UPDATED: Since writing this piece, this tweet from Yoel Roth has been dredged up from 2016 election night. Roth is the head of “integrity” for Twitter. It tells you everything you need to know about Twitter’s operations. We need to be concerned with events at three of the biggest players in Silicon Valley: Google, Twitter, and Facebook. Technically, Alphabet is now Google’s parent company, but let’s go with Google and focus on YouTube.
I think what's really sad about this whole social media stuff is that too much of society today has been or is still being politicized! It seems one cannot have a conversation without having to take sides on something! I don't recall any of this when growing up and listening to my parents talking with their friends. Yeah, there was debate sometime but everyone seemed to get along and laugh at the end! Now it's so sad that folks care more about their feelings and less about what's really true or even what's real!
Google's search engine certainly has a large role in conservative-censorship because if you can't find an article, you can't read it. While at one time, I think Google's search highly favored sites with the most traffic, I think Google searches now favor anti-conservative views and especially anti-Trump views. For example, I just did a google search for "border wall" and two of the top five pages are "Trump order to paint border wall black could drive up cost" by the Washington Post and "Trump's Border Wall Wold Go Through Laredo Historic District" by NPR. The anti-border wall slant continues on for quite a few of the top search results.
On the other hand, I don't think Twitter posting "Fact Check" warnings on tweets is going to have much of an impact on censoring conservative viewpoints. For example, I doubt anybody who supports Trump is going to believe that Twitter's fact-check sources have a credible argument that mail-in voting is not subject to fraud. Anybody who wants to see an alternate opinion to Trump's tweets simply has to check CNN/MSNBC or the Washington Post "Democracy Dies in Darkness." All censorship does is drive people to rely on sites they trust and the trend is for conservative sites (like Erick's) or RedState or TownHall to seek their own subscribers.
While conservative sources often quote/reference progressive articles, the same is not true in reverse, and "reader beware" is the only safe "fact check" for people who sincerely want the truth.
Totalitarians seek to exploit the weakness of free speech - that is, it permits malefactors to manipulate the trusting and gullible into quarreling with one another. In the long run it will backfire because the trusting and gullible will develop tools and skills to sort truth from falsehood and provocation - and will still have free access to complete information
I won't be voting for Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump. Should Mr. Biden win our problematic extreme binary party system will still be here. I use the word extreme because neither party has any internal flexibility when dealing with the other. Assuming we have a traditional transfer of power will his absence make the changes you describe easier or harder to effectuate?
Nice update. It's a shame that human communication is so tainted, slanted, and untruthful. Communication is so complex on its own, take the fact that after 16 years of marriage, I still can't figure out what my wife is saying and she can't figure out what I'm saying, about 50% of the time. Mix in a bunch of technology, bias, and outright BS and it gets even more muddied up. In addition, the push of advertising into every moment and instance of communication and its enough to make a fella want to unplug and go off grid instead of enjoying the wonderful human experience of interacting with a free society. Humans in general are just a complete mess. Everything is designed to make you think or feel something instead of just reveal facts and let you think and feel whatever naturally occurs as a result of the facts. Its very disheartening.
Keep up the great work Erick, it is such a great part of my day to read your commentary and gain a little clarity, even if it mostly just exposes the flaws of everything we see, hear, and read. Can we get back to a nice bourbon review every now and then?
I think what's really sad about this whole social media stuff is that too much of society today has been or is still being politicized! It seems one cannot have a conversation without having to take sides on something! I don't recall any of this when growing up and listening to my parents talking with their friends. Yeah, there was debate sometime but everyone seemed to get along and laugh at the end! Now it's so sad that folks care more about their feelings and less about what's really true or even what's real!
Google's search engine certainly has a large role in conservative-censorship because if you can't find an article, you can't read it. While at one time, I think Google's search highly favored sites with the most traffic, I think Google searches now favor anti-conservative views and especially anti-Trump views. For example, I just did a google search for "border wall" and two of the top five pages are "Trump order to paint border wall black could drive up cost" by the Washington Post and "Trump's Border Wall Wold Go Through Laredo Historic District" by NPR. The anti-border wall slant continues on for quite a few of the top search results.
On the other hand, I don't think Twitter posting "Fact Check" warnings on tweets is going to have much of an impact on censoring conservative viewpoints. For example, I doubt anybody who supports Trump is going to believe that Twitter's fact-check sources have a credible argument that mail-in voting is not subject to fraud. Anybody who wants to see an alternate opinion to Trump's tweets simply has to check CNN/MSNBC or the Washington Post "Democracy Dies in Darkness." All censorship does is drive people to rely on sites they trust and the trend is for conservative sites (like Erick's) or RedState or TownHall to seek their own subscribers.
While conservative sources often quote/reference progressive articles, the same is not true in reverse, and "reader beware" is the only safe "fact check" for people who sincerely want the truth.
Totalitarians seek to exploit the weakness of free speech - that is, it permits malefactors to manipulate the trusting and gullible into quarreling with one another. In the long run it will backfire because the trusting and gullible will develop tools and skills to sort truth from falsehood and provocation - and will still have free access to complete information
Spot on. Thanks.
I won't be voting for Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump. Should Mr. Biden win our problematic extreme binary party system will still be here. I use the word extreme because neither party has any internal flexibility when dealing with the other. Assuming we have a traditional transfer of power will his absence make the changes you describe easier or harder to effectuate?
Nice update. It's a shame that human communication is so tainted, slanted, and untruthful. Communication is so complex on its own, take the fact that after 16 years of marriage, I still can't figure out what my wife is saying and she can't figure out what I'm saying, about 50% of the time. Mix in a bunch of technology, bias, and outright BS and it gets even more muddied up. In addition, the push of advertising into every moment and instance of communication and its enough to make a fella want to unplug and go off grid instead of enjoying the wonderful human experience of interacting with a free society. Humans in general are just a complete mess. Everything is designed to make you think or feel something instead of just reveal facts and let you think and feel whatever naturally occurs as a result of the facts. Its very disheartening.
Keep up the great work Erick, it is such a great part of my day to read your commentary and gain a little clarity, even if it mostly just exposes the flaws of everything we see, hear, and read. Can we get back to a nice bourbon review every now and then?