A plea for Sanity

a reply to: Silk

If all someone does is post on Facebook or Twitter how can they not want the world to end? We need to bear in mind that Twitter and facebook posters are not a representative sample of the population, they are outliers.

originally posted by: GeauxHomeYoureDrunk
a reply to: Silk

Honestly I believe that social media has screwed up the world big time! What started out as a good thing has been used and abused to spread extremist propaganda and make the far left and far right extremists seem like they are the majorities (when in fact they are just a very small percentage of the population) and the mainstream media use the controversy to feed the advertising revenue machine. It's all about social media acceptance and Jerry Springer reporting now. Opinions have become more important than facts and the extremists are the squeaking wheel that gets greased. The world will keep on turning long after they are gone just as it always has.

yes and they become the "squeaky wheel", and appearing to be the majority after they cow and threaten everyone else away from commenting. saw that happen big time in the run up to the election of Duterte in the Philippines. people would for example post an ati-Duterte comment and would be attacked by hordes of his supporters at the very least with insults. but from there went on to actual threats as well as doxing. thus making many afraid to post. especially after the election and Duterte started going after media for "fake news" (ie anything negative against his wishes). and his going after his political rivals with drummed up drug charges (and by doing so actually put their lives in danger with his acceptance and even praising of people and police just outright murdering those "suspected" of being involved with drugs). in fact many feel that a lot of those killed in Duterte's drug war have been those that have been against him, especially among those killed by civilians and police for "drugs". like an awful lot of mayors.

b ut aside from the threats and cowing of people of different views. i think even a worse problem is those (and it seems to be far more on the left side of things), shutting themselves of from anyone with views that do not match their views. by unfriending and even bloc king those who don't agree with them. and thus no longer even hear any opposition on a regulator basis. and when they do run into differences of opinion, go on the attack secure in the knowledge that not only is the majority in agreement with them. but that they are in the moral right fighting a morally corrupt minority. and this is not even recent after Trump was elected, or even when he started to run for office. this started to happen while Obama was President. and has just been getting w orse and worse. to the point of why now have terrorist groups like the communist Antifa creating havoc out in public all nice and secure in their thoughts that they are in the "right", and thus have the "right" to assault those who disagree with them. and just like with Duterte, this has been egged on, praised and encouraged by leftist politicians as well a s the main stream media.

originally posted by: GeauxHomeYoureDrunk
Honestly I believe that social media has screwed up the world big time! What started out as a good thing has been used and abused to spread extremist propaganda and make the far left and far right extremists seem like they are the majorities (when in fact they are just a very small percentage of the population) and the mainstream media use the controversy to feed the advertising revenue machine.

I agree.

I think the problem started when people started getting "likes" for what they posted, making them think they are right about everything and, having the possibility of blocking discording opinions, they escalated to the "only my opinion is valid" position.

In that frame of mind the moderates are left talking to themselves and only the extremists appear as "trending" or whatever that is called in each specific social network.

a reply to: Silk

A plea for sanity

I remember times we could count on it even after a psychedelic
weekend. How sad it is to see this plea amid the nagging worries
I have for our grand kids. I see my grand children's parents barely
getting by on two non sustainable jobs. If I wasn't there when my
daughter needed me. The four of them would be on the streets
already.

And they're just try'n to have a family and a roof overhead
that serves the love they had for each other all thru high school.
Two great kids with two of their own now but forever slaves
to love. What happens when I can no longer cover for em?
I keep wondering why did they do this to themselves with so
many far more popular options available to youngsters these
days?

Sucks because when my gen was come'n up you could
get away with put'n the cart before the horse. Just had to
work a little harder at first to get thru the wobbles. But two
kids no education just jump'n out there wing'n it in today's
mess? I keep tell'n em " All you can do now is go til the wheels
come off".

Lucky for them she's my youngest and I don't mind see'n em thru at
all. Just hope I get to see something change for em because they do
deserve it from what I see.

Yes, this kind of enhancement of social interaction through technology is starting to make people exhibit herd responses as it tends to amplify the warning signals sent out by a few noisy extremists who irrationally stimulate way too many people. Ordinarily, back a few decades, you'd have a few cranks writing letters to the editor about their crazy ass concerns and a few people would see it and most would laugh it off. Now somebody can post their nutty theories and spread their doom, and if it catches on it can explode like a fission bomb so hard that even a President will buy it. Suddenly everybody is a bomb and can trigger millions of people into a frenzy.

My favorite example is bees. Nobody really used to care anything about them. Now everyone has a strong opinion about bees, how many there should be, if they're endangered, misquoting Einstein, etc. People will fight you over freaking BEES because of something they saw online about how we're doomed because of a bee shortage of some kind. (Spoiler: There isn't.) And it's nearly impossible to get the real story because of the noise of the stampeding herd.

I have for a long time said that if humanity ever destroyed itself it wouldn't be because of anything"evil," but rather because of our concern and caring and loving our friends and families. We'll burn down everything to keep our old people alive in comas, our children safe from random kidnappers on every block, and our poor BEES from being killed by pesticides created by evil corporations.

And social media just amplifies this way out of control. So I guess "they" are right. We're doomed, but mostly because of all the people saying we're doomed.

originally posted by: Blue Shift
Now somebody can post their nutty theories and spread their doom, and if it catches on it can explode like a fission bomb so hard that even a President will buy it. Suddenly everybody is a bomb and can trigger millions of people into a frenzy.

On another forum in which I am a member we had a discussion about this, and one member said that it was the equivalent of the old "village idiots", but now everyone listens to them, the "village idiot with Internet access", because, in the same way that "in the Internet nobody knows you're a dog", nobody knows if you are a nut or not, but they accept it all if it sounds like it supports their own opinions.

well i'm 53 years old and from where i'm sitting things have never seemed so bleak. i feel like civilization is simply treading water for as long as it can before cramp sets in and down we go.

a reply to: loam

Excellent point. My son is 19 soon to be 20.....and when President Obama took office it seemed like suddenly everything in the curriculum was about being more inclusive of every voice and segment in this population. And since then it seem like even though we continue to be outperformed by the most important cultures we are competing against on Earth we get more caught up on individuals being able to express themselves but ONLY if the belong to certain groups where the behavior is both accepted and excused.

When the Trump phenomenon starting getting steam my son said Muslim kids started talking about being afraid to come to school, even though there had not been any issues that required fear.

As a bit of an outsider I suppose I've been watching this social "evolution" since I was in high school when they started Affirmative Action and those of us wondered what would happen to students who outperformed minorities but were more in the pack so to speak among their peers. What I see is the second generation of white America being told their culture is predatory and horrible and minorities being told their fears are totally valid. What I see is white kids being told if you aren't on board you don't deserve to stay in the game. And while in general I think kids are totally tolerant of other ethnic groups---quite a lot of them look at this narrative about police and wonder why only one side of the story about this is pushed. And they think its all bullcrap.

My son doesn't understand why school are hung on bathrooms. He doesn't understand how the black community can scream about police brutality when if you watch the news that group is consistently the one shooting randomly into crowds or birthday parties. And they certainly understand the values or borders, especially as they have watched refugees overwhelm systems across the world.

It's only the ultra religious far right loons who ever predict doomsday, same people with a slightly rehashed argument.
Last thursday, Obama is the antichrist here to set armageddon in motion because he's black/gay/muslim/communist.
Today, trump is the second coming of christ here to usher in armageddon and save us from blacks/gays/muslims/communists.
Its predictable and quite the money earner, right wing people are easily conned and have very little in common with reality. The interwebz are much easier than doing chain letters and other scams to con people.

Are people that bored today..?

My childhood and early adult hood was packed with fun.

Girls, partying, hanging with friends.

I didn't think about turning on a news channel until i was 30.
Too busy having fun and working hard.

If people are obsessed with politics. I feel bad.

But its almost eveyone today.

Strange news

originally posted by: Silk
There seems to be a preponderance of doom about some of my friends on Facebook and here. Much centred around the current state of politics and is permeates my feed daily.

What say you?
Silk

Speaking of Sanity...

JOE BIDEN wants everyone to know that his personal brain surgeon is correct...

"I want to be clear, I’m not going nuts," Biden, 76, told an audience during a campaign rally in Croydon, New Hampshire, on Friday.

Source: www.washingtonexaminer.com...

Right after saying this, while standing in New Hampshire, Biden told the audience he loved coming to Vermont.

No wonder Joe Biden is no longer in the lead. Sanders and Warren have passed him up, according to the latest poll.

Barack Obama did the right thing by trying to talk Biden out of running for President. It's too bad he didn't take that advice.

a reply to: Silk

Doom porn eh?

Thats good I suppose, hopefully a few will start running around like chicken little screaming the sky is falling, or maybe about trump. But I have yet to see any doing that, its mostly online were people are highly opinionated on politics, and everything under the sun, climate change to donuts.

But here is a fact, there have been a hundred trillion million gazillion things both in human society and in nature and in everything, that have come and gone. If this country falls because of Trump or whatever or whoever, boy are we some week kneed dip#z. Life goes on, with or without people.

But I dont think it will, and not only a few years from now none of this will be important at all. But likely a few months. For me its usually in the minutes that it loses importance and gusto.

a reply to: Silk

Its funny you write this, because last night I had a thought. We are right at the edge of a monumental jump in our technology on two fronts; AI and human spaceflight. We are literally seeing the door to space travel open right in front of us, and AI may come up with some truly wonderous things for us, cures for diseases, extension of the human lifespan, how to fix our environmental woes, food production, etc. In short, we are right at the beginning of things having the potential to really get better as far as the human condition. We may have a box that you ask questions to, and it will come up with answers it previously took generations to reach. Does anyone truly realize how that could change the world? But here we are arguing and fighting and squabbling about idiotic things like skin color. When the entire human race has the potential to be lifted out of the darkness in just a few years. It would be a shame if we drop the ball on this over our petty differences.