2022 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Settle disputes with politeness.
Twits Own Twitter 0
Jason S. Sexton is skeptical that Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter will have beneficent effects. He remarks that
Follow the link for his reasoning.
Twits on Twitter, Dis Coarse Discourse Dept. 0
At AL.com, Cameron Smith argues that Twitter is not the “public square.” A snippet:
We have far more control over our social media world than the real one. We follow what interests us, tell platforms that we’re not inclined toward certain topics, and we’re even able to block or mute individual voices. All the while Twitter’s algorithm observes our interaction with the platform and feeds us content that it expects we’ll want to see.
I’ve been to plenty of public spaces discussing the issues of the day. None of them function like that.
He may be right. Twitter may be more like Speaker’s Corner (where I once listened to a man rant passionately that toilet paper is the root of all evil) than Plato’s school.
Nevertheless, as long as persons, both on and off Twitter, act like it is a place of legitimate discourse, his point is moot.
We are a society that has sacrificed its soul for clicks and likes.
Facts Are What People Think 0
David and a caller discuss why so many persons disdain scientific fact.
Aside:
I think the caller gets it right. The effects of global warming are near and will be dire.
And I think we are well past the tipping point.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Honest to Betsy, this is just mean for the sake of mean.
What’s the Opposite of Woke? Asleep 0
At the Idaho State Journal, Chris Huston skewers the duplicity and under-lying bigotry of Florida’s “anti-woke” law. Here’s a bit;
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
Aside:
Remember, when Section 230 was passed in the mid-1990s, “social” media was not a thing.
The great majority of web content was static websites, Usenet forums, and the like. Prodigy and Compuserve were big players, and AOL was on the way to being one. The provision was designed to protect web hosts, such as GoDaddy and Inmotion Hosting, and similar services from being held liable for material posted by users and, alternatively, users from censorship by the services.
There were no algorithms manipulating what you might see next.
I suggest that an argument can be made that, when “services” manipulate content with secretive algorithms so as to attract and keep eyeballs, their claims of being innocent providers of neutral platforms for posters can be questioned.
(Typo corrected.)
In the Tank 0
Steve Corbin argues persuasively that “think tanks” are tanking our polity. Here’s a bit of his piece:
Follow the link for his reasoning.
A Notion of Immigrants, Reprise 0
Sam and his crew discuss the Republicans’ weaponization of anti-immigrant bigotry.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Proceed politely on your passage to your point of destination.
Too Much Tech 0
Kathryn Haydon suggests that too much tech–more specificallys, too much internet and “social” media–is hazardous to our mental processes. Here’s a bit of how she describes the problem:
With alerts and apps and email and social media and calls and texts, we are subject to this type of mental whiplash day in and day out. A steady diet of lower-level thinking is hazardous to our thinking . . . .
Follow the link for her thoughts on how to keep “smart” stuff from dumbing us down.
Freedom of Screech 0
Murjani Rawls finds an irony in the right-wing’s celebration of Elon Musk’s promises to make Twitter a bastion of free speech screech.
More irony at the link.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
(The flags above the right-hand door are flags of South and Central American nations.)
QOTD 0
Harriet Beecher Stowe:
The obstinacy of cleverness and reason is nothing to the obstinacy of folly and inanity.