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I'm slightly left of center so parler is not for me - but I am curious and I like to see what's going on outside of my bubble. When I had to commute to work for

I'm slightly left of center so parler is not for me - but I am curious and I like to see what's going on outside of my bubble. When I had to commute to work for instance, I'd listen to AM talk radio on the way in. It did nothing but reinforce my left of center world view. In any case, my point is that in this society we live in, merely having an account is seen as an espousing of the views. With parler's poor history of user data handling, there is no way I am even creating an account and risk having my (real-life) reputation take a hit. It's a sad state of affairs. Now, one might argue that I've just said I'm slightly left of center on hackernews, why don't I fear that - it wouldn't take much for someone who already knows me to tie my person to this account. I guess parler has a reputation as being (extreme?) far right and that's the difference. Again, it doesn't make much sense.

kenjackson 6y ago
Actually it makes a lot of sense. There are a lot things I don’t want to be associated with. I’m also left of center and I’m not actually worried about having a Parler account, but there are a ton of websites that scare me way more.
- fao_ 6y ago
  I signed up for a Gab account purely out of curiosity. There was literally nothing but misogynistic, homophobic, racist, antisemitic trash content on the entire timeline. I'm honestly not sure what I expected to be honest. I signed in once, scrolled a bit, recoiled in disgust and haven't been back.
  - throw0101a 6y ago
    An observation that someone on HN pointed to when the Parler take-down originally occurred: > The moral of the story is: if you’re against witch-hunts, and you promise to found your own little utopian community where witch-hunts will never happen, your new society will end up consisting of approximately three principled civil libertarians and seven zillion witches. It will be a terrible place to live even if witch-hunts are genuinely wrong. * https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/01/neutral-vs-conservative-the-eternal-struggle/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/01/neutral-vs-conservativ...
  - cobraetor 6y ago
    > I signed up for a Gab account purely out of curiosity. There was literally nothing but misogynistic, homophobic, racist, antisemitic trash content on the entire timeline. That's interesting. The public timeline on Gab is visible to everyone (there is no need to sign in). I just took a peek at it right now and I don't see anything misogynistic, etc. Would you mind sharing some of its specific timeline content that made you think that?
    - crocodiletears 6y ago
      I joined Gab very early on in its development, when the devs were still running it as a reskinned WordPress site. It very much was exactly as the gp describes, though I've been told that the platform has become more tolerable as its community has expanded. I haven't check back however. Gab's public feed shows a subset of the top and hot posts, most of them look pretty tame.
- meibo 6y ago
  Like having a Facebook account?
- 14 6y ago
  This comment actually shows why surveillance in a society is bad. You are altering you behaviours simply because of worry you may be judged and not for doing anything wrong but just for looking.
  - x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
    The jump to surveillance in society is quite a leap from the comment.
    - mattnewton 6y ago
      Not the original poster but, it seems pretty direct to me: everything we do online is logged somewhere online, for most practical purposes forever, and that’s the surveillance they are worried about.
      - BuyMyBitcoins 6y ago
        I’m really worried about this and I think it’s going to be a massive problem in the next few decades if trends continue. Especially because society’s views on what is acceptable changes with each generation. What we say today may be perfectly acceptable now, but can be considered hateful or [xyz]-phobic in the future. I try to tread carefully but even still, everything I have ever posted can be taken wildly out of context and used against me by some activist in the future.
        inglor_cz 6y ago
        This. People seem to forget how much has the Overton Window shifted over last 4 years, or 10. In a 2008 interview, Obama said he wasn't in favor of gay marriage. Today, that would be cancelable offense for a random liberal person, and retroactivity is a thing in that culture. Brendan Eich was forced to resign in 2014 over an anti-gay-marriage donation from the same year of 2008.
        joshstrange 6y ago
ttt0 6y ago
> In any case, my point is that in this society we live in, merely having an account is seen as an espousing of the views. You can even get fired for having an account there. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922486 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922486
- XorNot 6y ago
  And yet mysteriously I'm fairly certain that person didn't just "have" an account there...
  - ttt0 6y ago
    I have no idea, but neither did the people who fired this person. It was purely on the grounds that he had an account there.
    - cobraetor 6y ago
      She, not he. > Colleen Oefelein, who identified herself on Twitter as an associate literary agent with the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, appeared to confirm her termination in a tweet on Monday morning. > "Well thanks Twitter and @JDLitAgency," Oefelein wrote. "I just got fired because I'm a Christian and a conservative."
  - derptron 6y ago
    Your post uses too many adverbs for something that's pure conjecture
  - vineyardmike 6y ago
    I had the same thought...
  - throwaway19937 6y ago
    I haven't found any evidence that she posted anything offensive. According to (https://reclaimthenet.org/literary-agent-fired-gab-parler/ https://reclaimthenet.org/literary-agent-fired-gab-parler/) and (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25924637 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25924637) her Gab and Parler posts were mirrored from Twitter. Newsweek's story on the firing (https://www.newsweek.com/literary-agents-firing-over-parler-gab-accounts-stirs-free-speech-debate-1566324 https://www.newsweek.com/literary-agents-firing-over-parler-...) doesn't mention any offensive posts on Gab. None of the Reddit discussions I have looked at mention any offensive posts either; I would expect Reddit to find such posts if they had existed.
senectus1 6y ago
heh, your comment is pretty much exactly me, AM radio station and all. except that i did create an account just so i could see first hand what was being said. Trust but verify.

kenjackson 6y ago

Actually it makes a lot of sense. There are a lot things I don’t want to be associated with. I’m also left of center and I’m not actually worried about having a Parler account, but there are a ton of websites that scare me way more.

fao_ 6y ago
I signed up for a Gab account purely out of curiosity. There was literally nothing but misogynistic, homophobic, racist, antisemitic trash content on the entire timeline. I'm honestly not sure what I expected to be honest. I signed in once, scrolled a bit, recoiled in disgust and haven't been back.
- throw0101a 6y ago
  An observation that someone on HN pointed to when the Parler take-down originally occurred: > The moral of the story is: if you’re against witch-hunts, and you promise to found your own little utopian community where witch-hunts will never happen, your new society will end up consisting of approximately three principled civil libertarians and seven zillion witches. It will be a terrible place to live even if witch-hunts are genuinely wrong. * https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/01/neutral-vs-conservative-the-eternal-struggle/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/01/neutral-vs-conservativ...
- cobraetor 6y ago
  > I signed up for a Gab account purely out of curiosity. There was literally nothing but misogynistic, homophobic, racist, antisemitic trash content on the entire timeline. That's interesting. The public timeline on Gab is visible to everyone (there is no need to sign in). I just took a peek at it right now and I don't see anything misogynistic, etc. Would you mind sharing some of its specific timeline content that made you think that?
  - crocodiletears 6y ago
    I joined Gab very early on in its development, when the devs were still running it as a reskinned WordPress site. It very much was exactly as the gp describes, though I've been told that the platform has become more tolerable as its community has expanded. I haven't check back however. Gab's public feed shows a subset of the top and hot posts, most of them look pretty tame.
meibo 6y ago
Like having a Facebook account?
14 6y ago
This comment actually shows why surveillance in a society is bad. You are altering you behaviours simply because of worry you may be judged and not for doing anything wrong but just for looking.
- x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
  The jump to surveillance in society is quite a leap from the comment.
  - mattnewton 6y ago
    Not the original poster but, it seems pretty direct to me: everything we do online is logged somewhere online, for most practical purposes forever, and that’s the surveillance they are worried about.
    - BuyMyBitcoins 6y ago
      I’m really worried about this and I think it’s going to be a massive problem in the next few decades if trends continue. Especially because society’s views on what is acceptable changes with each generation. What we say today may be perfectly acceptable now, but can be considered hateful or [xyz]-phobic in the future. I try to tread carefully but even still, everything I have ever posted can be taken wildly out of context and used against me by some activist in the future.
      - inglor_cz 6y ago
        This. People seem to forget how much has the Overton Window shifted over last 4 years, or 10. In a 2008 interview, Obama said he wasn't in favor of gay marriage. Today, that would be cancelable offense for a random liberal person, and retroactivity is a thing in that culture. Brendan Eich was forced to resign in 2014 over an anti-gay-marriage donation from the same year of 2008.
        joshstrange 6y ago

ttt0 6y ago

> In any case, my point is that in this society we live in, merely having an account is seen as an espousing of the views. You can even get fired for having an account there. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922486 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922486

XorNot 6y ago
And yet mysteriously I'm fairly certain that person didn't just "have" an account there...
- ttt0 6y ago
  I have no idea, but neither did the people who fired this person. It was purely on the grounds that he had an account there.
  - cobraetor 6y ago
    She, not he. > Colleen Oefelein, who identified herself on Twitter as an associate literary agent with the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, appeared to confirm her termination in a tweet on Monday morning. > "Well thanks Twitter and @JDLitAgency," Oefelein wrote. "I just got fired because I'm a Christian and a conservative."
- derptron 6y ago
  Your post uses too many adverbs for something that's pure conjecture
- vineyardmike 6y ago
  I had the same thought...
- throwaway19937 6y ago
  I haven't found any evidence that she posted anything offensive. According to (https://reclaimthenet.org/literary-agent-fired-gab-parler/ https://reclaimthenet.org/literary-agent-fired-gab-parler/) and (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25924637 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25924637) her Gab and Parler posts were mirrored from Twitter. Newsweek's story on the firing (https://www.newsweek.com/literary-agents-firing-over-parler-gab-accounts-stirs-free-speech-debate-1566324 https://www.newsweek.com/literary-agents-firing-over-parler-...) doesn't mention any offensive posts on Gab. None of the Reddit discussions I have looked at mention any offensive posts either; I would expect Reddit to find such posts if they had existed.

senectus1 6y ago

heh, your comment is pretty much exactly me, AM radio station and all. except that i did create an account just so i could see first hand what was being said. Trust but verify.