In re: "Critics Say YouTube Hasn't Done Enough To Crack Down On Extremist Content": No, we are not comfortable with a paternalistic approach, and we shouldn't be. As John Stuart Mill explained a long time ago:"He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion... Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them... he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.” (On Liberty)Social media platforms must justify their oligopoly by acting in the public interest, and that means not censoring content that is legal. What they can do is help keep us out of the "filter bubble" by showing us things we're likely to disagree, as well as agree, with on the subjects that interest us. This doesn't and shouldn't mean targeting any particular content; rather, it means using both people's "likes" and "dislikes" in the algorithm that decides what to show them next.But we don't have to wait for the platforms to act. Any individual who wants to put in the time and energy can engage in their own freelance "cognitive infiltration" by finding people who may be getting dangerously "bubbled" and exposing them to contrary information.
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
NPR Promotes Internet Censorship Advocates
Posted by stripey7 at 3:45 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Review: Two Souls of Socialism
Two Souls Of Socialism by Hal Draper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is an interesting work in that it puts the idea of socialism in a much broader context than usual, tracing it back almost to the beginning of recorded history. It's thought-provoking to realize that some of the questions that have divided the modern socialist movement have much older antecedents.
My only complaint, as someone schooled in historical materialism, is that the contrast between socialism-from-above and socialism-from-below is almost too abstract; attempting a generalization across such a broad stretch of time seems to come at the expense of really situating the individual examples in their historical contexts.
View all my reviews
Posted by stripey7 at 4:06 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
I Am Now on Gab
I'll continue to also be on Facebook and Twitter for the foreseeable future.
https://www.gab.com/stripey7
Posted by stripey7 at 10:03 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, November 07, 2018
Gene Editing, Food Insecurity, Voter Disenfranchisement, and More!
The new issue of One Step Away, Philadelphia's street paper, has articles on all these topics as well as contributions by several of the vendors, including my piece "'Identitarian Realism,'" previously published here. If you're in the area, please buy a copy from your favorite vendor and check it out!
Posted by stripey7 at 7:29 PM 0 comments