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I love that the whole discourse revolves around the problem of stoopid voters having wrong thoughts and sharing wrong opinions. I wonder what “political” even

I love that the whole discourse revolves around the problem of stoopid voters having wrong thoughts and sharing wrong opinions. I wonder what “political” even means. A group of people who like Ben Shapiro will be classified as political, I guess. But what about an LGBT+ youth group? Is it politics? Is it Facebook that decides what issue is political and controversial and which issue should be considered the de facto norm?

h2odragon 5y ago
Facebook doesn't decide, they just enforce. Some shadowy group of "our betters" does the deciding, and somehow these decisions appear in TV personalities with remarkable swiftness. "Sociology isn't a hard science" is a cover story.
- astrange 5y ago
  It's because people yell at them on Twitter. This isn't "shadowy".
- CountDrewku 5y ago
  I don't want social media enforcing anything either, especially if it comes from the elitists or our government. The latter breaks all sorts of constitutional amendments. They're using a middle man to claim they're not stomping on the constitution.
- Dracophoenix 5y ago
  >>Facebook doesn't decide, they just enforce. If the reversal on the ban regarding discussion of the lab leak hypothesis gives any indication, Facebook definitively does decide.
Spivak 5y ago
You're following into the trap of "there are two sexual orientations: straight and political." You can say that everything is politics and power dynamics. That the existence of a comic book club at your high school is the political act of organizing and normalizing these freaks and nerds who indoctrinate good christian boys away from football and family values with their superhero propaganda. The problem with reasoning like this is that it creates this world view where everything revolves this lotus of "establishment" and must exist in opposition to it. Where really it's just people who like comics and want to share this thing they like. The same with how LGBT groups are portrayed. There are people engaging in politics on issues like gay marriage and trans rights but that doesn't make an LGBT youth group set up to give community to people who feel alone and marginalized a place to be themselves and make friends a political group. But Ben Sharpie, his content is literally just political outrage bait designed to push a very specific narrative for the purpose of changing the political tide. And since that's all that he and people like him do day in and day out it's why they assume that that's what our comic book club must be doing as well. Bleh. You know what we do in our LGBT youth group, play Super Smash Bros, bake cookies, and watch gay rom coms. Our Discord is just a stream of people calling each other and random things gay, a deep fried meme of Lord Farquaad saying 'E', a twitter screencap about how attractive girls are with suspenders, a meme of Ferris from Re:Zero saying "excited gay noises" with a story about how a stranger called her miss in public, and someone suggesting we have a cottagecore theme night.
- rscoots 5y ago
  I think that was the poster's whole point though. Name the people you trust at Facebook to make that same distinction you just made in your post. Name the process you as a consumer can use to hold those at Facebook to account when they inevitably get it wrong. Point me to the highly-transparent records of how and when Facebook employees made that decision. Obviously none of the above exists and that is the core issue.
  - Spivak 5y ago
    I'm not so sure because "what issue is political and controversial and which issue should be considered the de facto norm" misses the distinction. Apparently what make a social club for LGBT people political or not is how "normal" it is. I think you're point is 100% right that Facebook is a black box of moderation with basically no accountability outside of getting enough journalists to raise a stink on your behalf. But the issue is this perception that LGBT spaces are inherently political and that Facebook is just giving them a pass because of cultural favoritism. Because the answer is no, LGBT youth groups aren't political and Facebook isn't categorizing them as such so there isn't much to talk about unless you think they are.
    - Talanes 5y ago
      >Apparently what make a social club for LGBT people political or not is how "normal" it is. In the context of outside perception it partially is. The more normalized LGBT culture is, the less bigots you have who immediately label anything LBGT as political.
      - Spivak 5y ago
        Amen, but it sure does suck that we have to wait for that doesn’t it?
    - rscoots 5y ago
      >Because the answer is no, LGBT youth groups aren't political None of them can ever be political? Really? Obviously groups realted to any politically-adjacent topic can run the gambit from entirely political to totally divorced from any politics or activism. I thought you were implying the first poster was not aware of that fact is all. Regardless, thinking Facebook (or anyone) is in any sort of position to decide this is a total farce, at least to my eyes. (Waited to post... Got my account rate limited cuz my fellow liberals downvoted me w/o comment. Seems like HN might not be a good place for reasonable discussion on controversial topics.)

h2odragon 5y ago

Facebook doesn't decide, they just enforce. Some shadowy group of "our betters" does the deciding, and somehow these decisions appear in TV personalities with remarkable swiftness. "Sociology isn't a hard science" is a cover story.

astrange 5y ago
It's because people yell at them on Twitter. This isn't "shadowy".
CountDrewku 5y ago
I don't want social media enforcing anything either, especially if it comes from the elitists or our government. The latter breaks all sorts of constitutional amendments. They're using a middle man to claim they're not stomping on the constitution.
Dracophoenix 5y ago
>>Facebook doesn't decide, they just enforce. If the reversal on the ban regarding discussion of the lab leak hypothesis gives any indication, Facebook definitively does decide.

Spivak 5y ago

You're following into the trap of "there are two sexual orientations: straight and political." You can say that everything is politics and power dynamics. That the existence of a comic book club at your high school is the political act of organizing and normalizing these freaks and nerds who indoctrinate good christian boys away from football and family values with their superhero propaganda. The problem with reasoning like this is that it creates this world view where everything revolves this lotus of "establishment" and must exist in opposition to it. Where really it's just people who like comics and want to share this thing they like. The same with how LGBT groups are portrayed. There are people engaging in politics on issues like gay marriage and trans rights but that doesn't make an LGBT youth group set up to give community to people who feel alone and marginalized a place to be themselves and make friends a political group. But Ben Sharpie, his content is literally just political outrage bait designed to push a very specific narrative for the purpose of changing the political tide. And since that's all that he and people like him do day in and day out it's why they assume that that's what our comic book club must be doing as well. Bleh. You know what we do in our LGBT youth group, play Super Smash Bros, bake cookies, and watch gay rom coms. Our Discord is just a stream of people calling each other and random things gay, a deep fried meme of Lord Farquaad saying 'E', a twitter screencap about how attractive girls are with suspenders, a meme of Ferris from Re:Zero saying "excited gay noises" with a story about how a stranger called her miss in public, and someone suggesting we have a cottagecore theme night.

rscoots 5y ago
I think that was the poster's whole point though. Name the people you trust at Facebook to make that same distinction you just made in your post. Name the process you as a consumer can use to hold those at Facebook to account when they inevitably get it wrong. Point me to the highly-transparent records of how and when Facebook employees made that decision. Obviously none of the above exists and that is the core issue.
- Spivak 5y ago
  I'm not so sure because "what issue is political and controversial and which issue should be considered the de facto norm" misses the distinction. Apparently what make a social club for LGBT people political or not is how "normal" it is. I think you're point is 100% right that Facebook is a black box of moderation with basically no accountability outside of getting enough journalists to raise a stink on your behalf. But the issue is this perception that LGBT spaces are inherently political and that Facebook is just giving them a pass because of cultural favoritism. Because the answer is no, LGBT youth groups aren't political and Facebook isn't categorizing them as such so there isn't much to talk about unless you think they are.
  - Talanes 5y ago
    >Apparently what make a social club for LGBT people political or not is how "normal" it is. In the context of outside perception it partially is. The more normalized LGBT culture is, the less bigots you have who immediately label anything LBGT as political.
    - Spivak 5y ago
      Amen, but it sure does suck that we have to wait for that doesn’t it?
  - rscoots 5y ago
    >Because the answer is no, LGBT youth groups aren't political None of them can ever be political? Really? Obviously groups realted to any politically-adjacent topic can run the gambit from entirely political to totally divorced from any politics or activism. I thought you were implying the first poster was not aware of that fact is all. Regardless, thinking Facebook (or anyone) is in any sort of position to decide this is a total farce, at least to my eyes. (Waited to post... Got my account rate limited cuz my fellow liberals downvoted me w/o comment. Seems like HN might not be a good place for reasonable discussion on controversial topics.)