@desbearado My friend showed me this video once and it terrified me, when I look at through the lens of what I went through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhCzX0iLnOc

@The757Progressive My view is from my own perspective.

I didn't fall into the hole because I was a true believer.

I don't believe my family are true believers either.

I was a believer who didn't have anything else to believe. My beliefs were made up for me, and I embraced them because I saw nothing else.

That is the danger I see.

@desbearado Human problems are made worse when soulless machines are compounding and reinforcing those problems.

@desbearado Yes.

But like I responded to the last message, the algorithm compounds this problem a thousand fold by increasing content that agrees with you and making content you don't invisible.

@The757Progressive
Yes, but a lot of that sharing is curated by the algorithms. It directs those shares to people are more likely to engage with those shares.

It compounds the narrative problem a thousand fold. It enforces the bubble of "you will see nothing else".

@desbearado I think, or I believe, that this is what looks like happens. But I also think the media is being manipulated by the same algorithms. It tells people what they want to see, reinforces that, which in turns tells media "this is what people want to see".

Every plays their part in the algorithm.

Sorry about all the typos in my last rant.

I had a long day, and I'm tired. 😂

If you want to save the world, stop the division, stopping the grifters won't stop it.

You have to go after the corporations. Meta. Google. Apple. All of them, make these algorithms illegal. Ban them. Stop them.

The evil isn't coming from the other side, it's coming from where you are not looking.

The question is, what do we do about it? How do we explain it to people like my parents who are barely capable of using Facebook and email?

What do we do about it?

7/7

There are certainly people who are taking advantage of the hatred, the division, and the strife. Like Fox News, Ben Shapiro, etc.

But the real villain, the real enemy, are the algorithms designed to take advantage of you, to use you, to discard you, to do what it is told to do without consequence of what the actions are.

To engage you. To manipulation your emotions. To bring you content that keeps you hating...... because hate drives clicks, hate makes you watch.

6/x

And by this time, it's okay to throw hatred at the other people.

Because the other people are doing horrible wretched things that everything around you, from every source, tells you is true.

It will split you from friends, from family, from everybody who doesn't think like you do.

And the scariest part of all this, it isn't even human controlled or directed. It's an algorithm doing what it does, given one task, to get more clicks and engage people. It doesn't care. It doesn't know.

5/x

By the time other people begin to confront you for what you've been conditioned to belief, you are shocked that they would be against all of this stuff that, in your world, is everything.

It makes you angry. It makes them angry.

You get pulled deeper into the brainwash. Sure, there's some bad things happening, but what's happening "on the other side" is far worse. So, it doesn't matter.

The algorithm makes your reality.

4/x

"Use Google! Look up the facts!"

Okay, sure. But all these systems are connected, Google has you too. When you do a Google search it knows what you have been looking at and it just reinforces what you are beginning to believe.

You don't get the other story any more.

All of your information is derived from the algorithm telling you what the algorithm thinks you want to read, see, hear, etc.

It slow cooks your brain into a world of belief and you don't know it's happening.
3/x

The story isn't something you would think outrageous. It tells you something a little unbelievable, so you just brush it off as something whacky.

Because you clicked on it, the algorithm has its foot in the door. It sends you another which reinforces the first. Again, it seems whacky, and you mostly ignore it. But you don't realize you've reinforced the algorithm. It goes from a scatter story and slowly becomes a barrage of "sources" from every direction, all saying the same thing. 2/x

I was a victim of propaganda.

#politics

My family still are.

It's easy to say, "You could have looked up the facts!" or that "You made a choice!"

But here is actually what happens.

You're an every day, kind, loving citizen who would do anything for your neighbors. You don't go out of your way to hate people, and you're mostly living your life, and not online often or connected a lot.

Then, one day a family member or close friend shares a story with you. 1/x

@DavidSalo My parents cannot be told that it was violent. You can show them all the news, all the video, all the evidence you want that it wasn't just a protest. They won't believe it. They'll say it's a narrative. It was just bad people in a good crowd just trying to save America.

It is really hard to get through the propaganda. For the person trying to reach out and the person on the inside who isn't listening to anything else.

@p_terg The people have spoken. 😂

Sometimes, I Stagger.

#CoSoMusic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp5A8awHfas

@Tattoomonkey29 It's hard, but it is what it is. Sadly.

@desbearado Thank you! I appreciate that! And I am here too! It's a two way road.

@ImagineThat Have you ever reached the end of a story and stayed awake?