4 ms·

Obama argues unregulated social media is a threat to democracy

7 points by cf100clunk 5y ago

cf100clunk 5y ago
https://archive.ph/k29vX https://archive.ph/k29vX
throwaway0x7E6 5y ago
sure it is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZunZuneo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZunZuneo
cato_the_elder 5y ago
Then maybe what he considers to be "democracy" isn't really the appropriate for the age of social media?
rektide 5y ago
Being asked to "pick a side" is a much bigger ask when you don't actually have a proposal. There's a lot of really bad ways to regulate things that I fear far worse than what we have now. I have little faith government will find a good balance, will manage to not completely fuck up the internet & ability to have an online world. What we have now is inconveniently full of shit, but I'd take it over a world where it's ultra difficult to put speech online. To me, it'd be like trying to ban books or stone tablets, or at least preventing anyone else from looking at them: this is a curb on an essential liberty which much be carefully navigated. I don't appreciate this callous snippey cowboy attitude, the use of polarizing language. I vividly remember "you're with us or you're with the terrorists" and that kind of line drawing horseshit, having stark all-or-nothing attitudes was rotten no-good horseshit then and it's rotten no good horse-shit now. This feels like a major downgrade in intellectual, respectable discourse, and President Obama just lot a lot of points in my book.
- cato_the_elder 5y ago
  > This feels like a major downgrade in intellectual, respectable discourse, and President Obama just lot a lot of points in my book. Same, I used to think of him as a measured and relatively competent person. Now the former "leader of the free world" is openly calling for internet censorship.
  - rektide 5y ago
    I disagree but am sympathetic with creating new regime of allowed/probibited sharing. I wish he saw things differently but I dont dock him for his view, per se, at least not at this point. He doesnt seem to have a real ask, a concrete notion, so it feels premature to judge, although I have vast doubts. Phrasing anything so starkly as "get on my side" is, otoh, a jerk move. Not even trying to argue your position, using emotional leverage to radicalize & polarize the situation... it's so against the idea of hope & change, such a degrading & unnecessary push for clash, that steamrolls over anyone not totally onboard. And to make such a pick a side offer when it's so unclear ehat the sides are, when there's no proposals, no suggestions, nothing concrete,... no one should be eager to take up any side that comes at the world without terms, just demanding surrender. This is not how values are established, thus is bullying. There's definitely irony to the free world contracting & writhing, becoming so afraid of seeing itself, afraid of the din of humanity & seeking quiet & order. I personally think the way out is theough, is getting better at being good, is espousing speech & building more constructive forms & patterns of online speech, not dawdling in the muck of the gross sides & clamping down. It's brutal days seeing democracy loath itself like this.
draw_down 5y ago

7 points by cf100clunk 5y ago

cf100clunk 5y ago

https://archive.ph/k29vX https://archive.ph/k29vX

throwaway0x7E6 5y ago

sure it is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZunZuneo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZunZuneo

cato_the_elder 5y ago

Then maybe what he considers to be "democracy" isn't really the appropriate for the age of social media?

rektide 5y ago

Being asked to "pick a side" is a much bigger ask when you don't actually have a proposal. There's a lot of really bad ways to regulate things that I fear far worse than what we have now. I have little faith government will find a good balance, will manage to not completely fuck up the internet & ability to have an online world. What we have now is inconveniently full of shit, but I'd take it over a world where it's ultra difficult to put speech online. To me, it'd be like trying to ban books or stone tablets, or at least preventing anyone else from looking at them: this is a curb on an essential liberty which much be carefully navigated. I don't appreciate this callous snippey cowboy attitude, the use of polarizing language. I vividly remember "you're with us or you're with the terrorists" and that kind of line drawing horseshit, having stark all-or-nothing attitudes was rotten no-good horseshit then and it's rotten no good horse-shit now. This feels like a major downgrade in intellectual, respectable discourse, and President Obama just lot a lot of points in my book.

cato_the_elder 5y ago
> This feels like a major downgrade in intellectual, respectable discourse, and President Obama just lot a lot of points in my book. Same, I used to think of him as a measured and relatively competent person. Now the former "leader of the free world" is openly calling for internet censorship.
- rektide 5y ago
  I disagree but am sympathetic with creating new regime of allowed/probibited sharing. I wish he saw things differently but I dont dock him for his view, per se, at least not at this point. He doesnt seem to have a real ask, a concrete notion, so it feels premature to judge, although I have vast doubts. Phrasing anything so starkly as "get on my side" is, otoh, a jerk move. Not even trying to argue your position, using emotional leverage to radicalize & polarize the situation... it's so against the idea of hope & change, such a degrading & unnecessary push for clash, that steamrolls over anyone not totally onboard. And to make such a pick a side offer when it's so unclear ehat the sides are, when there's no proposals, no suggestions, nothing concrete,... no one should be eager to take up any side that comes at the world without terms, just demanding surrender. This is not how values are established, thus is bullying. There's definitely irony to the free world contracting & writhing, becoming so afraid of seeing itself, afraid of the din of humanity & seeking quiet & order. I personally think the way out is theough, is getting better at being good, is espousing speech & building more constructive forms & patterns of online speech, not dawdling in the muck of the gross sides & clamping down. It's brutal days seeing democracy loath itself like this.

draw_down 5y ago