A thread for updates on the various ways the internet is destroying everything and the undying hellsites of social media. Let's all laugh at the abyss.
What was the comment ? The link only took me to the video
This was a lot funnier before a solid 30% of the American populace began thinking the second half is entirely accurate.
So pretty accurate except the 30% is apparently low. Thanks for clarifying
Italian Mob Fugitive Caught In Caribbean After Posting Cooking Videos Online
An Italian organized crime suspect was caught in the Caribbean after police tracked him down through cooking videos he had uploaded online in which he managed to hide his face but not his distinctive tattoos.
Marc Feren Claude Biart had been wanted on drug trafficking charges since 2014 and was located by authorities who recognized his tattoos on video, the International Criminal Police Organization, Interpol, said. They believe he is a member of the 'Ndrangheta, a powerful and brutal crime syndicate that originated in the southern region of Calabria and has expanded worldwide.
Biart, 53, had been living in the Dominican Republic town of Boca Chica for five years, where he kept a low profile and posted cooking videos to a YouTube channel started with his wife, Italian authorities said in a statement reported by NBC News. They said his "love for Italian cuisine" made the arrest possible.
Police said Biart, who is accused of trafficking cocaine into the Netherlands, had been wanted since 2014. He was arrested last Wednesday and arrived in Italy this week, as seen in a video posted to Twitter by Interpol.
The 'Ndrangheta is described by Interpol as "one of the most extensive and powerful criminal organizations in the world," and it "is considered the only Italian mafia organization present on every world continent."
This is the hardest I've laughed in weeks.
Looking forwards to checking out the "Best Racism Slider Set?" thread on Operation Sports.
Just going to ctrl+c, ctrl+p something I said about it in a slack chat.
Allowing for a range perpetuates the idea that a little bit of human evil is okay in moderation and validates unacceptable behavior by its mere existence. Cringed my way through the vid. From the pan of the menu options it reads like someone who has heard of the thing without really experiencing the thing. Most troll-y micro and macro agressions aren't so overt that they would be easy for voice recognition software to pick up on. This is a dummy "solution" to a complex problem that it won't solve.
In an attempt to not throw the baby out with the bathwater, is there some goodness in there to celebrate? For instance, if I could have racial and homophobic slurs blanked out of voice chat, I'd take that in a heartbeat.
Like, I entirely agree with Meeb's criticism, but it feels to me like there's a good idea buried under a stupid implementation.
So. That thing that has always existed on the internet where people make additional accounts to "report" and to "like", to silence and to demoralize, that and those they care not for. Which works. Sadly. The Dissident documentary just smashed home an inevitable conclusion which I'd thought was perhaps my paranoia. Monarchies. Governments. The powerful. Attempting to elevate and plummet to shape what trends and what tanks. To influence the populace. Progressing to dissenters literally disappearing. F#©k!
I long for the days when it was just saddos on message boards.
Is this a good place were to post the Lindsay Ellis video?
Prederick wrote:Is this a good place were to post the Lindsay Ellis video?
I’d say yes. I like Twitter. It’s exposed me to a lot of academic types I would not normally be exposed to. There is a definite thing where some people read in bad faith and take the most horrible interpretation of what was said.
Unfortunately a lot of people don’t have blogs. I wish everyone I follow on Twitter had a blog and I would RSS their blog. I want to hear what they’re working on and what they are thinking. There is almost 0% (but not 0%) value in me seeing the replies (I.e the comments).
Wow, sounds like she went down the crazy hole. That sounds like an absolutely innocuous beginning, someone saying that they heard a nonexistent 'roasted chicken' in song lyrics. You're not linking to the original context, so I have to imagine the whole thing, but it sounds like it was intended as 'hah hah, my stupid brain is doing funny things, check it out', i.e. lighthearted and harmless. This would be particularly true if others could listen to the song and hear the same thing. (consider the various threads in the past about misunderstanding the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner, for instance. I've seen some hilarious interpretations, although I can't think of any now.)
Going straight from an admittedly misheard "roasted chicken" to racism is really looking for a reason to be offended, IMO.
The super progressive arm of liberalism is just making up rules, willy-nilly, and expecting other people to abide by them, and the outrage when they don't gets more shrill by the day. But then, on the other hand, you have actual marching Nazis in the street and insurrectionists storming the capital. Things are broken on both ends, but at least this woman is trying to do the right thing, even if she's missing the mark by some distance.
edit: I remember the "blacks love fried chicken" thing from when I was young, and it was dark and nasty imagery, at the heart of racism. It was one of the most loaded and scornful images I can remember. (and stupid, because as you point out, almost everyone loves the stuff. I sure as hell do, and I've eaten far more than I could ever remember.) People overreacting to that image is to be expected if that gets pulled out again today... but this lady's pattern sensor went badly awry. She was just vaguely reminded of that extremely racist image, and went off sideways.
FWIW, I really like her; her way of thinking and how she constructs her arguments.
I was googling her the other day because I remembered she used to be part of the Nostalgia video channel, and I learned about this cancellation two days before she posted this video.
Warning, it gets into very deep, personal issues.
Facebook gonna Facebook.
Further evidence that youtube is the worst:
I work at a call center remote from my apartment. I can get 4 calls in 15 minutes and no calls for 30 or 40 minutes. That is just the way it is. I've tried to stay away from non productive sites but the environment is totally locked down from a schedule standpoint. So I am stuck at my desk staring at the screen.
I gave in a few days ago and fired up youtube but I am not logged in as I am avoiding logging in to personal accounts on a work computer. How long do you think it took for my suggestions to be riddled with anti-woman, anti-liberal, pro fascist, and pro libertarian videos? It has been 2 days and it is only getting worse because as a guest, I can't tell youtube to not recommend these channels or to block or report them. Of course I can mark add to queue...
It is so disgusting. Yet facebook and twitter are much more high profile. I guess at least for now, there is no way to mass share videos so the misinformation spread is somewhat limited. Unfortunately I'd wager it is much more convincing than a couple sentence tweet.
My pet conspiracy theory on the matter is that they're happy to let it become/stay horrible on purpose so you're more likely to log in and create profiles they can track and monetize.
Conservative internet media just has an ecosystem that liberals, progressives, and leftists haven’t really been able to build. You have big names like Ben Shapiro, Stephen Crowder, Charlie Kirk, etc, who are given virtually unlimited funding by aging oligarchs to cheerlead for their interests, and their audiences feed hundreds of smaller and more radical independent creators through donations, superchats, and fundraising. It’s a meme among left-leaning creators on youtube that they are tempted to start creating conservative content because of all the free money people will throw at them.
A large part of it is how (to me) conservatives and liberals have a viewpoint on things.
Conservatives are glad to work with people they find distasteful so long as it advances some particular viewpoint they like. They tend, (to my viewpoint) to be much more focused on one or two particular points of policy, and don't really give a crap about others.
Liberals, OTOH, are much more likely to sacrifice good because it isn't perfect. They will happily tear down someone who does not 100% fit their ideal candidate, to the point of sabotaging any hope of any liberal policies being advanced.
Conservative media plays into that mindset perfectly. It will pull you in and then let you wander around until you find the figure(s) that matches your interests. Liberal media, OTOH, will tell you "if you do not agree 100% with what I say, get out, you are not a true liberal." (Note that I am not talking about CNN or MSNBC media, I am more talking about the liberal talking heads you will see on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc)
Conservative internet media just has an ecosystem that liberals, progressives, and leftists haven’t really been able to build. You have big names like Ben Shapiro, Stephen Crowder, Charlie Kirk, etc, who are given virtually unlimited funding by aging oligarchs to cheerlead for their interests, and their audiences feed hundreds of smaller and more radical independent creators through donations, superchats, and fundraising. It’s a meme among left-leaning creators on youtube that they are tempted to start creating conservative content because of all the free money people will throw at them.
And that's a very, very good thing because the last thing the Democratic Party needs is to become a party that's driven entirely by what political commentators say.
There was a day when the GOP told Fox News what the conservative talking points of the day were and Fox eagerly complied. Now, however, the GOP is being led by those conservative commentators.
Those conservative commentators determine what Republican policy is or isn't. They determine who's adequately following the party line (which is their line) and who needs to be cast out. They are literal king makers whose blessings can turn an empty suit into viable national political figure overnight.
My pet theory is this is also why Republicans really can't really govern anymore and only seem to exist to oppose anything Democrats do. Conservative commentators know there are easy levers they can pull to motivate their followers: racism, immigration, big government, etc. And conservative politicians respond in predictable manners.
It's why there's bills now screaming against the 1619 Project being used in schools. Or why Republicans are doing performance security theater on the border. Or why they're losing their minds that Americans are getting an extra couple hundred bucks in UI benefits after they made sure a handful of rich people got $1.5 trillion or that the corporate tax rate might go back up to where it had been for decades.
On these handful of issues conservative politicians know how political commentators expect them to behave and they comply. On anything else it's a crapshoot. So why would a conservative politician risk developing policy on their own that Hannity might poo-poo (and that might get them kicked from their seat of power)?
It's why we've all been waiting 12 years for Republicans to release their better and cheaper version of Obamacare.
And that's a very, very good thing because the last thing the Democratic Party needs is to become a party that's driven entirely by what political commentators say.
Eh, it would likely result in policies closer to the “will of the people” than the out of touch gerontocracy we currently have.
OG_slinger wrote:And that's a very, very good thing because the last thing the Democratic Party needs is to become a party that's driven entirely by what political commentators say.
Eh, it would likely result in policies closer to the “will of the people” than the out of touch gerontocracy we currently have.
You say that like it's a good thing.
The current state of the GOP is entirely down to "will of the people....who have swallowed wholesale the lies of the bullsh*t-industrial complex that's set up to exchange those people's money and attention for fictional information."
ruhk wrote:OG_slinger wrote:And that's a very, very good thing because the last thing the Democratic Party needs is to become a party that's driven entirely by what political commentators say.
Eh, it would likely result in policies closer to the “will of the people” than the out of touch gerontocracy we currently have.
You say that like it's a good thing.
The current state of the GOP is entirely down to "will of the people....who have swallowed wholesale the lies of the bullsh*t-industrial complex that's set up to exchange those people's money and attention for fictional information."
…and that relationship is uniquely Republican because it was engineered to work that way and Republican policies require a certain amount of delusion to sell- unless you think oil billionaires and hedge fund managers would start paying people millions to advocate for policies that would raise their taxes, restrict their influence, and regulate their power?
Jonman wrote:ruhk wrote:OG_slinger wrote:And that's a very, very good thing because the last thing the Democratic Party needs is to become a party that's driven entirely by what political commentators say.
Eh, it would likely result in policies closer to the “will of the people” than the out of touch gerontocracy we currently have.
You say that like it's a good thing.
The current state of the GOP is entirely down to "will of the people....who have swallowed wholesale the lies of the bullsh*t-industrial complex that's set up to exchange those people's money and attention for fictional information."
…and that relationship is uniquely Republican because it was engineered to work that way- unless you think oil billionaires and hedge fund managers would start paying people millions to advocate for policies that would raise their taxes, restrict their influence, and regulate their power?
You say that like there aren't heavily-monied interests on the left.
Not in the same way or at the same level, and those interests don’t mesh as well with the Democratic platform. We’ve never had anything on the level of something like the Koch Bros, people who have literally spent decades and billions of dollars helping create the current conservative ecosystem. This disparity is what drives the current state of politics, it’s not a result of it.
OG_slinger wrote:And that's a very, very good thing because the last thing the Democratic Party needs is to become a party that's driven entirely by what political commentators say.
Eh, it would likely result in policies closer to the “will of the people” than the out of touch gerontocracy we currently have.
Doesn’t that assume that said commentators are less out of touch with us common folk?
Pages