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> Everything you see online is intensely, competitively selected for its ability to drive engagement Mostly you're seeing accounts/sites you follow and choose

> Everything you see online is intensely, competitively selected for its ability to drive engagement Mostly you're seeing accounts/sites you follow and choose to view and often those accounts have a consistent set of commenters. It's not like you log and the internet shows you entirely random things every time.

SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
If you're viewing "Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, news articles, et al", that's usually not so. Each of these platforms optimize their default views to show you the content they expect will be most engaging, although the first three apply some algorithmic filtering to try and make the content engaging to you in particular rather than the average viewer. Equally importantly, the content that gets produced is subject to this same filter. If you think the killer was justified, or you think the impulse to justify the killer shows everything that's wrong with America, you'll be excited to go write out a banger Tweet on the topic. If you have the boring, conventional view that all murders are tragic and you hope killers are brought to justice for the sake of the victim's friends and family, it's not going to occur to you to comment on this particular one.
- cruffle_duffle 2y ago
  Let’s not forget if you go against the grain and post “people are celebrating murder, which is gross” you are probably going to get downvoted—even on this site! This whole celebration of murder thing is so bizarre. The fact it seems to be the default “way to get upvotes” and speaking out is “downvote city” is… well… disconcerting to say the least.
  - standardUser 2y ago
    It speaks to the deep and broad frustration among Americans towards our healthcare system. This isn't just executives or politicians "screwing people over" like we see in so many other realms. There's a significant number of Americans who love someone who has actually died or suffered severer/permanent physical distress for the sake of insurance company profits. When someone's family gets blown up from the sky and that someone becomes a terrorist willing to use violence against the party they blame for their family members death, we may not like it but we don't pretend to not understand it. Similarly we can't pretend to not understand this phenomenon.
    - IncreasePosts 2y ago
      We actually have no sure idea what the motives of the individual were. There's the obvious angle. Then, maybe Thompson paid someone to kill him, so his family could get an insurance payout. Maybe Thompson was fucking the shooter's ex girlfriend, and he wanted to mislead investigators as to why Thompson was killed. Maybe it's a Russian operation to sow discord in the US. Etc
      - standardUser 2y ago
        We have a good idea. Not no idea. And we know exactly how people are responding to the killing, regardless of motive, so we don't have to split hairs on that at all.
        IncreasePosts 2y ago
        We know how people chronically on social media are responding to the killing
        standardUser 2y ago
        Do you not have friends? A social network of your own? People I know are responding in a similar fashion to what we are seeing all over the entire spectrum of online media.
        IncreasePosts 2y ago
        I'm going to guess all of your friends and social network use the same sites and are in the same echo chamber as you. And please don't delude yourself into thinking that if you poll everyone on the spectrum of social media, that you will have any idea what the general American public think about a topic. Neither here nor there, but were you surprised by Trump winning in the fashion he did?
    - SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
      I just don't see your point. I don't pretend not to understand this phenomenon, and the need for healthcare reform has always been one of my strongest political beliefs. But that doesn't mean murder is any less bad! Is the implication that this kind of murder can only happen as an expression of widespread popular anger? I definitely don't think that's so. There are plenty of places in the world where corporate executives have to fear being murdered in the streets, and it does a lot more to drive accountability to criminal gangs and oppressive governments than to the common people and their interests.
  - cute_boi 2y ago
    > This whole celebration of murder thing is so bizarre. People are celebrating because UHC is responsible for thousands of denied coverage(ultimately murdering common people) despite paying higher chunks of paycheck.

SpicyLemonZest 2y ago

If you're viewing "Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, news articles, et al", that's usually not so. Each of these platforms optimize their default views to show you the content they expect will be most engaging, although the first three apply some algorithmic filtering to try and make the content engaging to you in particular rather than the average viewer. Equally importantly, the content that gets produced is subject to this same filter. If you think the killer was justified, or you think the impulse to justify the killer shows everything that's wrong with America, you'll be excited to go write out a banger Tweet on the topic. If you have the boring, conventional view that all murders are tragic and you hope killers are brought to justice for the sake of the victim's friends and family, it's not going to occur to you to comment on this particular one.

cruffle_duffle 2y ago
Let’s not forget if you go against the grain and post “people are celebrating murder, which is gross” you are probably going to get downvoted—even on this site! This whole celebration of murder thing is so bizarre. The fact it seems to be the default “way to get upvotes” and speaking out is “downvote city” is… well… disconcerting to say the least.
- standardUser 2y ago
  It speaks to the deep and broad frustration among Americans towards our healthcare system. This isn't just executives or politicians "screwing people over" like we see in so many other realms. There's a significant number of Americans who love someone who has actually died or suffered severer/permanent physical distress for the sake of insurance company profits. When someone's family gets blown up from the sky and that someone becomes a terrorist willing to use violence against the party they blame for their family members death, we may not like it but we don't pretend to not understand it. Similarly we can't pretend to not understand this phenomenon.
  - IncreasePosts 2y ago
    We actually have no sure idea what the motives of the individual were. There's the obvious angle. Then, maybe Thompson paid someone to kill him, so his family could get an insurance payout. Maybe Thompson was fucking the shooter's ex girlfriend, and he wanted to mislead investigators as to why Thompson was killed. Maybe it's a Russian operation to sow discord in the US. Etc
    - standardUser 2y ago
      We have a good idea. Not no idea. And we know exactly how people are responding to the killing, regardless of motive, so we don't have to split hairs on that at all.
      - IncreasePosts 2y ago
        We know how people chronically on social media are responding to the killing
        standardUser 2y ago
        Do you not have friends? A social network of your own? People I know are responding in a similar fashion to what we are seeing all over the entire spectrum of online media.
        IncreasePosts 2y ago
        I'm going to guess all of your friends and social network use the same sites and are in the same echo chamber as you. And please don't delude yourself into thinking that if you poll everyone on the spectrum of social media, that you will have any idea what the general American public think about a topic. Neither here nor there, but were you surprised by Trump winning in the fashion he did?
  - SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
    I just don't see your point. I don't pretend not to understand this phenomenon, and the need for healthcare reform has always been one of my strongest political beliefs. But that doesn't mean murder is any less bad! Is the implication that this kind of murder can only happen as an expression of widespread popular anger? I definitely don't think that's so. There are plenty of places in the world where corporate executives have to fear being murdered in the streets, and it does a lot more to drive accountability to criminal gangs and oppressive governments than to the common people and their interests.
- cute_boi 2y ago
  > This whole celebration of murder thing is so bizarre. People are celebrating because UHC is responsible for thousands of denied coverage(ultimately murdering common people) despite paying higher chunks of paycheck.