evidence, they put up more and more complex twists to mitigate the arise of cognitive dissonance in its followers ("I know that it looks like things don't make much sense, but you know, you have to follow the crumbs, or keep in mind that Trump is talking to you in Morse code" etc.)
johnmaguire2013 6y ago
> And even if they wanted to hire some smart engineers to do the job for them, we all know that engineers tend to swing on the other opposite of the ideological spectrum. Those who have built systems for escaping REAL authoritarian censorship would rightfully feel disgusted if asked to apply their knowledge to provide a safe harbour for rednecks to vomit their conspiracy-theories-fueled hate. I'm not sure this is true. This seems to imply that nations which have copyright law are imposing authoritarian censorship on their citizens. This doesn't seem to be a pervasive idea, at least in the US. There are proponents of information freedom who oppose copyright law. It's not clear to me that this group would oppose Parler, and in fact many I've spoken to believe they should be free to exist without censorship. But - I am not sure they want to be associated with Parler either, out of concern for their reputation.
- HeadsUpHigh 6y ago
  >This seems to imply that nations which have copyright law are imposing authoritarian censorship on their citizens. This is exactly the point of most anti-copyright parties.
  - johnmaguire2013 6y ago
    I see no contradiction.
Psype 6y ago
There is no political profile for CS engineers. The founder's motto was literally "Hack the planet"... Indeed, that's not to be compared with TPB enthusiast's taste for hack and passion for CS things, but don't underestimate "right wing" techies...
hodgesrm 6y ago
> And even if they wanted to hire some smart engineers to do the job for them, we all know that engineers tend to swing on the other opposite of the ideological spectrum. Do we all really know that? Some very good technical people don't have particularly strong political views or keep them separate from their job. Example: lots of ordinary devs helped build porn sites.
- blacklight 6y ago
  As a dev I feel that building a platform to share conspiracy-fueled hate is way more immoral and damaging than building a platform to host porn content. At least porn doesn't harm anybody - except maybe your hand :)
  - bootlooped 6y ago
    Did you read the recent NY Times pieces on PornHub? The Children of Pornhub https://nyti.ms/33DMObR https://nyti.ms/33DMObR An Uplifting Update, on the Terrible World of Pornhub https://nyti.ms/2W1aB1b https://nyti.ms/2W1aB1b

koffiezet 6y ago

> The Pirate Bay and other torrent networks were built by people with a passion for building Also by people who know that what they were doing was straight-up illegal in a lot of countries, and grey-area in a lot of others. So this was a real risk. Parler on the other hand, at its core was just a social network, and if you look at the founders/owners, they have a very disconnected interpretation of "free speech", so they were clearly thinking nothing bad could happen.

citizenpaul 6y ago
disconnected interpretation of "free speech" Oh yeah whats that comrad?
- LadyCailin 6y ago
  That saying “hey, let’s violently overthrow the government” isn’t a class of protected speech.
  - jliptzin 6y ago
    And also, they are being thrown off the platforms of private companies, not being censored by the government, so it's actually not a free speech issue at all.

pelagicAustral 6y ago

top kek

watwut 6y ago

> Those who believe in conspiracy content are people characterized by a psychological tendency to take shortcuts whenever they can in order to minimize their efforts in learning and understanding new things I dont think it is that simple. I remember reading finding that smart highly intelligent people are more attracted to conspiracy theories. The complexity of those theories and details those rely on attract them. Also, I may be wrong here, but I remember reading that Parler was funded by some pretty rich people. If that is true, they should be able to pay for tech know how.

DaedPsyker 6y ago
I'd be interested on information on that and how it was performed. Ive found that many of successful people who talk about conspiracies tend to be self serving. Like that Texas lawyer that brought a case of election fraud, likely to catch attention of Trump to pardon him due to his own legal problems. Others as a scaremongering technique to influence politics. The only ones that seem to believe in them are those clearly unhinged (McAfee comes straight to mind although his seems self serving too).
jmcqk6 6y ago
There is definitely a correlation between lazy thinking and believing in conspiracy theories. Mainly because conspiracy theories do not lend themselves to rigorous inquiry, almost by definition. This is different than "intelligence." It's more about effort and rigor in thinking. It's the quality of the thought, and the willingness to question your own assumptions. And a willingness to recognize the limits of your own knowledge and understanding.
blacklight 6y ago
A study recently published on Scientific American seems to prove that left-leaning people tend to have more gray matter in the pre-frontal cortex (i.e. the area of the brain involved in complex planning, understanding of new things and pattern detection), wwhile right-leaning people tend to have more gray matter in the amygdala (the area of the brain responsible for spotting potential danger and refuse something new if it may pose a risk to survival): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/conservative-and-liberal-brains-might-have-some-real-differences/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/conservative-and-.... If that's true, and if indeed conservatives are much more likely to believe in conspiracy theories (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/information-overload-helps-fake-news-spread-and-social-media-knows-it http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/information-overlo... in conspiracy theories), then the opposite of what you state may indeed be true Keep un mind that before a conspiracy theory turns into the perverse mind-twist of a complex theory like QAnon it ALWAYS start simple, and always simpler than reality actually looks like. It can always summarized with "those guys want to harm you, so don't even bother to look further, the explanation is easy": pure and total amygdala stimulation. Then, when they are contradicted by evidence, they put up more and more complex twists to mitigate the arise of cognitive dissonance in its followers ("I know that it looks like things don't make much sense, but you know, you have to follow the crumbs, or keep in mind that Trump is talking to you in Morse code" etc.)

johnmaguire2013 6y ago

> And even if they wanted to hire some smart engineers to do the job for them, we all know that engineers tend to swing on the other opposite of the ideological spectrum. Those who have built systems for escaping REAL authoritarian censorship would rightfully feel disgusted if asked to apply their knowledge to provide a safe harbour for rednecks to vomit their conspiracy-theories-fueled hate. I'm not sure this is true. This seems to imply that nations which have copyright law are imposing authoritarian censorship on their citizens. This doesn't seem to be a pervasive idea, at least in the US. There are proponents of information freedom who oppose copyright law. It's not clear to me that this group would oppose Parler, and in fact many I've spoken to believe they should be free to exist without censorship. But - I am not sure they want to be associated with Parler either, out of concern for their reputation.

HeadsUpHigh 6y ago
>This seems to imply that nations which have copyright law are imposing authoritarian censorship on their citizens. This is exactly the point of most anti-copyright parties.
- johnmaguire2013 6y ago
  I see no contradiction.

Psype 6y ago

There is no political profile for CS engineers. The founder's motto was literally "Hack the planet"... Indeed, that's not to be compared with TPB enthusiast's taste for hack and passion for CS things, but don't underestimate "right wing" techies...

hodgesrm 6y ago

> And even if they wanted to hire some smart engineers to do the job for them, we all know that engineers tend to swing on the other opposite of the ideological spectrum. Do we all really know that? Some very good technical people don't have particularly strong political views or keep them separate from their job. Example: lots of ordinary devs helped build porn sites.

blacklight 6y ago
As a dev I feel that building a platform to share conspiracy-fueled hate is way more immoral and damaging than building a platform to host porn content. At least porn doesn't harm anybody - except maybe your hand :)
- bootlooped 6y ago
  Did you read the recent NY Times pieces on PornHub? The Children of Pornhub https://nyti.ms/33DMObR https://nyti.ms/33DMObR An Uplifting Update, on the Terrible World of Pornhub https://nyti.ms/2W1aB1b https://nyti.ms/2W1aB1b