4 ms·

You could go on Facebook with no opinion on anything and leave an extremist.

barbazoo 6y ago
The same way you could be on Facebook and not being radicalized at all. At the end of the day it's people who chose to be misinformed, who chose to not question, not look elsewhere, not to be skeptic about how content is making them feel. Facebook just shamelessly takes advantage of people's shortcomings, for profit.
- aidenn0 6y ago
  I mean, if I walk up to random people at a bar and tell them that their mother is a whore, anybody who punches me does so of their own free will, but I'm not entirely free of culpability for the violence.
- eigenket 6y ago
  I would agree with the statement: > At the end of the day it's people who are more easily misinformed, who do not question, do not look elsewhere, are not skeptical about how content is making them feel What is your reasoning for declaring that this is a matter of "choice"?
  - barbazoo 6y ago
    I feel that it's a choice because it's under our control what we do. We chose to believe, we chose to hate, to judge. Believing everything FB puts in front of you in their feed is just lazy. We have to do better than that.
- temp8964 6y ago
  It's not fair to just blame Facebook though. Twitter, reddit, CNN, FoxNews, all have the same kind of behavior. It's also not fair to just blame the media. How about the politicians? Any major political leader dare to elaborate a balanced view at all? It seems to be deeply rooted in partisan politics.
  - RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
    And MSNBC. They were heavily pushing the Russia collaboration story.
  - barbazoo 6y ago
    Absolutely, it's more than just Facebook but also other social platforms and "news" outlets. And in some countries definitely the political class as well.
andrepd 6y ago
Same thing with YouTube. Anecdote: yesterday I popped open youtube to see a video of the President of my country drooling during a state visit. After the 20s video was finished my recommendations were immediately flooded with links for the far-right party's propaganda channel on youtube, complete with inflammatory titles and fake news. For fuck's sake, how much longer will we put up with this? How much longer will we let our political process be undermined so that private companies can make a few more pennies?

The same way you could be on Facebook and not being radicalized at all. At the end of the day it's people who chose to be misinformed, who chose to not question, not look elsewhere, not to be skeptic about how content is making them feel. Facebook just shamelessly takes advantage of people's shortcomings, for profit.

aidenn0 6y ago
I mean, if I walk up to random people at a bar and tell them that their mother is a whore, anybody who punches me does so of their own free will, but I'm not entirely free of culpability for the violence.
eigenket 6y ago
I would agree with the statement: > At the end of the day it's people who are more easily misinformed, who do not question, do not look elsewhere, are not skeptical about how content is making them feel What is your reasoning for declaring that this is a matter of "choice"?
- barbazoo 6y ago
  I feel that it's a choice because it's under our control what we do. We chose to believe, we chose to hate, to judge. Believing everything FB puts in front of you in their feed is just lazy. We have to do better than that.
temp8964 6y ago
It's not fair to just blame Facebook though. Twitter, reddit, CNN, FoxNews, all have the same kind of behavior. It's also not fair to just blame the media. How about the politicians? Any major political leader dare to elaborate a balanced view at all? It seems to be deeply rooted in partisan politics.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
  And MSNBC. They were heavily pushing the Russia collaboration story.
- barbazoo 6y ago
  Absolutely, it's more than just Facebook but also other social platforms and "news" outlets. And in some countries definitely the political class as well.

andrepd 6y ago

Same thing with YouTube. Anecdote: yesterday I popped open youtube to see a video of the President of my country drooling during a state visit. After the 20s video was finished my recommendations were immediately flooded with links for the far-right party's propaganda channel on youtube, complete with inflammatory titles and fake news. For fuck's sake, how much longer will we put up with this? How much longer will we let our political process be undermined so that private companies can make a few more pennies?