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The sad thing is that none of it is very amusing. Current events twitter is more aggravating than amusing. We're aggravating ourselves to death.

by tlb 2y ago

Cthulhu_ 2y ago
Yeah, and then you do something fun to distract you from said current events.
tempodox 2y ago
The point is that it's both distraction. Social media has told us that enragement sucks up even more attention than amusement. Mission accomplished.
TacticalCoder 2y ago
[flagged]
- ptero 2y ago
  While the situation may be grave it was usually much worse for the vast majority of the population. People are aggravated and enraged by famine deaths precisely because they affect much smaller percentage of people than they used to, where death from hunger was common. The debt and likely coming financial repression is a weaker form of coin debasement practiced regularly by many kings. And so on...
- _yb2s 2y ago
  I briefly spent some time on Twitter a few months ago, and it was almost entirely widespread hysteria over things that were easily verifiable as trivially false. For example, at the time people were enraged about a supposed trans woman winning a boxing match in the olympics- but she was not in fact a trans woman. My take is that X/Twitter is mostly sharing fake rage bait, to emotionally manipulate people into supporting various hate based political movements.
  - fiffled 2y ago
    The actual issue was that this athlete, Imane Khelif, is male. And was competing in a women's boxing match, despite having previously been deemed ineligible by the International Boxing Association for this reason, after a karyotype test revealed XY chromosomes. The problem is that women's boxing in the Olympics doesn't verify sex other than via identity documents such as passports. Even though the other categorical attribute - weight - is directly verified during competition. As Khelif (and another male boxer, Lin) had a female passport, this permitted competition in the tournament despite the fact that it enabled a male to pummel female boxers, to an eventual unanimous victory. Obviously, many people are against this, for the same reason as why mixed-sex boxing tournaments aren't considered acceptable, for reasons of fairness and safety.
    - dragonwriter 2y ago
      > The actual issue was that this athlete, Imane Khelif, is male. No, she’s not, even in terms of assigned gender at birth, and she represents an Islamic country in which she would be imprisoned if she was and was living as a woman. > despite having previously been deemed ineligible by the International Boxing Association for this reason, after a karyotype test revealed XY chromosomes. The IBA had already been stripped of its role as a governing body with regard Olympic boxing due to the rather extraordinary and flagrant corruption in that organization (and for that to reach a level intolerable to the IOC is saying quite a bit), but even if the IBA’s claim of karyotype testing wasn’t fraudulent or carried out under unreliable conditions, a detected XY karyotype doesn't mean you are male, even in nonsocial medical terms, or phenotype without intervention terms. Swyer syndrome can result in a female phenotype with exclusively XY karyotype, and chimerism (possibly combined with Swyer) can result in a female phenotype where XY karyotype would be detected (potentially exclusively, without sampling different tissue in a way that a simple test would not).
      - fiffled 2y ago
        All the evidence revealed so far indicates that Khelif is male. Regardless of the IBA's other issues, there are two blood tests from independent labs showing XY karyotype, and a member of Khelif's coaching team described problems with chromosomes and hormones such that Khelif has been on medication to adjust testosterone levels to bring this closer to the female range. This implies that Khelif went through male puberty and has the male physical advantage in sport that is caused by male sexual development. Most likely, Khelif was assigned female at birth due to having a difference of sex development (DSD) conferring an external genital appearance that at first glance may seem female. I don't know where this oft-repeated idea that Khelif has Swyer syndrome came from, but it's nonsensical. Swyer comes with bone defects due to hormone deficiency, and suffering from osteopenia and osteoporesis is not compatible with an elite athletic career, particularly not boxing. Anyone with Swyer would be getting fractures from all the punching and being punched. Nothing about Khelif's situation aligns with this. However, there was previously in the Olympics a very similar situation with Caster Semenya, a male runner whose penis didn't develop properly due to having the DSD 5-ARD, and was therefore erroneously assumed to be female, and given identity documents to match. Semenya was eventually disqualified from track events due to having internal testes that produce male levels of testosterone and have done since puberty. Probably Khelif has the same or similar condition.
- wrs 2y ago
  > X/Twitter is showing things as they are Wow. No, X/Twitter is showing things people (and quite a few bots) say. There’s no mechanism there to emphasize things that are. In fact you’re rewarded for saying things that aren’t, if they generate engagement, which is so much easier if you just make stuff up.
FrustratedMonky 2y ago
"aggravating than amusing." But it is distracting. Huxley didn't necessarily say everything was fun, just that it is distracting. Rage, anger, outrage, keeps people engaged more than amusing.

The sad thing is that none of it is very amusing. Current events twitter is more aggravating than amusing. We're aggravating ourselves to death.

by tlb 2y ago

The sad thing is that none of it is very amusing. Current events twitter is more aggravating than amusing. We're aggravating ourselves to death.

Cthulhu_ 2y ago

Yeah, and then you do something fun to distract you from said current events.

tempodox 2y ago

The point is that it's both distraction. Social media has told us that enragement sucks up even more attention than amusement. Mission accomplished.

TacticalCoder 2y ago

[flagged]

ptero 2y ago
While the situation may be grave it was usually much worse for the vast majority of the population. People are aggravated and enraged by famine deaths precisely because they affect much smaller percentage of people than they used to, where death from hunger was common. The debt and likely coming financial repression is a weaker form of coin debasement practiced regularly by many kings. And so on...
_yb2s 2y ago
I briefly spent some time on Twitter a few months ago, and it was almost entirely widespread hysteria over things that were easily verifiable as trivially false. For example, at the time people were enraged about a supposed trans woman winning a boxing match in the olympics- but she was not in fact a trans woman. My take is that X/Twitter is mostly sharing fake rage bait, to emotionally manipulate people into supporting various hate based political movements.
- fiffled 2y ago
  The actual issue was that this athlete, Imane Khelif, is male. And was competing in a women's boxing match, despite having previously been deemed ineligible by the International Boxing Association for this reason, after a karyotype test revealed XY chromosomes. The problem is that women's boxing in the Olympics doesn't verify sex other than via identity documents such as passports. Even though the other categorical attribute - weight - is directly verified during competition. As Khelif (and another male boxer, Lin) had a female passport, this permitted competition in the tournament despite the fact that it enabled a male to pummel female boxers, to an eventual unanimous victory. Obviously, many people are against this, for the same reason as why mixed-sex boxing tournaments aren't considered acceptable, for reasons of fairness and safety.
  - dragonwriter 2y ago
    > The actual issue was that this athlete, Imane Khelif, is male. No, she’s not, even in terms of assigned gender at birth, and she represents an Islamic country in which she would be imprisoned if she was and was living as a woman. > despite having previously been deemed ineligible by the International Boxing Association for this reason, after a karyotype test revealed XY chromosomes. The IBA had already been stripped of its role as a governing body with regard Olympic boxing due to the rather extraordinary and flagrant corruption in that organization (and for that to reach a level intolerable to the IOC is saying quite a bit), but even if the IBA’s claim of karyotype testing wasn’t fraudulent or carried out under unreliable conditions, a detected XY karyotype doesn't mean you are male, even in nonsocial medical terms, or phenotype without intervention terms. Swyer syndrome can result in a female phenotype with exclusively XY karyotype, and chimerism (possibly combined with Swyer) can result in a female phenotype where XY karyotype would be detected (potentially exclusively, without sampling different tissue in a way that a simple test would not).
    - fiffled 2y ago
      All the evidence revealed so far indicates that Khelif is male. Regardless of the IBA's other issues, there are two blood tests from independent labs showing XY karyotype, and a member of Khelif's coaching team described problems with chromosomes and hormones such that Khelif has been on medication to adjust testosterone levels to bring this closer to the female range. This implies that Khelif went through male puberty and has the male physical advantage in sport that is caused by male sexual development. Most likely, Khelif was assigned female at birth due to having a difference of sex development (DSD) conferring an external genital appearance that at first glance may seem female. I don't know where this oft-repeated idea that Khelif has Swyer syndrome came from, but it's nonsensical. Swyer comes with bone defects due to hormone deficiency, and suffering from osteopenia and osteoporesis is not compatible with an elite athletic career, particularly not boxing. Anyone with Swyer would be getting fractures from all the punching and being punched. Nothing about Khelif's situation aligns with this. However, there was previously in the Olympics a very similar situation with Caster Semenya, a male runner whose penis didn't develop properly due to having the DSD 5-ARD, and was therefore erroneously assumed to be female, and given identity documents to match. Semenya was eventually disqualified from track events due to having internal testes that produce male levels of testosterone and have done since puberty. Probably Khelif has the same or similar condition.
wrs 2y ago
> X/Twitter is showing things as they are Wow. No, X/Twitter is showing things people (and quite a few bots) say. There’s no mechanism there to emphasize things that are. In fact you’re rewarded for saying things that aren’t, if they generate engagement, which is so much easier if you just make stuff up.

FrustratedMonky 2y ago

"aggravating than amusing." But it is distracting. Huxley didn't necessarily say everything was fun, just that it is distracting. Rage, anger, outrage, keeps people engaged more than amusing.