5 ms·

Too much spent time getting needled on Twitter. People think their brains are immune to trolling.

by op03 6y ago

throwawaysea 6y ago
This is it. I think the viral short form fast news hot takes format of Twitter (and its related cousins like Reddit) brings out the worst in people. It’s built to amplify the loud fringes who will engage in the worst ways at the drop of a hat. It ends up depressing all the users and turning them into reactionaries who can only tolerate an echo chamber of confirmation bias.
- jessaustin 6y ago
  It's a good thing that the people still employed by large media corporations rather than eking out a living on substack haven't fallen prey to this deadly malaise.
  - tptacek 6y ago
    I've read this a couple times and I'm not sure what it means. The large media corporation NYT just reported out that RH had to draw down a $600B line of credit and take a $1B round of equity funding in large part because of capital requirements from clearinghouses. Taibbi's substack, on the other hand, seems to believe that jet planes will never fly again because of COVID.
    - jessaustin 6y ago
      It's a short comment. Or do you mean TFA? The only reference to Robbinhood therein is a link to a perfectly cromulent Bloomberg report of their by-now-well-known selective stock purchase limitations. There is no scandalous reference to Citadel. NYT's breathless 1 AM transcription of press releases doesn't seem to add much to the discussion either. Of course, that's not what I was talking about. I'm just giggling at the idea that alone among USA journalists, Matt Taibbi has had his mind addled by the Twitter, as discussed upthread. How is that "Russia-gate" investigation going now? [EDIT:] As I've observed before [0], I still don't get economics advice from Taibbi. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17244242 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17244242
      - tptacek 6y ago
        I'm having a hard time following any of this, but the NYT did actual reporting that refuted a story that has been circulating all day about hedge fund interests halting trading in GME, and Matt Taibbi really did just write a story that said Delta is functionally worthless because nobody is ever going to fly on an airliner again.
        jessaustin 6y ago
        TFA is linked at the top of this page; please assume we can all read it. There is one reference to airlines, which reference includes several links to financial sources documenting (uncontroversially, one would like to assume) that they are harmed by massive drops in demand for air travel while they benefit from the receipt of hundreds of millions of dollars from the government. Taibbi takes Sorkin's comparison of GameStop and Delta seriously, and invites attentive readers to ask themselves how different one firm facing reduced demand is from some other firm facing reduced demand. Regurgitating a press release is not "actual reporting". We won't know what actually happened between RH and Citadel for some time, if ever. It's misleading to keep mentioning this in this context, because TFA doesn't address Citadel at all. ISTR you have described RH as "a force for evil". I didn't disagree with you, but it's disappointing that your famous animus for one of the rare decent journalists in USA has preempted that judgment. Every time Taibbi is linked on HN you're around to slag him. You seem more opposed to Taibbi than you are to DNSSEC. When you read Taibbi you imagine things that are not in the text. What did he ever do to you? Did he cut you off in traffic? Did he steal your dog? What gives?
        tptacek 6y ago
        He's bad at his job. He's a good writer, but he isn't a decent journalist. Technical finance reporters have made a sport out of pointing out all the times he's embarrassed himself on stories, from TARP to the NYC parking meter story. This is yet another example.
        tanseydavid 6y ago
    - JKCalhoun 6y ago
      > jet planes will never fly again because of COVID. FTA: "How much does Sorkin think his exalted Delta Airlines would be worth now, if the Fed hadn’t stopped its death plunge last March? How much would any of the airlines be worth in the Covid age, with their fleets of mothballed jets?" I believe it is true that the Feds kept Delta and other airlines afloat. Regarding the "Covid age" — could be simply 2020-2021. Or who knows? Bill Gates and others have suggested that 50% or more of business travel will never return.

Too much spent time getting needled on Twitter. People think their brains are immune to trolling.

by op03 6y ago

Too much spent time getting needled on Twitter. People think their brains are immune to trolling.

This is it. I think the viral short form fast news hot takes format of Twitter (and its related cousins like Reddit) brings out the worst in people. It’s built to amplify the loud fringes who will engage in the worst ways at the drop of a hat. It ends up depressing all the users and turning them into reactionaries who can only tolerate an echo chamber of confirmation bias.

jessaustin 6y ago
It's a good thing that the people still employed by large media corporations rather than eking out a living on substack haven't fallen prey to this deadly malaise.
- tptacek 6y ago
  I've read this a couple times and I'm not sure what it means. The large media corporation NYT just reported out that RH had to draw down a $600B line of credit and take a $1B round of equity funding in large part because of capital requirements from clearinghouses. Taibbi's substack, on the other hand, seems to believe that jet planes will never fly again because of COVID.
  - jessaustin 6y ago
    It's a short comment. Or do you mean TFA? The only reference to Robbinhood therein is a link to a perfectly cromulent Bloomberg report of their by-now-well-known selective stock purchase limitations. There is no scandalous reference to Citadel. NYT's breathless 1 AM transcription of press releases doesn't seem to add much to the discussion either. Of course, that's not what I was talking about. I'm just giggling at the idea that alone among USA journalists, Matt Taibbi has had his mind addled by the Twitter, as discussed upthread. How is that "Russia-gate" investigation going now? [EDIT:] As I've observed before [0], I still don't get economics advice from Taibbi. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17244242 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17244242
    - tptacek 6y ago
      I'm having a hard time following any of this, but the NYT did actual reporting that refuted a story that has been circulating all day about hedge fund interests halting trading in GME, and Matt Taibbi really did just write a story that said Delta is functionally worthless because nobody is ever going to fly on an airliner again.
      - jessaustin 6y ago
        TFA is linked at the top of this page; please assume we can all read it. There is one reference to airlines, which reference includes several links to financial sources documenting (uncontroversially, one would like to assume) that they are harmed by massive drops in demand for air travel while they benefit from the receipt of hundreds of millions of dollars from the government. Taibbi takes Sorkin's comparison of GameStop and Delta seriously, and invites attentive readers to ask themselves how different one firm facing reduced demand is from some other firm facing reduced demand. Regurgitating a press release is not "actual reporting". We won't know what actually happened between RH and Citadel for some time, if ever. It's misleading to keep mentioning this in this context, because TFA doesn't address Citadel at all. ISTR you have described RH as "a force for evil". I didn't disagree with you, but it's disappointing that your famous animus for one of the rare decent journalists in USA has preempted that judgment. Every time Taibbi is linked on HN you're around to slag him. You seem more opposed to Taibbi than you are to DNSSEC. When you read Taibbi you imagine things that are not in the text. What did he ever do to you? Did he cut you off in traffic? Did he steal your dog? What gives?
        tptacek 6y ago
        He's bad at his job. He's a good writer, but he isn't a decent journalist. Technical finance reporters have made a sport out of pointing out all the times he's embarrassed himself on stories, from TARP to the NYC parking meter story. This is yet another example.
        tanseydavid 6y ago
  - JKCalhoun 6y ago
    > jet planes will never fly again because of COVID. FTA: "How much does Sorkin think his exalted Delta Airlines would be worth now, if the Fed hadn’t stopped its death plunge last March? How much would any of the airlines be worth in the Covid age, with their fleets of mothballed jets?" I believe it is true that the Feds kept Delta and other airlines afloat. Regarding the "Covid age" — could be simply 2020-2021. Or who knows? Bill Gates and others have suggested that 50% or more of business travel will never return.