Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Second rate reporter says what?

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Our messy unity will be our strength.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Decision time: keep arguing about the last election, or try to win the next one?

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

T R E 4 5 O N

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Virus of the Mind

Virus of the Mind

by | 56 Comments

This post is in: 

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1417130268859772929

I would like to believe that Biden calling out social media for killing people on Friday might move social media sites to do some little thing to remove anti-vaxx content, but I’ll frankly be surprised if they do anything beyond their current anemic efforts. Their fundamental business model is getting stupid people to stay glued to their sites, and removing anti-vaxx content would mean fewer stupid folks clicking fewer times, so it’s a non-starter.

Reader Interactions

56Comments

  2. 2.

    Emma from Miami

    I’m not in any social media but I can testify to the fact that the YouTube algorithm is seriously geared towards clickbait. And that it’s mostly an octopus — about half the results for my searches are reached by throwing long arms in every direction and grabbing.

  3. 3.

    Urza

    Not sure if its an intentional reference, but the book Virus of the Mind which was written in the mid 90s is still quite relevant for how memes propagate as basically living viruses in our brain, and did since at least the invention of language.  And how certain memes, such as religion and conservatism, create self defense mechanisms that make it harder to delete them from the mental space.

  4. 4.

    cmorenc

    Their fundamental business model is getting stupid people to stay glued to their sites, and removing anti-vaxx content would mean fewer stupid folks clicking fewer times, so it’s a non-starter.

    Another effect of doing so that would also threaten their business model is creating a void for even more sociopathic social interaction sites to comlpete for and drain away the stupid folks that are a main profitable revenue source for Facebook.

  6. 6.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    You Tube algorithm created the Flat Earth movement the very same way Dale is describing; anytime you watched a video on science , flat earther videos would fill your recommendation list.  When You Tube cut flath earth out of the algorithm it killed that as a movement.

  7. 7.

    germy

    One thing about the youtube algorithm, it’s never led me to any socialist, progressive sites.  Every recommendation is for right wing content.

  9. 9.

    MattF

    Greg Sargent has a good column on how Trump and Republicans are associating antivaxx conspiracies with political conspiracies.

  10. 10.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @cmorenc: With You Tube is more a sin of neglect; the real money on You Tube is in Make Up and Un-Boxing videos. Conspiracy videos have to small watch numbers for You Tube to be bothered with moderating so You Tube just ignores it and lets the conspiracy theories run amok.  And that’s the thing to keep in mind; You Tube can’t be bothered so if there is enough pressure put on You Tube they will pull the plug without blinking.

  11. 11.

    lowtechcyclist

    Dems should introduce a bill stating that, with respect to Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution, the Covid-19 virus is an enemy that we are at war with, that getting Americans vaccinated is a major front in that war, and that media sources who either knowingly disseminate false information about the Covid vaccines, or do so failing to have done an appropriate level of due diligence in verifying its accuracy, are giving aid to the enemy, in the meaning of Article III, Section 3.

    In other words, such media sources would be committing treason if this bill became law.

  12. 12.

    germy

    Now and then I visit a site devoted to comic books and comic book movies.  The discussion forum contains more than a few extremely conservative people.  They’d slip in comments supportive of trump, for example, or they’d rage every time a Black actor was cast in a role previously reserved for a non-Black.

    One day I saw this reader comment, and I feel like he revealed more about himself and his sources than he knew:

    As i said I’m not versed in it all that well personally but i seen a really in depth video on youtube that broke down the American economy and the political agenda behind it. It was really interesting. If i can find it in my history I’ll link it here, that’s if youtube hasn’t pulled it, which happens to a lot of the types of videos i watch.

    This is a young person, because he often mentions seeing superhero movies from the 1990s when he was a child.  But he’s forming his opinions from random online videos that get pulled for… reasons.

  13. 13.

    MattF

    So, seriously, ignore all algorithmic recommendations. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon,… all of them.

    ETA: For some reason, my Facebook recommendations tend to be videos of partially undressed women.

  15. 15.

    Spanky

    @Baud: Transferred to what? I asked myself. Following the link …

    Abdul Latif Nasir was repatriated to his native country of Morocco on Monday morning, according to the Pentagon, after the Periodic Review Board process determined in 2016 that his detention at Guantanamo Bay “no longer remained necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat” to U.S. national security.

  17. 17.

    Bill Arnold

    @MattF:
    Also, consider using tracker blocker add-ons/plugins, and making sure the the base browser tracker protections are turned on.
    If recommendations are regularly appearing that are even vaguely related to your internet traffic history, your tracker blocking is definitely not good enough.

  19. 19.

    opiejeanne

    @MattF: Twitter has gotten a lot better in the past six months, and their algorithms never suggest I follow any RWer, even though I sometimes check the profile page of people who are RW.

    Facebook, otoh, suggests all kinds of “friends” for me to follow, including the HS bully that I blocked in 2016. I usually ignore them, or snort with laughter when I see who they are recommending

  20. 20.

    Cacti

    Republicans largely reject the theory of natural selection.

    While their current behavior towards the vaccine might be the single greatest real time example of it in human history.

    Oh the irony.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Thankfully, Obama wasn’t shot dead while in office, and hopefully, Biden’s term ends better than LBJ’s, or Raven 2075 will be saying Fuck Biden on Balloon Juice 2.0.

  23. 23.

    Spanky

    @Baud:  As well as four years of the lives of other detainees who would have been repatriated under Clinton’s Defense Department.

  24. 24.

    Cacti

    @Baud: Glad to see it.

    Our tut tutting of other countries’ human rights records kind of rings hollow when we’re still operating an extra-territorial torture prison.

  25. 25.

    Anonymous At Work

    YouTube’s algorithm is better than Google’s “Search + Ads” method.  I use Google Search for work (medical research), so I am pretty sure that “Alphabet Inc” thinks I am a 90 year old with leaks from everywhere, pain everywhere, skin like an iguana, and some very unhealthy psychological issues.

  27. 27.

    different-church-lady

    They do not care if people die. They are sociopaths. Sociopathy and manipulation are at the core of social media.

  28. 28.

    evap

    But if the stupid people die from COVID, doesn’t that impact the business models?

    Meanwhile, there is a discussion on a faculty list serve about requiring vaccinations for all faculty at the university where I work. Currently, the admin is just “strongly suggesting” vaccination for all employees; those who don’t get vaccinated must get a COVID test once a week. You’d think it’d be a no-brainer to require vaccinations, but a faculty member posted some mis-information about vaccines in the discussion thread. Of course, the “facts” and statistics were shot down by other faculty members, but it’s a good reminder about how this stuff can work on even educated people.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @Anonymous At Work:

    I use Google Search for work (medical research), so I am pretty sure that “Alphabet Inc” thinks I am a 90 year old with leaks from everywhere, pain everywhere, skin like an iguana, and some very unhealthy psychological issues.

    Commenting on Balloon Juice probably cements Alphabet’s view.

  32. 32.

    Austin Bailey

    These social media companies are following in the great tradition of American industries. The have found a way to perfect the model pioneered by the tobacco and petrochemical companies. First, they claim their product does no harm. When that justification doesn’t work, they fall back on “buyer beware” arguments, claiming no ownership over the damage they are doing. At least the other industries had to pay for market/consumer surveys and advertising, not to mention big bucks for political cover – social media companies get all that for free. Social media companies are using our own voluntarily provided information to destroy our country.

  33. 33.

    sdhays

    @schrodingers_cat: I think that’s pretty insulting to Obama. JFK was a pretty middling President, at best. A lot of hype without much substance.

    Congress stopped Obama from closing Guantanamo outright, but the Obama administration worked through the processes available to get people out of there, reducing the number from 245 to 41, so that now the end is in sight. Dump is a monster and was happy to keep it open. Biden is just finishing the job; if HRC had been elected in 2016, she would have finished it years ago.

  34. 34.

    different-church-lady

    I see a lot of you talking about the YouTube algorithm as though its based purely on users’ behavior. But I would suspect a huge amount is influenced by paid advertisers. There’s absolutely nothing in my YouTube history that would lead me to content from the Epoch Times, but that shit got barfed up onto my screen on a regular basis during the Trump Error.

  35. 35.

    different-church-lady

    @Austin Bailey:

    The have found a way to perfect the model pioneered by the tobacco and petrochemical companies.

    I’ve said for years Facebook is cigarettes for the mind.

    social media companies get all that for free.

    Orwell probably never figured we’d volunteer to build the Ministry of Truth for ourselves.

  37. 37.

    different-church-lady

    I can hardly wait for the “HOW ELSE CAN I STAY IN TOUCH WITH MY GRANDKIDS?!?” crowd to start berating us.

  38. 38.

    schrodingers_cat

    @sdhays: Well no disrespect was intended, and I do agree that Obama was a better President than JFK (he got 8 years instead of JFk’s 3)

    Obama like JFK represented promise, it is an analogy for crying out loud.

  39. 39.

    RSA

    @MattF: So, seriously, ignore all algorithmic recommendations. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon,… all of them.

    For most people, I think this translates into not using Facebook at all.  (Still good advice, though.)  I believe Facebook has removed the persistent “show posts in chronological order” setting for newsfeeds, in favor of their prioritization by popularity (and whatever other secret sauce they want to include).

  40. 40.

    M31

    @different-church-lady: Orwell probably never figured we’d volunteer to build the Ministry of Truth for ourselves.

    that’s why in lots of ways Huxley’s Brave New World was more ‘realistic’ than 1984 (yeah yeah realism or prediction were never the goal but still)

  42. 42.

    schrodingers_cat

    @MattF: Not only do I reject the YouTube recommendations I report the videos suggested as spam.

    Background:

    Everyone talks about FB but YouTube is just as insidious. Whenever I watch any music videos from India, YT always suggests regime friendly propaganda videos.

  43. 43.

    RaflW

    A friendquaintance on FB who is ostensibly left wing was banging on about how the Biden Admin being mad at social media sites for boosting anti-vax stuff was ‘textbook authoritarianism.’

    I pushed back once, which garnered three reply comments, the last of which quoted Glem Gormworld (or similar). I found myself wishing for a “mute this friend for 30 days” button.

  46. 46.

    bluefoot

    @germy: ain’t that the truth. If I watch a video explaining the jet stream, I don’t get suggestions for science, I get suggestions for anti-climate change content.  It’s true for everything I look at -that algorithms all lead toward RWNJ content, not the other way.

  47. 47.

    TinRoofRusted

    @Spanky: Radiolab did a whole podcast series on him called The Other Latif.   He was set to be released until Trump was elected and has a large family in Morocco who have been fighting for his release for years. Was he a total saint?  No. But he did not warrant being sent to Guantanamo in my opinion. Anyway I highly recommend it if podcasts interest you.

  49. 49.

    Matt McIrvin

    You can tame the YouTube algorithm somewhat by being really aggressive about explicitly rejecting everything you don’t like. That’s how I got it to mostly stop sending me right-wing poop.

    My Facebook activity is mostly friends-only posts and some group stuff. The Washington Post also knows I’m a subscriber. I’ve noticed that whenever I comment publicly on the link to one of their articles, I get a torrent of garbage in response–obvious grifters trying to friend me and leaving banal “hi sailor” comments on my few public posts until I block them, mostly. Basically, don’t do anything completely public there.

  50. 50.

    karen marie

    @MattF:  I don’t know what you’re watching that the algorithm skews that way for you but I only get food videos and the comedians I like.

  51. 51.

    patroclus

    Even in less than 3 years, JFK was a good President with significant accomplishments.  The atmospheric test ban treaty; the ICC rules prohibiting discrimination in interstate commerce in the wake of Boynton v. Virginia and the Freedom Rides which set the table for the Civil Rights Act, which his administration drafted and introduced after the murder of Medgar Evers, the desegregation of the Coast Guard, the withdrawal of offensive nuclear weapons from Cuba in the Missile Crisis, the enlargement of the Rules Committee which made the Civil Rights Act possible and weakened Howard Smith’s stranglehold, the tax cut and a booming economy, the vast expansion of the number of federal judges, many of which later made significant civil rights rulings, the initial prosecutions of voting rights violations which laid the groundwork for the Voting Rights Act, 2 significant SCOTUS nominations , the implementation of the expanded visa programs for foreign students which brought Obama’s Dad to Hawaii, the Peace Corps and a lot more.  JFK certainly ranks in the top half of POTUS’s alltime.

  53. 53.

    Roger Moore

    @different-church-lady:

    I wonder how much getting the premium version (which is normally ad free) helps with getting better recommendations.  I seem to have managed to avoid the worst of the YouTube recommendation stuff.  The worst thing it recommends to me is stuff that wastes my time by being interesting.

  54. 54.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Roger Moore: It depends on the topic with You Tube, I watch a lot of ancient history stuff and investiably fraking Ancient Astronauts or the Sumerians were lizard people from the planet Nibuh turns up.

  55. 55.

    Amir Khalid

    @patroclus:

    the implementation of the expanded visa programs for foreign students which brought Obama’s Dad to Hawaii

    ?? Barack Obama Sr was already in the US when JFK took office.

Comments are closed.