Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

(I reserve the right to re-use this image in the future.)

chiefmg

iTrader: (5)

I'm going to chance that this is appropriate in this thread. Delete if you must.

olderguy

iTrader: (19)

If it is not, the lesson is real.

Ted75zcar

iTrader: (2)

I approve, cat awarded.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

This brief presentation does a pretty good job of explaining why we have collectively been able to reach a point at which facts no longer matter:

click to play

Direct link in case embeddment does not wort for people: https://fb.watch/9qDlalEA10/


The TL;DR is that since technology has made it easy for those with extreme biases and agendas to communicate, it's given rise to a phenomenon where we no longer argue against what our opponents are actually saying, we first formulate a version of what we believe our opponents are saying, tweak and massage that version to maximize its awfulness, and then argue against that. A kind of crowd-sourced strawman syndrome, if you will.

Gee Emm

Been distracted, and missed the discussion.

Foreigners are a problem how? You saying only WASPs allowed? Only Muricans have valid opinions? Do tell ...

What a bizarre caricature of 'socialism'. A good lesson in human behaviour though (if true).

good2go

iTrader: (2)

I really think it bears repeating, with emphasis, his observation that there are algorithms (heavily) involved in the phenomenon as well. Of course, if you think on that a bit, it is not the least bit surprising what the outcome has become.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Very, very true.

It makes good financial sense both for hosting companies (eg: FB) and content-aggregators to promote outrageous content. I heard an interesting term recently, "hate-clicks." Headlines specifically designed to outrage the viewer, and drive them into clicking through so that they can see for themselves just how "stupid and wrong" (a subjective judgement) the content it.

I do wonder, however, if they've thought at all about the negative consequences of this type of marketing, insofar as heralding the end of rational discourse and, possibly, the collapse of western civilization.

good2go

iTrader: (2)

Surely you jest.
There are no real ethics, legal or moral, employed on the internet. It's dog eat dog, sell your mother or daughter for a buck, **** on grandma, and poison the community well just for kicks, . . . but then I have been told I might be a tad jaded.

chiefmg

iTrader: (5)

Of course it is true. Whether or not the actual newspaper article is true, that IS what human behavior is like. Unless people have some incentive they will not see the benefit to exerting themselves. That is one reason why the whole participation trophy thing in the US is bogus. Guess what? Kids keep track of who is winning even if their overseers don't. I say this as a grandparent with grandkids who participate in sports. They KNOW who won even if the sanctioning body doesn't keep score. THEY DO!! That gives me some hope that we can move forward and get ahead of the nonsense that exists today (at least in the USA).

fooger03

iTrader: (2)

Socialism can work...but only if you kill all of the socialists.

olderguy

iTrader: (19)

.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

Three easy real-life examples:

Grown men in places of business will bathe in the sinks, **** on the floors, leave **** on the seat, try to flush food, leave the bathrooms in general disarray.
Grown men in places of business will put left-overs a regular-sized refrigerator and never remove them. Or take up the entire shelf with a full week's worth of food. Or take someone else's food.
Grown men in places of business will pour the coffee, but never make it.

The coffee pot is the best metaphor for the failure of communism. Our company supplies the coffee free as a wonderful gesture of their love for their hard-working employees. The coffee is is Folger's Filter Packs:




So quite literally the cheapest "coffee" they could muster. To make matters worse, they swapped out our top-of-the-line Keurig machines for the bottom-of-the-line brewer. They used to provide K-Cups for us, but they dissolved that program for a while but kept the machines in place.

The coffee is so weak you must use (2) filter packs for one pot of coffee -- and despite at least (3) signs telling people to use two filters at a time, there will always be a weak pot made.

We have a guy that comes in at like 6:00am and makes the first batch, it's typically tanked or close to by 7:00am.

This is where it gets interesting. I've seen myriad people try to obtain from the empty pot, and when the discover it's empty, the simply do not get coffee. They will take take take if it's there, but if they have to put forth one smidgen of effort, they go without and try again later. On top of that, I witness these same comrades continuously extract the last remaining wet paper bag water from the pot, and walk away without regard/care.

I want to save there's about 50 people who share in the coffee, and only about 5-10 people who actually make/clean the pot.

There's one co-worker who constantly complains -- at least two times a week -- about the pot being empty and always being the one who fills it. I ask him, do you even like that coffee, and he say no but it's free.

tl;dr. free coffee. coffee incredibly cheap and low-quality. must be initially brewed by yourself/coworker and takes about 7min to brew. more drinkers than makers; always empty. small pool of brewers don't even like it, but continue to brew.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

As predicted, the alt-left are now crying that a mostly-white jury in Georgia convicting three white men of murder for killing a black man is evidence of white supremacism.

Can't make this **** up.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

So, with dudebro Jack Dorsey having stepped down from Twitter, and named Parag Agrawal as his successor, we've gotten to peek under a couple of different kimonos, so to speak.

First off, Gideon Lichfield of the MIT Technology Review recently conducted a lengthy interview with Agrawal, with an emphasis on what he described as the "rise of misinformation" on the social media platform. Full transcript here: https://www.technologyreview.com/202...isinformation/

Towards the end of the interview, Agrawal summarized his overall philosophy for Twitter as follows: "Our role is not to be bound by the First Amendment, but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation and our moves are reflective of things that we believe lead to a healthier public conversation. The kinds of things that we do about this is, focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed."

Ok, fair enough. I don't think any of us really expects major commercial social media platforms to value free speech above what they feel is their responsibility to shape public dialogue in order to help in the cause of achieving their vision of an ideal social structure.

I'd have liked to hear him expound a bit on bit on "how the times have changed." Like, is this his way of acknowledging that we live in a post-truth society?



Of course, I didn't come here just to post that.



On Friday, the Washington Post ran a story about the leadership change at Twitter. https://www.washingtonpost.com/techn...restructuring/

Initially, that story contained the "First amendment" quote, and a little bit of commentary around it. But then, after I refreshed the page, that part was gone.


Again, unsurprising. But it makes me wonder... Was this a conscious choice, after someone realized that calling attention to the techniques being used by the new media might be unwise?

Bajingo

Wouldn't the idea of finding freedom of speech "binding" imply the post-truth concept by itself?

The correct generally don't avoid confrontation with their ideas.

Bajingo

Can't have anyone know what Winston is doing in the Ministry of Truth can we?

cordycord

iTrader: (2)

How much "news" never makes it to the news?

--Anyone read about the mass incarcerations for Covid in Australia? The lock-downs in Austria?
--Anyone hear about the mass protests and clashes about the same in Australia? It's as if we're living in a Covid bubble...
--there are hundreds of Americans that never made it out of Afghanistan. Anything happening with them? Does the government even care? Carter failed with 54 hostages....what do we call what Biden did?
--there are thousands--THOUSANDS--of green card holders still in Afghanistan. I'm sure they're being slaughtered on a daily basis as they are found. But no news seems to be good news
--the Ghislain Maxwell trial isn't live and only snippets of it make the news. You know, like when when Trump flew on Epstein's plane. Funny enough the part about the trip being between NYC and Florida gets missed
--Is there anything to ALL these CFO's and CEO's stepping down right now?
--Anyone talk about how the new Pfizer therapy bears a striking resemblance chemically and therapeutically to Ivermectin?
--Anyone want to talk about the WTA, and why other companies aren't cutting ties with China? If it's not about a tennis player being disappeared, why not the Uighurs? Disney? Coca Cola? International Olympic Committee?
--And last, did any of you go "smash and grab" shopping this weekend?

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

Haven't heard about any of that fake news, but I did hear Trump allegedly tested positive 2 days before a Biden debate. :GASP:

And there is a rise in autonomous SUVs accidentally hitting humans.

Oh and how Biden will save .04 on the gallon when he releases our strategic oil reserves to India and China.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...mouthed-speech

​​​​​​​

cordycord

iTrader: (2)

Parag's post about racism:

It's all about that word "they", right?

It's the blanket assumption that ANY "they" thinks and acts like a monobloc that is problematic. Methinks that Parag--despite his hundreds of millions of dollars and lofty status--still thinks of whites as oppressors. And probably far less intelligent than himself. Because white.