Philosophy Discussion Forums

Sy Borg wrote: ↑October 5th, 2024, 1:37 pm

Even so, I'd rather that there is a place where complaints - whatever complaints - can be freely aired like X than for such an arena to be banned or put under government control.

I am aware of where you stand on Gaza. My point was that during the Iraq War the American public was in ignorant bliss about the war due to the government biased media. Not the case with re. to Gaza.
As far as Twitter, the content changed dramatically after Musk took over. He is clearly showing his right wing bias which isn't good.

Mo_reese wrote: ↑October 5th, 2024, 7:30 pm

Sy Borg wrote: ↑October 5th, 2024, 1:37 pm

Even so, I'd rather that there is a place where complaints - whatever complaints - can be freely aired like X than for such an arena to be banned or put under government control.

I am aware of where you stand on Gaza. My point was that during the Iraq War the American public was in ignorant bliss about the war due to the government biased media. Not the case with re. to Gaza.
As far as Twitter, the content changed dramatically after Musk took over. He is clearly showing his right wing bias which isn't good.

I find X is simply a forum of complaint because people are allowed to gripe about everything that bugs them, while other forums are more curated. Try searching for any kind of -ism on X - both left and right wing - and I guarantee you'll find posts of complaint. It's a Town Square full of people getting stuff off their chests because they are not allowed to do so anyhere else.

It's good that people have a place where they can be heard. Then the ideas go through a kind of natural selection. The biggest issue is that most posts on X are painfully dumb and uninformed. Thus, lots of misinformation is embedded amongst actual information, with little quality control. Good material is akin to pearls in a bucket of sand. Then again, that's true of all media.

So, there is a place where the grumpy can get their angst out of their systems, while active users (who don't just follow what the algorithm serves up) can find plenty of good material not to be found elsewhere.

Given that governments and media are the biggest suppliers of misinformation, their attempt to become the arbiters of what construes "misinformation" is outrageously corrupt and hypocritical.

Misinformation is not the problem, citizen gullibility/stupidity is the problem. Alas, you cannot successfully outlaw stupidity. Censorship of misinformation just feeds the Big Brother conspiracy theories that the segment of the audience simpleminded enough to believe the misinformation in the first place are likely to also believe. All you can do is Fact Check the misinformation.

However, there is another, larger issue than folks believing misinformation. Namely in this, the Post Truth era, many decide on their conclusion first (that fits their worldview) then go in search of information that supports this conclusion (while ignoring data that contracdicts it). Thus there is a ready-made audience for the misinformation, specifically those who want to find "data" to support their worldview.

True. We cannot be forced to want to think clearly and check facts. Confirmation bias is more passive, easier, especially in this era of oxymoronic "alternative truth".