Algorithms aren't our problem. The tech giants aren't really our main problem either.
Our big problem is that a large portion of the population no longer believes in free speech, and that portion skews young. And journalists--journalists!!!--are among the worst.
That's what enables the gradual strangulation of free speech.
I'm getting old, but I don't even know how to argue with these people. How can they not see how stupid this is, how it will certainly lead to disaster?
It's like trying to persuade people that oxygen is necessary.
The answer is yes, depending on who gets to set "community standards" Censorship of history is a goal of all tyrants.
Even though this instance can be blamed on an algorithm, what of the recent destruction and defacement of hundreds of historical statues and monuments by (corporate sponsored) radical activists? How about the "1619 Project" invading our classrooms and replacing history with racist propaganda? How about the widespread alteration of thousands of entries in Wikipedia and other digital reference works? How about the disappearance of videos and research articles which disagree with a mainstream narrative from platforms and search engines? These are examples of the ongoing effort to control information. Sadly for most of us, "community standards" is a vague enough term to rationalize an Orwellian level conformity.
Great article. Historically illiterate "Woke" imbeciles believe history is supposed to conform to our current prevailing popular cultural ideology. History is to inform us in many ways, not confined to how people once were and that people were a lot like us and that we have changed a lot since then. It's a set of static jumping off points that launch us into the free-form of life.
But what is more distressing is the idea that something long since gone can trigger people who are alive now so much that it must be whitewashed. And yes, I use that term with appropriate and intentional irony. The two most offensive no longer in existence historical targets which cause knee-jerk blacklisting, persecution, canceling and deplatforming are the Holocaust and the Civil War. The Holocaust and anything connected to it is simultaneously unspeakable and ironically one of the most important teaching tools we have.
The Civil War flag and statuary are both very intriguing. The flag has long been a symbol of racism, but also a symbol of "F off" and it's not always clear in what way it was used. So I find it difficult to assign it automatically as racism when it's on somebody's motorcycle. It can obviously be both.
The statuary is even more interesting. It was a war between Americans. Brothers fought on both sides of that war. Blacks fought on either side. And after that bloody disaster, which was absolutely necessary for our progress as a people, ended, there were massive hard feelings on both sides. Part of the healing was that the south was welcomed back as our American brethren again. And that meant celebrating their heroes and honoring their dead. That was the wise and profound bargain to bring healing to a great nations. To say, that statue celebrates slavery is just idiotic. Sorry. It's even more idiotic when applied to the founding father or whomever. But specifically if you look at the southern people who buried their dead after the war and needed to heal in order to rejoin the union, you can understand why those statues are extremely meaningful to some. Do they trigger you? Does a Roman Emperor statue trigger you?
In every other part of the world, if people desecrate art and symbols of culture, we say they are committing crimes against humanity. But when it comes to our culture and history, we want to take a steamroller to it. This may be because we don't know we have a culture. But whatever the source of the ignorance, it's still wrong.
It was bad enough when we had to deal with just humans being True Believers; now we must deal with humans hiding behind algorithms to absolve themselves of all responsibility.
Honestly don't know why anyone is still on social media. I get the benefits of a broader reach, but it's essential that all of one's economic viability eggs not be put in the social media basket. It doesn't take much to get three-strikes-you're-out-ed. Better have a backup plan.
That what the future looks like: censored by algorithms. No historical context, no understanding of any kind of ambiguity, just dumb, woke machines policing dumb, woke people. That is the plan, and so far all is progressing very well.
This shows that everyone should abandon Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the rest not just for their own mental equilibrium, but for the good of civilization.
What worth does Twitter hold? Get off of it. It’s not hard. Any news is usually just a link to a link to another link. Any news can be found by other means. Obviously I read comments and sometimes write my own. I see how the back and forth can be exciting, but at some point it probably becomes unhealthy. No one is forcing any of these social media platforms on anyone. Put the crack down. Let the free market decide. If these companies lose enough data (us) and their profits are looking dicey I bet things would change real fast.
I got a 24 hour suspension from facebook for quoting Mussolini's definition of fascism as the joining of government and corporations, or corporatism... i think they might have taken it personally.
There is an amusing, recursive irony here…shortly after Nazis came to power in 1933, that party passed laws that made it illegal to criticize the nascent Nazi government. This included the now infamous banning and burning books that were deemed unacceptable. So on the 100th anniversary of the Nazi’s most historically significant individual having come to power, Twitter’s reaction is that it’s “algorithms” deem unacceptable the didactic lessons of censorship.
Bonus question: If Twitter had been active during the era of Nazism, would Twitter have been part of the Nazi censorship machine, and if so, to what degree?
I am unsurprised with the censorship being done by the stupid. The problem with this kind of censorship is that it makes the dumb dumber, by depriving them of context. This lack of context guarantees the events of 100 years ago will be much easier to replicate, perhaps not in identical form, but something that could have been avoided if people understood the past better.
The ultimate failure of people like Hannah Arendt, Wiesenthal, along with many less known figures is to be found in this.
"In every country in which there has been a loss of freedom, where does it begin? It begins in news media, in public print, in books, and on the proscenium. That's where they attack you first - right there in the bread basket." Rod Serling
"Now it's computers & more computers. And soon everyone will have computers & everybody will know everything about everybody else long before they meet them. Nobody will want to meet anybody else ever again and everybody will be a recluse like I am now." Charles Bukowski
"When a reporter for the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command interviewed Frank Zappa for the Command's news syndicate, the story was held up by a superior who demanded that Zappa - who had been rather hard on the Army - answer one more question: just who does he think will defend the country without the Army.
"Zappa's reply: "From what? The biggest threat to America today is its own federal government...Will the Army protect anybody from the FBI? The IRS? The CIA? The Republican Party? The Democratic Party?...The biggest dangers we face today don't even need to sneak past our billion dollar defense system...they issue the contracts for them."
Gee remember those long lost historical epochs when artists were actually subversive shitkickers instead corporate bootlickers?
I remember when Americans were shocked that the words ‘Tiananmen Square’ were scrubbed from Chinese internet searches and that the Chinese were largely uninformed regarding the event. It’s crazy that censoring is happening here now. Although our government has always hid the truth and whitewashed events, we now have private entities doing likewise,
Algorithms aren't our problem. The tech giants aren't really our main problem either.
Our big problem is that a large portion of the population no longer believes in free speech, and that portion skews young. And journalists--journalists!!!--are among the worst.
That's what enables the gradual strangulation of free speech.
I'm getting old, but I don't even know how to argue with these people. How can they not see how stupid this is, how it will certainly lead to disaster?
It's like trying to persuade people that oxygen is necessary.
The answer is yes, depending on who gets to set "community standards" Censorship of history is a goal of all tyrants.
Even though this instance can be blamed on an algorithm, what of the recent destruction and defacement of hundreds of historical statues and monuments by (corporate sponsored) radical activists? How about the "1619 Project" invading our classrooms and replacing history with racist propaganda? How about the widespread alteration of thousands of entries in Wikipedia and other digital reference works? How about the disappearance of videos and research articles which disagree with a mainstream narrative from platforms and search engines? These are examples of the ongoing effort to control information. Sadly for most of us, "community standards" is a vague enough term to rationalize an Orwellian level conformity.
Great article. Historically illiterate "Woke" imbeciles believe history is supposed to conform to our current prevailing popular cultural ideology. History is to inform us in many ways, not confined to how people once were and that people were a lot like us and that we have changed a lot since then. It's a set of static jumping off points that launch us into the free-form of life.
But what is more distressing is the idea that something long since gone can trigger people who are alive now so much that it must be whitewashed. And yes, I use that term with appropriate and intentional irony. The two most offensive no longer in existence historical targets which cause knee-jerk blacklisting, persecution, canceling and deplatforming are the Holocaust and the Civil War. The Holocaust and anything connected to it is simultaneously unspeakable and ironically one of the most important teaching tools we have.
The Civil War flag and statuary are both very intriguing. The flag has long been a symbol of racism, but also a symbol of "F off" and it's not always clear in what way it was used. So I find it difficult to assign it automatically as racism when it's on somebody's motorcycle. It can obviously be both.
The statuary is even more interesting. It was a war between Americans. Brothers fought on both sides of that war. Blacks fought on either side. And after that bloody disaster, which was absolutely necessary for our progress as a people, ended, there were massive hard feelings on both sides. Part of the healing was that the south was welcomed back as our American brethren again. And that meant celebrating their heroes and honoring their dead. That was the wise and profound bargain to bring healing to a great nations. To say, that statue celebrates slavery is just idiotic. Sorry. It's even more idiotic when applied to the founding father or whomever. But specifically if you look at the southern people who buried their dead after the war and needed to heal in order to rejoin the union, you can understand why those statues are extremely meaningful to some. Do they trigger you? Does a Roman Emperor statue trigger you?
In every other part of the world, if people desecrate art and symbols of culture, we say they are committing crimes against humanity. But when it comes to our culture and history, we want to take a steamroller to it. This may be because we don't know we have a culture. But whatever the source of the ignorance, it's still wrong.
It was bad enough when we had to deal with just humans being True Believers; now we must deal with humans hiding behind algorithms to absolve themselves of all responsibility.
History is politically incorrect
Honestly don't know why anyone is still on social media. I get the benefits of a broader reach, but it's essential that all of one's economic viability eggs not be put in the social media basket. It doesn't take much to get three-strikes-you're-out-ed. Better have a backup plan.
That what the future looks like: censored by algorithms. No historical context, no understanding of any kind of ambiguity, just dumb, woke machines policing dumb, woke people. That is the plan, and so far all is progressing very well.
This shows that everyone should abandon Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the rest not just for their own mental equilibrium, but for the good of civilization.
What worth does Twitter hold? Get off of it. It’s not hard. Any news is usually just a link to a link to another link. Any news can be found by other means. Obviously I read comments and sometimes write my own. I see how the back and forth can be exciting, but at some point it probably becomes unhealthy. No one is forcing any of these social media platforms on anyone. Put the crack down. Let the free market decide. If these companies lose enough data (us) and their profits are looking dicey I bet things would change real fast.
I got a 24 hour suspension from facebook for quoting Mussolini's definition of fascism as the joining of government and corporations, or corporatism... i think they might have taken it personally.
Try quoting Goebbels on Propaganda...I did so once accompanied by a pic of Julie Andrews, just to tease the sentry bots.
There is an amusing, recursive irony here…shortly after Nazis came to power in 1933, that party passed laws that made it illegal to criticize the nascent Nazi government. This included the now infamous banning and burning books that were deemed unacceptable. So on the 100th anniversary of the Nazi’s most historically significant individual having come to power, Twitter’s reaction is that it’s “algorithms” deem unacceptable the didactic lessons of censorship.
Bonus question: If Twitter had been active during the era of Nazism, would Twitter have been part of the Nazi censorship machine, and if so, to what degree?
As a former history teacher, the goal of the Education Industry has been for several decades to scrub history like a Taliban mullah.
I am unsurprised with the censorship being done by the stupid. The problem with this kind of censorship is that it makes the dumb dumber, by depriving them of context. This lack of context guarantees the events of 100 years ago will be much easier to replicate, perhaps not in identical form, but something that could have been avoided if people understood the past better.
The ultimate failure of people like Hannah Arendt, Wiesenthal, along with many less known figures is to be found in this.
Here's some history:
"In every country in which there has been a loss of freedom, where does it begin? It begins in news media, in public print, in books, and on the proscenium. That's where they attack you first - right there in the bread basket." Rod Serling
"Now it's computers & more computers. And soon everyone will have computers & everybody will know everything about everybody else long before they meet them. Nobody will want to meet anybody else ever again and everybody will be a recluse like I am now." Charles Bukowski
"When a reporter for the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command interviewed Frank Zappa for the Command's news syndicate, the story was held up by a superior who demanded that Zappa - who had been rather hard on the Army - answer one more question: just who does he think will defend the country without the Army.
"Zappa's reply: "From what? The biggest threat to America today is its own federal government...Will the Army protect anybody from the FBI? The IRS? The CIA? The Republican Party? The Democratic Party?...The biggest dangers we face today don't even need to sneak past our billion dollar defense system...they issue the contracts for them."
Gee remember those long lost historical epochs when artists were actually subversive shitkickers instead corporate bootlickers?
I remember when Americans were shocked that the words ‘Tiananmen Square’ were scrubbed from Chinese internet searches and that the Chinese were largely uninformed regarding the event. It’s crazy that censoring is happening here now. Although our government has always hid the truth and whitewashed events, we now have private entities doing likewise,