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> This is a worrisome development. Governments are working with private corporations to promote misinformation and silence real information and you’re worried

> This is a worrisome development. Governments are working with private corporations to promote misinformation and silence real information and you’re worried about…anti vaxxers? I can maybe steel man a utilitarian stance for this position though I’m afraid it’s weak to “surely the lepers won’t eat my face”.

40amxn40 4y ago
A very eye opening realization I had after 2020 is that the vast majority of people have absolutely zero critical thinking skills, and that applies specially to snobby intellectual circles like academia or this very forum. They are the most indoctrinated people on Earth and it's like talking to a wall.
notacoward 4y ago
> promote misinformation and silence real information "misinformation" and "real information" as rationally believed at the time or only with 20/20 hindsight? It's an important distinction. Also, what about the recommendations that did stand the test of time, or the misinformation about vaccine risks and alternative treatments that was rightly suppressed because it was false and harmful? If this is to be anything but an exercise in anti-authoritarian self-congratulation, people need to own up to their own mistakes as well.
- Zpalmtree 4y ago
  Oops, we suppressed correct info, but it's not our fault, we didn't know it was correct!
seattle_spring 4y ago
Which “real information” was silenced? I sure hope you’re not referring to that farce of an article from ZeroHedge about “weaponized lab-grown covid.” What misinformation was promoted? Are you still on about the first week or 2 when they said masking was ineffective?
- kornhole 4y ago
  Here is some promotion of misinformation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqaN68vBvXQ&t=3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqaN68vBvXQ&t=3
refurb 4y ago
Exactly. Want to reduce the impact of anti-vax messaging? The government could stop lying and trying to suppress truthful information to start with.
mindslight 4y ago
This narrative is analogous to having dropped your ice cream cone on the ground, and being upset at the tyranny of your parents preventing you from continuing to eat it. Every centralized service will inevitably be goaded into censorship for assorted reasons. Every filter has false positives. Grifters, charlatans, and informational warfare campaigns pumped pure horse shit into our memetic stream (through our own institutions even), driving the signal well below the noise floor. Twitter attempted to filter out the hostile noise to remain useful, necessarily throwing a lot of worthwhile information out in the process. I've never been a fan of "web 2.0" centralization, and generally believe in free communications via libre software. But spinning this most recent tempest-in-a-teapot as some watershed scandal is ridiculous. Especially in the larger context of Twitter just being bought out by an impotent strongman, who has been marketing it with a brand of "free speech" while censoring per his personal whims. If these events are really what it took for you to start paying attention to the power centralized companies wield, then congratulations I guess? But litigating what Twitter Past did as exceptional, as if censorship isn't intrinsic to the technical foundation of the whole service, just seems like a denial mechanism that will circle you back to your previous unaware state.

40amxn40 4y ago

A very eye opening realization I had after 2020 is that the vast majority of people have absolutely zero critical thinking skills, and that applies specially to snobby intellectual circles like academia or this very forum. They are the most indoctrinated people on Earth and it's like talking to a wall.

notacoward 4y ago

> promote misinformation and silence real information "misinformation" and "real information" as rationally believed at the time or only with 20/20 hindsight? It's an important distinction. Also, what about the recommendations that did stand the test of time, or the misinformation about vaccine risks and alternative treatments that was rightly suppressed because it was false and harmful? If this is to be anything but an exercise in anti-authoritarian self-congratulation, people need to own up to their own mistakes as well.

Zpalmtree 4y ago
Oops, we suppressed correct info, but it's not our fault, we didn't know it was correct!

seattle_spring 4y ago

Which “real information” was silenced? I sure hope you’re not referring to that farce of an article from ZeroHedge about “weaponized lab-grown covid.” What misinformation was promoted? Are you still on about the first week or 2 when they said masking was ineffective?

kornhole 4y ago
Here is some promotion of misinformation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqaN68vBvXQ&t=3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqaN68vBvXQ&t=3

refurb 4y ago

Exactly. Want to reduce the impact of anti-vax messaging? The government could stop lying and trying to suppress truthful information to start with.

mindslight 4y ago

This narrative is analogous to having dropped your ice cream cone on the ground, and being upset at the tyranny of your parents preventing you from continuing to eat it. Every centralized service will inevitably be goaded into censorship for assorted reasons. Every filter has false positives. Grifters, charlatans, and informational warfare campaigns pumped pure horse shit into our memetic stream (through our own institutions even), driving the signal well below the noise floor. Twitter attempted to filter out the hostile noise to remain useful, necessarily throwing a lot of worthwhile information out in the process. I've never been a fan of "web 2.0" centralization, and generally believe in free communications via libre software. But spinning this most recent tempest-in-a-teapot as some watershed scandal is ridiculous. Especially in the larger context of Twitter just being bought out by an impotent strongman, who has been marketing it with a brand of "free speech" while censoring per his personal whims. If these events are really what it took for you to start paying attention to the power centralized companies wield, then congratulations I guess? But litigating what Twitter Past did as exceptional, as if censorship isn't intrinsic to the technical foundation of the whole service, just seems like a denial mechanism that will circle you back to your previous unaware state.