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I’m with you, but I have even less confidence that we can do anything about the disinformation pipeline. Tech companies have attempted to disrupt it by adding n

I’m with you, but I have even less confidence that we can do anything about the disinformation pipeline. Tech companies have attempted to disrupt it by adding notices to potential disinfo, like how Instagram puts an overlay on any story that contains anything that mentions COVID-19. YouTube has started putting little info boxes under videos about things like “the great reset.” Does this stop anyone from getting sucked in? Go browse /pol/ and you’ll eventually see this stuff discussed, and among the deluded, Google putting an info box like that on conspiracy content is even more evidence that it must be true, because Google is in on it. My sister is a nurse in the COVID ward. The other day she said they had 10 people on vent, 9 of them hadn’t been vaccinated, and that’s normal. Georgia is like 40% vaccinated even though you can walk into any Walgreens and get it. I haven’t really thought through the ethics of it, but I’m frustrated enough to think that if you’re an adult and you deny vaccines until you get COVID, we shouldn’t waste ER resources on you. It’s like we need to create a parallel society for the religious freedom anti-vaxers.

unclebucknasty 5y ago
>I have even less confidence that we can do anything about the disinformation >Google putting an info box like that on conspiracy content is even more evidence that it must be true, because Google is in on it. Yeah, it's disheartening to say the least. I know someone who was sucked in and her thought processes have completely changed. These ideas are like living parasites: fiercely self-protective to the point of impenetrability. The ideas become fused with their identities, so criticizing the theories is attacking the person and the world becomes binary: you're either in or out. And, if you're out, well then you're part of the conspiracy (or duped by it). It's very much like what you read about cult-conditioning. So, I've seen the logic: If Google instead removed it altogether, someone would screenshot it and make the claim that "Google tried to hide it". If Google just disallowed it in the first place or banned accounts, then that becomes evidence of a bigger conspiracy and, additionally, the freedom of speech arguments enter (as if there are no exceptions). So, I'm not sure that it's winnable in our current social media formats. Too many motivated bad actors with troll-farms and bots; and too many fertile minds who are growing more and more agitated, and whose worldviews and identities now rely on the disinfo. So, we've got a problem with both supply and demand.

unclebucknasty 5y ago

>I have even less confidence that we can do anything about the disinformation >Google putting an info box like that on conspiracy content is even more evidence that it must be true, because Google is in on it. Yeah, it's disheartening to say the least. I know someone who was sucked in and her thought processes have completely changed. These ideas are like living parasites: fiercely self-protective to the point of impenetrability. The ideas become fused with their identities, so criticizing the theories is attacking the person and the world becomes binary: you're either in or out. And, if you're out, well then you're part of the conspiracy (or duped by it). It's very much like what you read about cult-conditioning. So, I've seen the logic: If Google instead removed it altogether, someone would screenshot it and make the claim that "Google tried to hide it". If Google just disallowed it in the first place or banned accounts, then that becomes evidence of a bigger conspiracy and, additionally, the freedom of speech arguments enter (as if there are no exceptions). So, I'm not sure that it's winnable in our current social media formats. Too many motivated bad actors with troll-farms and bots; and too many fertile minds who are growing more and more agitated, and whose worldviews and identities now rely on the disinfo. So, we've got a problem with both supply and demand.