4 ms·

Recently been seeing, uh, changes in some of my relatives. First Covid denial, then antivaccine in general (wtf), now that and war denial (yes, "there's no war"

by jotm 5y ago

Recently been seeing, uh, changes in some of my relatives. First Covid denial, then antivaccine in general (wtf), now that and war denial (yes, "there's no war"). Otherwise pretty smart people, but somehow they fall for the dumbest shit. Thinking back, I don't think I ever heard them express such views, and especially not be so adamant about it. They get angry when anyone points out why they're wrong. They're always right, everyone else is wrong... I didn't believe in Fecebook/Twatter making everyone dumber (never used them myself), but maybe there's truth to that. I guess that's one way technology is affecting the masses, and it's scary because you can't stop the masses, the majority will win, as for now they're in a democracy, actively voting to destroy it and probably not even realizing it. All so a few rich assholes can gain more power. Other than that, the centralization of everything, that just can't be good. Not only software, but hardware, too. I mean, half of the world's chips (and most of the best ones) are made on one tiny island - God forbid something happens to it. The few big companies making computers will gladly solder everything and break a chip if you try to reuse it elsewhere, just so you throw it away and buy a new computer when the time comes (i.e. it breaks). Can't even fix your own car anymore because disconnecting the battery means you need your onboard computer reprogrammed - at an authorized price gouge...errr, I mean, service center, of course. Not to mention surveillance and the ability to charge you with something at any point if they ever so wish (thanks to "social media"). Technology itself is not at fault, but it does give assholes a whole lot of newpower.

nonrandomstring 5y ago
> I mean, half of the world's chips (and most of the best ones) are made on one tiny island - God forbid something happens to it. Resilience is one of the big issues I work with. It's one of the topics that's not about tyranny or malice, but is in some ways more frightening. It's because we don't see it as "other inflicted" that it stays beneath the radar somewhat.
dogman144 5y ago
Ya I'm not sure how anyone could have missed the numerous and very public insanity-descents from known figures or their own relatives, and think things are still business as usual.
- jotm 5y ago
  I forgot to add that before 2015-ish, I've not heard this kind of stuff from these relatives. And their main hangouts are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, the usual suspects. I believe in their mind, they're getting "the truth" and know better. But the reality is it's... self-propagandization. When 50 channels say you're wrong but you find one that tells "the truth"... I dunno, it's like the common sense circuits have been fried. Just like people in Russia are brainwashed by the state media, so do these people brainwash themselves online, likely reinforced by the recommendation systems used on the major platforms. Which I notice on Youtube, btw, and it always skews towards some dumb/funny or just idiotic content. View a couple of funny videos and that's all I get for the rest of the month. I mostly watch stuff like DIYPerks, various machine & history stuff, tutorials on a lot of things and listen to music, but I never get good, or any, recommendations on that. Although to be completely fair, I don't subscribe to anything, just mostly look it up after Google+Wikipedia.
  - BlueTemplar 5y ago
    But social media existed long before 2015... I don't think that it was a coincidence that a significant fraction of the "alternative" online places I was hanging out on (like Zero Hedge) suddenly went pretty crazy at the same time as the Russo-Ukrainian war started in 2014 ? (They're typically called "alt-right" now.) Not that this is completely new - I got my "conspiracy theory education" in 2005-2010 when I watched a pretty convincing hour(s)-long YouTube video about how the World Trade Center had supposedly been subjected to controlled demolition... and then shortly after that an even more convincing, detailed, and longer video describing how that previous video was wrong.
    - dogman144 4y ago
      RIP Zerohedge. What possibly happened to ZH, and what you're discussing, has a good operational walkthrough here - https://www.fireeye.com/content/dam/fireeye-www/blog/pdfs/Ghostwriter-Influence-Campaign.pdf https://www.fireeye.com/content/dam/fireeye-www/blog/pdfs/Gh...

by jotm 5y ago

nonrandomstring 5y ago

> I mean, half of the world's chips (and most of the best ones) are made on one tiny island - God forbid something happens to it. Resilience is one of the big issues I work with. It's one of the topics that's not about tyranny or malice, but is in some ways more frightening. It's because we don't see it as "other inflicted" that it stays beneath the radar somewhat.

dogman144 5y ago

Ya I'm not sure how anyone could have missed the numerous and very public insanity-descents from known figures or their own relatives, and think things are still business as usual.

jotm 5y ago
I forgot to add that before 2015-ish, I've not heard this kind of stuff from these relatives. And their main hangouts are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, the usual suspects. I believe in their mind, they're getting "the truth" and know better. But the reality is it's... self-propagandization. When 50 channels say you're wrong but you find one that tells "the truth"... I dunno, it's like the common sense circuits have been fried. Just like people in Russia are brainwashed by the state media, so do these people brainwash themselves online, likely reinforced by the recommendation systems used on the major platforms. Which I notice on Youtube, btw, and it always skews towards some dumb/funny or just idiotic content. View a couple of funny videos and that's all I get for the rest of the month. I mostly watch stuff like DIYPerks, various machine & history stuff, tutorials on a lot of things and listen to music, but I never get good, or any, recommendations on that. Although to be completely fair, I don't subscribe to anything, just mostly look it up after Google+Wikipedia.
- BlueTemplar 5y ago
  But social media existed long before 2015... I don't think that it was a coincidence that a significant fraction of the "alternative" online places I was hanging out on (like Zero Hedge) suddenly went pretty crazy at the same time as the Russo-Ukrainian war started in 2014 ? (They're typically called "alt-right" now.) Not that this is completely new - I got my "conspiracy theory education" in 2005-2010 when I watched a pretty convincing hour(s)-long YouTube video about how the World Trade Center had supposedly been subjected to controlled demolition... and then shortly after that an even more convincing, detailed, and longer video describing how that previous video was wrong.
  - dogman144 4y ago
    RIP Zerohedge. What possibly happened to ZH, and what you're discussing, has a good operational walkthrough here - https://www.fireeye.com/content/dam/fireeye-www/blog/pdfs/Ghostwriter-Influence-Campaign.pdf https://www.fireeye.com/content/dam/fireeye-www/blog/pdfs/Gh...