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HN posters are in love with the "people are too stupid to think for themselves and need me to protect them" narrative. Nowhere else do I see that line of though
by Mountain_Skies 4y ago
HN posters are in love with the "people are too stupid to think for themselves and need me to protect them" narrative. Nowhere else do I see that line of thought as frequently as I see it here. Not even Reddit pushes that justification for controlling the ability of others to access whatever media sources they want as much as it is pushed here. We truly must be the intellectual giants of humanity to know so consistently what is best for everyone else.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- goosesanta 4y agoWhat's weird is when people imply that opinions form from the ether, rather than from interaction with the cultural conversation. There's nothing that can be done about that reality, so we have to worry about people and mechanisms that have control over that conversation. It should not sound unreasonable to worry about an adversarial country possessing what amounts to a gigantic, unauditable mind control machine.
- bitshiftfaced 4y agoLet's say that the nation of Lalaland is has a state-owned company whose product is a social network that's popular among Americans. Lalaland decides that one particular candidate in the next US election is beneficial to their country's trade/security/etc. The social network strategically shows "go out and vote" content to the demographics most likely to vote for the candidate they would like in office. Is this ok? Were any of those people on the social network "stupid" if they were more likely to vote after seeing targeted content?