Page 1 of 27
1
2
3
11
... LastLast
  1. #1

    What happened to the internet?

    How did we get to where we are now? A world were there is a strong push towards real-id systems where it is getting harder and harder to just have fun.

    You want to banter in a video game? The company will stalk you on twitter and facebook and ban you like overwatch.
    You want to share a controversial opinion? In Germany they arrest you.
    You want to jerk off? Need a license for that in the UK.
    You commit "hate speech" a nebulous term no two people can agree on what exactly it means? Your bank cuts you off from your accounts...

    Just what the hell happened? Is this just a case of thousand cuts over a long period of time that no one really noticed? Is there anyway to reverse this trend especially since it seems major finical institutions seem to pull services from sights that allow things they find offensive.

    How did we get here and more importantly is there anyway to return the internet to its glory days?

  2. #2
    governments always seek to control new media to one extend after another after it becomes established.

    the PC stuff companies do is just something that comes and goes in waves, give it 10 years and it'll be the opposite again.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Has lost its way View Post
    How did we get to where we are now? A world were there is a strong push towards real-id systems where it is getting harder and harder to just have fun.

    You want to banter in a video game? The company will stalk you on twitter and facebook and ban you like overwatch.
    You want to share a controversial opinion? In Germany they arrest you.
    You want to jerk off? Need a license for that in the UK.
    You commit "hate speech" a nebulous term no two people can agree on what exactly it means? Your bank cuts you off from your accounts...

    Just what the hell happened? Is this just a case of thousand cuts over a long period of time that no one really noticed? Is there anyway to reverse this trend especially since it seems major finical institutions seem to pull services from sights that allow things they find offensive.

    How did we get here and more importantly is there anyway to return the internet to its glory days?
    The extreme left happened, that's what

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Connal View Post
    Authority shifted from the transcendental, (or Self), to ego driven, or state.

    Or to put it in another way: “A man can believe the universe is blind and life aimless and yet behave as nobly and as cheerfully as any saint.“

    Morality is now dictated by mass culture, or personal egoic/selfish whim.
    I don't really know if it is driven by mass culture but rather by gate keepers. Upstart sites that offer the same services without censorship do extremely well for a short period of time until banks and credit cards refuse to do business with them.

    Internet culture didn't want to change it was happy the way it was but it seems like the rest of the world can not tolerate a vacuum of power and seek to control it.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by zenkai View Post
    The extreme left happened, that's what
    I don't know if the extreme right is any better they just hate slightly different things from my perspective.

  5. #5
    Evil people + stupid people = taking away your free will in the name of preventing the .0001% chance you might do something to harm the stupid people (but in actuality it's to stop you from doing something that challenges the goals of the evil people).

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Has lost its way View Post
    I don't really know if it is driven by mass culture but rather by gate keepers. Upstart sites that offer the same services without censorship do extremely well for a short period of time until banks and credit cards refuse to do business with them.

    Internet culture didn't want to change it was happy the way it was but it seems like the rest of the world can not tolerate a vacuum of power and seek to control it.

    - - - Updated - - -



    I don't know if the extreme right is any better they just hate slightly different things from my perspective.
    They're not, they want to control what you watch and what video games you play as well, just a different flavor, but they're not the ones running the big tech giants.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Connal View Post
    Power brokers tend to drive the culture, right now the left has a bigger pull over culture than the right; of course that might change.
    It could but I don't really think the right hold any "better" views on the topic. I want what I had growing up. A wild west and a mask to wear. To be whoever I wanted and to do as I pleased.

    It baffles me how people can not be in someway wounded from the tragic lose of anonymity. It is and will always be one of the greatest treasures one can hold. To be nothing more then a voice... no race, no gender, no creed. Simply your ideas each tested by merit alone.

    I can not fathom how future generations will remember how we threw that away and think of us as anything but fools.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Connal View Post
    Authority shifted from the transcendental, (or Self), to ego driven, or state.

    Or to put it in another way: “A man can believe the universe is blind and life aimless and yet behave as nobly and as cheerfully as any saint.“

    Morality is now dictated by mass culture, or personal egoic/selfish whim.
    What? What exactly was the several hundreds of years of exceptionally strict religion then? All self imposed, with no outside masses enforcing it?

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Has lost its way View Post
    How did we get to where we are now? A world were there is a strong push towards real-id systems where it is getting harder and harder to just have fun.

    You want to banter in a video game? The company will stalk you on twitter and facebook and ban you like overwatch.
    You want to share a controversial opinion? In Germany they arrest you.
    You want to jerk off? Need a license for that in the UK.
    You commit "hate speech" a nebulous term no two people can agree on what exactly it means? Your bank cuts you off from your accounts...

    Just what the hell happened? Is this just a case of thousand cuts over a long period of time that no one really noticed? Is there anyway to reverse this trend especially since it seems major finical institutions seem to pull services from sights that allow things they find offensive.

    How did we get here and more importantly is there anyway to return the internet to its glory days?
    im not sure you could have fit more hyperbole and unwarranted panic in a single post.

  10. #10
    Stealthed Defender unbound's Avatar
    7+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    All that moves is easily heard in the void.
    Posts
    6,798
    Quote Originally Posted by Has lost its way View Post
    How did we get to where we are now? A world were there is a strong push towards real-id systems where it is getting harder and harder to just have fun.

    You want to banter in a video game? The company will stalk you on twitter and facebook and ban you like overwatch.
    You want to share a controversial opinion? In Germany they arrest you.
    You want to jerk off? Need a license for that in the UK.
    You commit "hate speech" a nebulous term no two people can agree on what exactly it means? Your bank cuts you off from your accounts...

    Just what the hell happened? Is this just a case of thousand cuts over a long period of time that no one really noticed? Is there anyway to reverse this trend especially since it seems major finical institutions seem to pull services from sights that allow things they find offensive.

    How did we get here and more importantly is there anyway to return the internet to its glory days?
    Well, to address the specifics:

    1) Company stalking you on twitter and facebook...is all about profit motive. Banning you on overwatch is always because you are detracting from that profit by directly attacking players on the game, or pushing hate etc to other platforms while prominently featuring the game. Your money isn't worth losing money from 100s to 1,000s of others.

    2) Germany arresting you for a controversial opinion...really? Hate speech isn't simply a "controversial opinion". Grow up.

    3) Needing a "license" to jerk off? Do you really think jerking off was invented only when the internet was developed? /doublefacepalm UK is trying to put something in place that was missing. It isn't largely different than requiring an ID when purchasing nuddie magazines.

    4) Hate speech is a nebulous term? Hahahahaha. Hate speech is speech that attacks a person or a group on the basis of attributes such as race, religion, ethnic origin, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. It is far from "nebulous", and agreed upon by virtually everyone except those pushing hate speech.

    What happened in general? A number of things. The internet became commercialized. People started acting toxic, and then started lying about their toxicity (many times lying to themselves as well as others). Simpletons became more enamored with hate because those simpletons love a world that is black and white, where they can blame "others" for their own failings...becoming the heroes in a world full of villains.

    Simply stated, this is why we can't have nice things.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Connal View Post
    No, and that was not right either. As we saw...
    Ah, I misunderstood that then, my apologies.

  12. #12
    People that usually wouldn't have found each other and were other wise left to be crazy and isolate alone all found each other on the internet and created bat shit crazy echo chambers that evolved into actual problems being created out in the world because they all felt empowered in numbers to do so. So now you have these insane alt-right groups and radical leftists setting the foundation of horrible things to come in the world because everything in their world is governed by absolutes and the most important absolute is "they are always right". Then these people end upon at best "ruining Star Wars with SWJ shit" or at worst machine gunning down gays in a night bar all in the name of a senseless culture war that doesn't and wouldn't be fought 9 times out of 10 if they couldn't hide behind invisible masks on the internet. Sadly people only act civil when suddenly they can lose thier job for praising the murder of kids in a school to meet their politcal ends. It sucks, but it is how its going to go. People have shown that without real life punishment for words and action that they will always sink to the lowest level. Period.

    I wish it wouldn't have had to come to this. But I see it only getting MUCH worse.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Connal View Post
    I don’t agree with either use of force; it only works when understood, and taken on willfully. Forcing people and being dogmatic zealots tends to be a repeating theme, no matter the group.
    I'd somewhat say the same in regards to the opposite that we are discussing here. This abandonment of any cohesion, however authoritative, tends to not have particularly good outcomes either; not that the examples are particularly overwhelming.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Connal View Post
    Agreed... it will be interesting seeing what happens as we move on.
    Probably revert, to which we can then once again fight that fight for freedom. It seems cyclical, and might just be our very nature.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Low Hanging Fruit View Post
    People that usually wouldn't have found each other and were other wise left to be crazy and isolate alone all found each other on the internet and created bat shit crazy echo chambers that evolved into actual problems being created out in the world because they all felt empowered in numbers to do so. So now you have these insane alt-right groups and radical leftists setting the foundation of horrible things to come in the world because everything in their world is governed by absolutes and the most important absolute is "they are always right". Then these people end upon at best "ruining Star Wars with SWJ shit" or at worst machine gunning down gays in a night bar all in the name of a senseless culture war that doesn't and wouldn't be fought 9 times out of 10 if they couldn't hide behind invisible masks on the internet. Sadly people only act civil when suddenly they can lose thier job for praising the murder of kids in a school to meet their politcal ends. It sucks, but it is how its going to go. People have shown that without real life punishment for words and action that they will always sink to the lowest level. Period.

    I wish it wouldn't have had to come to this. But I see it only getting MUCH worse.
    I don't really think censorship helps that in anyway but rather fuels it. the culture war as you put it is more a result of the neck break speed that it has moved looking back a decade it is night in day by what was the norm.

    I believe that the freedom we used to have is worth more then any false sense of security we have gained by discarding it.

  16. #16
    Old God Mistame's Avatar
    7+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Over Yonder
    Posts
    10,111
    Quote Originally Posted by Has lost its way View Post
    You want to banter in a video game? The company will stalk you on twitter and facebook and ban you like overwatch.
    Don't break their ToS.

    Quote Originally Posted by Has lost its way View Post
    You want to share a controversial opinion? In Germany they arrest you.
    Don't go to Germany.

    Quote Originally Posted by Has lost its way View Post
    You want to jerk off? Need a license for that in the UK.
    What? Is this a reference to the "porn ID" nonsense? You don't need porn to jerk off. Try again.

    Quote Originally Posted by Has lost its way View Post
    You commit "hate speech" a nebulous term no two people can agree on what exactly it means? Your bank cuts you off from your accounts...
    Eh?

    Quote Originally Posted by unbound View Post
    4) Hate speech is a nebulous term? Hahahahaha. Hate speech is speech that attacks a person or a group on the basis of attributes such as race, religion, ethnic origin, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. It is far from "nebulous", and agreed upon by virtually everyone except those pushing hate speech.
    There are varying definitions, especially in regards to legal consequences. And of course, like all the -isms, it gets misused fairly often.

  17. #17
    The Unstoppable Force PC2's Avatar
    7+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Feb 2015
    Location
    California
    Posts
    21,877
    Which platform uses real ID or releases private data? I haven't come across one. It would cause liability issues for the big platforms and be a barrier to entry.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Mistame View Post
    Don't break their ToS.



    Don't go to Germany.



    What? Is this a reference to the "porn ID" nonsense? You don't need porn to jerk off. Try again.



    Eh?



    There are varying definitions, especially in regards to legal consequences. And of course, like all the -isms, it gets misused fairly often.
    I don't have the faith you do in governmental bodies as well as commercial ones... if I wanted to blindly trust something I would find a religion.

  19. #19
    The Unstoppable Force Lorgar Aurelian's Avatar
    7+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Land of moose and goose.
    Posts
    24,551
    Quote Originally Posted by zenkai View Post
    The extreme left happened, that's what
    I don’t quite get this, hasn’t it been the right who have been trying to limit things like porn/copy right laws and such?

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Connal View Post
    That is the pattern, yes; I’m hoping for a miracle that we break the pattern and actually learn but that’s probably too much positive thinking on my part... heh
    We are authoritative beasts, it is unlikely that we will really move past that. Which one could argue, might just be a positive, negating our very nature is evidently not going particularly well, at least in regards to our sanity and mental health

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •