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I don't know that I'd call it a ritual, but I skim the NYT front and "World" pages daily, weekend or otherwise, because I like to think it helps me keep track o
by throwanem 6y ago
I don't know that I'd call it a ritual, but I skim the NYT front and "World" pages daily, weekend or otherwise, because I like to think it helps me keep track of which way the wind is blowing, and among US media I'm pretty sure that, most days, the NYT blows hardest.
Timing aside - and does timing matter as much now as it did back when news papers were still a thing? - Metz's article carefully doesn't say, but very strongly implies, that SSC and its community serve as a "transmission belt" using privileged access to trendsetters in the tech industry to deliver fascist ideas into that industry's main stream of thought.
Will that become part of the post-Russiagate narrative being developed around the industry as a whole, not least by the NYT itself? I don't know. But it could. And, as someone who wishes for nothing more than to have a time portal open from 2347 into his living room just long enough for a history of the 20th century to fall out, this is the sort of stuff I find really interesting and diverting to think about.
edit: On reflection, one wonders what the NYT's perspective on Hacker News would be. I think there's a reasonable chance we'll get to find out. And that would be interesting, too!
- FFRefresh 6y agoWhat incentive would the NYT (or similar media outlets) have to NOT imply that Hacker News is supportive home to white supremacists, racists, fascists, right-wing extremists, and rampant sexism? (outside of whether they find HN the right interesting target or not) There are no standards or penalties for using logical fallacies in media writing. As a journalist, all you need to do is craft your wording to imply a connection to be able to smear your target (or to make a nice click-worthy article with hot-takes). Here's a few different tactics that you can use: -does your target have at least 1 or 2 members of its community who have said something outside the norms of the present? -is there anybody who is within 2-3 degrees of relationship between the leadership at the site that sometimes say things outside the norms of the present? -are there members of the community who are part of another community that doesn't have sufficient equal representation along identity lines? (i.e. this is a tech community, tech underrepresents some minorities, therefore, this site is racist) -does the racial/gender makeup of the community not align with the broader US population?
- motohagiography 6y agoThis idea of which way the wind is blowing is accurate for me as well. I used to read the FT and Economist for a similar reason which was 'this is what people who make business decisions use as their level of understanding.' What changed is that the views in them no longer had any durable meaning or predictive power. The necessary ingredient in news has always been conflict, this is what makes a story a story, but when you can fabricate infinite conflict by applying a hyperbolic (ideological) lens to some second hand facts, it (cheaply) produces an approximation of news, but without any importance or value because the conflict is manufactured. So-called "fake news," was less about fabricated events so much as it was about fake conflict. Net-net, dropping mainstream news some years ago has improved my overall quality of life tremendously.
- throwanem 6y agoWell, you know what they say: "Fake it till you make it."