You are not logged in. Please register or login.
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Re: Current Events Thread
This country is broken beyond repair. Something has to happen to change this.
Two people were run over today at a gay pride parade in Florida. Everyone... including the mayor... instantly labeled it a terrorist attack and social media flooded with rage towards this far right Trump loon who despises homosexuals.
Had anyone set aside the faux outrage, used their brain, and actually paid attention to the footage, the guy is not only gay, he was in the parade with the victims. He also immediately said it was an accident.
No one actually gave the tiniest of shits about the dead. All that mattered was painting the driver as a far right terrorist.
Just unbelievable. There are no longer words to properly describe this insanity that simply never ends. It's like a monster constantly on the lookout for more fresh kill to vilify.
It also reminds me of that grocery store massacre where everyone was sad when they found out it wasn't a Trumper.
Re: Current Events Thread
I would disagree in this sense, the country is not the country portrayed in the media. And social media isn't representative of the country. Honestly, I would say 98% of the people I come across and interact with on a daily basis treats everyone respectfully, no matter race, etc. I think politics makes people stupid, and the media is fake, partisan and exploitative.
Re: Current Events Thread
I would disagree in this sense, the country is not the country portrayed in the media. And social media isn't representative of the country. Honestly, I would say 98% of the people I come across and interact with on a daily basis treats everyone respectfully, no matter race, etc. I think politics makes people stupid, and the media is fake, partisan and exploitative.
When reading some of the insanity... whether it's Reddit, Twitter, whatever....I sometimes wonder how much of it is real people doing this.
I know a certain percentage of Twitter accounts are bots and everyone brushes it aside but I think something more insidious is going on....
People are starting to spot literal fake people with fake followers having conversations amongst themselves.
Pictures from something like....
https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/
How widespread is that?
Some sort of dystopic feedback loop that riles up all the plebs while also reacting to the riled up plebs.
One thing that would help things immensely is if mainstream news outlets would stop posting or talking about what's going on at these platforms.
I've seen examples where they quote someone for a story yet go to that Twitter page and it's just some random person with a handful of followers.
Another thing to do is make these platforms stop manipulating the trending items of the day. If you can't stop it, have a warning posted at the top of what's trending telling people this is all being manipulated for propaganda purposes and to proceed accordingly.
Either way.... this shit is causing real damage.
Your post did remind me of the Bill Hicks joke where he's watching the news and they're reporting all this horrifying shit...he looks out the window.....crickets chirp.
Re: Current Events Thread
I would disagree in this sense, the country is not the country portrayed in the media. And social media isn't representative of the country. Honestly, I would say 98% of the people I come across and interact with on a daily basis treats everyone respectfully, no matter race, etc. I think politics makes people stupid, and the media is fake, partisan and exploitative.
More media bad...people i know good talk i see...
Re: Current Events Thread
Randall Flagg wrote:Now that SCOTUS has kept the ACA intact and 2 of Trump’s appointees to include ACB sided with the 7-2 majority, are we going to hold those who screamed Armageddon accountable? Or is such hyperbole and hysterics par for the course?
How does one interpret this in any other way than the way Trump and other Republicans presented this?
They put 3 justices on the court in 4 years and among many other things, claimed they'd be able to overturn the ACA. This was their stated purpose, was it not?
I suspect that it was only to GOTV. The Roberts court has been moderate on social issues and pro-corporation on business. I never thought that it had a chance of being overturned.
Going back to ACA, you remember when McConnell was trying to overturn it, and they had those town halls where the Republican senators were shocked at how angry their constiutnets were at the possibility of the ACA being overturned?
Re: Current Events Thread
misterID wrote:I would disagree in this sense, the country is not the country portrayed in the media. And social media isn't representative of the country. Honestly, I would say 98% of the people I come across and interact with on a daily basis treats everyone respectfully, no matter race, etc. I think politics makes people stupid, and the media is fake, partisan and exploitative.
When reading some of the insanity... whether it's Reddit, Twitter, whatever....I sometimes wonder how much of it is real people doing this.
I know a certain percentage of Twitter accounts are bots and everyone brushes it aside but I think something more insidious is going on....
People are starting to spot literal fake people with fake followers having conversations amongst themselves.
Pictures from something like....
https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/
How widespread is that?
Some sort of dystopic feedback loop that riles up all the plebs while also reacting to the riled up plebs.
One thing that would help things immensely is if mainstream news outlets would stop posting or talking about what's going on at these platforms.
I've seen examples where they quote someone for a story yet go to that Twitter page and it's just some random person with a handful of followers.
Another thing to do is make these platforms stop manipulating the trending items of the day. If you can't stop it, have a warning posted at the top of what's trending telling people this is all being manipulated for propaganda purposes and to proceed accordingly.
Either way.... this shit is causing real damage.
Your post did remind me of the Bill Hicks joke where he's watching the news and they're reporting all this horrifying shit...he looks out the window.....crickets chirp.
Yeah people misuse the word bot. A bot account on a site like Twitter is a dumb thing that randomly follows people and tweets, comments and messages with spam content. You see the ones on this forum creating those spam threads.
Then there are the entities, groups and organisations creating accounts to rile people up. See the troll factory: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/worl … ctory.html
That's what Russia have been up to but this is used by groups in the West too. This type of information warefare to sew division, is no doubt used by every countries alphabet agencies.
Then you have the likes of Cambridge Analytica, where it has been documented in Chris Witty's book that they were creating groups on facebook for certain topics and even posting the content into the groups themselves under the disguise of their accounts just being average joes.
Behind these fake accounts are multiple people, consultancies, agencies, terrror groups etc. All of them using these platforms to create fake personas and stoke division - down every side of every discussion. They do this for long enough and real people get riled up and what those real people are now saying and reacting to then feeds into the actual news agenda.
The only thing that can hope to curb this is lawmakers introducing some form of legislation to regulate these social media platforms - but that in itself is messy ground, because you get into all sorts of arguments about interfering with free speech etc.
It's a dumpster fire.
Re: Current Events Thread
misterID wrote:I would disagree in this sense, the country is not the country portrayed in the media. And social media isn't representative of the country. Honestly, I would say 98% of the people I come across and interact with on a daily basis treats everyone respectfully, no matter race, etc. I think politics makes people stupid, and the media is fake, partisan and exploitative.
When reading some of the insanity... whether it's Reddit, Twitter, whatever....I sometimes wonder how much of it is real people doing this.
I know a certain percentage of Twitter accounts are bots and everyone brushes it aside but I think something more insidious is going on....
People are starting to spot literal fake people with fake followers having conversations amongst themselves.
Pictures from something like....
https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/
How widespread is that?
Some sort of dystopic feedback loop that riles up all the plebs while also reacting to the riled up plebs.
One thing that would help things immensely is if mainstream news outlets would stop posting or talking about what's going on at these platforms.
I've seen examples where they quote someone for a story yet go to that Twitter page and it's just some random person with a handful of followers.
Another thing to do is make these platforms stop manipulating the trending items of the day. If you can't stop it, have a warning posted at the top of what's trending telling people this is all being manipulated for propaganda purposes and to proceed accordingly.
Either way.... this shit is causing real damage.
Your post did remind me of the Bill Hicks joke where he's watching the news and they're reporting all this horrifying shit...he looks out the window.....crickets chirp.
Yep. The three follower accounts getting quoted happens a lot. There were two high profile progressive brothers on Twitter who were banned when it was discovered they ran thousands of accounts. There's no telling how many more are doing this, not to mention people who buy followers to help spread things on social media. Remember street teams for bands? It's the same thing for politics.
Re: Current Events Thread
misterID wrote:I would disagree in this sense, the country is not the country portrayed in the media. And social media isn't representative of the country. Honestly, I would say 98% of the people I come across and interact with on a daily basis treats everyone respectfully, no matter race, etc. I think politics makes people stupid, and the media is fake, partisan and exploitative.
More media bad...people i know good talk i see...
Yeah, pretty much. Thanks for the contribution, mitch.
- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: Current Events Thread
Anyone see the hate crime in Chicago when a group of black men ripped out a Puerto Rican couple from their car and shot them point blank? There is so much crazy crime going down right now.
Re: Current Events Thread
mitchejw wrote:misterID wrote:I would disagree in this sense, the country is not the country portrayed in the media. And social media isn't representative of the country. Honestly, I would say 98% of the people I come across and interact with on a daily basis treats everyone respectfully, no matter race, etc. I think politics makes people stupid, and the media is fake, partisan and exploitative.
More media bad...people i know good talk i see...
Yeah, pretty much. Thanks for the contribution, mitch.
Because this stuff doesn’t happen to me or anyone I know directly that means it doesn’t exist in the media is bad.
I love the media. They’re making tons of money. And everyone is consuming the media product more than any other time in history right now. What they don’t like is that the media is just a mirror and what they don’t like is their reflection.
You can deal with this is one of two general ways. 1) you can stick your head in the sand and blame the bug bad media that you willfully consume or 2) you can accept that what you see in the mirror is actually you
