What happened to the internet?

[NED funded]

The people who are being denied platform bitch about being denied platform. "Imagine my shock".

Also, who are you to decide whom i am allowed to listen to?
People should have the right to block what they dont want to hear, not someone else deciding for them.

We are doing that. Racists are being blocked by a society that rejects them. You are free to post in an isolated corner.

[Demasiados]

Before the internet we heavily relied on scholars, people who actually knew their shit not people with Google PhDs.

These ignorant people use the wrong, incredible sources that they find on google (basically shit that's on page 2 and on in the search engine).

So are you saying page 1 are "right" sources? (Wikipedia is always like in first 3 lines)

These sources are Brietbart, Stormfront, etc. Rightwingers in general are much more paranoid and hostile so they are easier to manipulate. Liberals are easily swayed by facts that are interpreted in their favor.

Looks upside-down to me.
Paranoia makes you sceptical,confirmation bias makes you easily manipulated.

[NED funded]

Hiding parts of society has the opposite result than you want; namely giving power to the thing you push away.

So stupid.

Society rejects rape apologists and holocaust deniers. Do you think their talking points become more powerful because of it? No, you are just assumed to be an idiot or an asshole.

[PC2]

We are doing that. Racists are being blocked by a society that rejects them. You are free to post in an isolated corner.

Nah they aren't being blocked, otherwise people like Sarah Jeong would be kicked off social media.

[Demasiados]

We are doing that. Racists are being blocked by a society that rejects them. You are free to post in an isolated corner.

Well since society doesnt own these platforms its the people who propose themselves to speak for society who block them.

[bison91]

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?

I dont udnerstand why people suddenly become so naive... why you thought you live in liberal world? oh thats right... because media told you so... finally we grew up from that i gues.

[Weeps]

So are you saying page 1 are "right" sources? (Wikipedia is always like in first 3 lines)


Looks upside-down to me.
Paranoia makes you sceptical,confirmation bias makes you easily manipulated.

Page one usually has accurate sources. People who shit on Wiki are people I cannot take seriously. The only reason it cannot be sourced is because it is editable. However, you can simply (which teachers advocate) scroll down and check the sources used in the wiki article.

I must say you are wrong about your last thought. Republicans, in USA, have been scientifically proven to be more susceptible to manipulation. More specifically, ideological supporters (which are Republicans).

I know Republicans don't like hearing that but it is the reality of things.

[owbu]

Just general "society reacts to stuff happening", as far as I can tell. The internet in it's current form isnt really controlable by laws, which goverments hate.
But goverments couldnt really do much as long as the internet was mostly known to the public as "that place for kitten videos and porn".

Now that it's "that place where russia mindcontrolls (sorry) us into voting for Nazis and even worse ...Brexit", they have an easier time to sell people on upload filters and real IDs and so on.

[Endus]

Heaven forbid people take a little personal responsibility for their own poor, public, recorded conduct.

The Internet didn't "change". It just got integrated enough into our lives, and shared platforms became so ubiquitous, that when you behave like a complete shitstain on one of those platforms, everyone learns about it and responds accordingly.

It isn't that it's somehow "less okay to be a racist shithead", it's that before, you were being a racist shithead on Myspace and the only people who saw it were your immediate fellow-racist friends, and now, you're posting that stuff to Facebook and it's heavily public and your employer sees it because you've Friended them and fires you (with cause) for the ethical violation of company policy.

Take some damned personal responsibility for being a terrible person, rather than whining that everyone else has noticed you being a terrible person.

[Endus]

Or people like you make the “terrible persons” feel like they are the underdog in a countercultural movement, and fight back...

Watching the conflict will be interesting - a true tragicomedy.

I've been over this before; I don't respond to implicit threats.

And the very fact that you explicitly admit that these people will become violent certainly calls into question your attempt to defend them from the accusation that they are "terrible people". Yes, violent reprobates don't respond well when challenged. This is why we have laws against such violence. Bowing down to their views out of fear and cowardice isn't a reasoned response.

[Demasiados]

Yes, violent reprobates don't respond well when challenged. This is why we have laws against such violence. Bowing down to their views out of fear and cowardice isn't a reasoned response.

I thought violent people dont respond but initiate.

And the very fact that you explicitly admit that these people will become violent certainly calls into question your attempt to defend them from the accusation that they are "terrible people".

Well, violence is always an option. You better no keep their options limited, like you virtue crusaders do with limiting their other forms of expression (speech).

[Helgrimm]

OP's original post looks like it's complaining that internet decorum is becoming more like real life. Is the problem that it's harder to be a shitty person? Harder to do criminal things?

[Demasiados]

OP's original post looks like it's complaining that internet decorum is becoming more like real life. Is the problem that it's harder to be a shitty person? Harder to do criminal things?

No, its becoming harder doing non-criminal things which in turn wastes resources and makes less of them used on actual criminal things.

[Endus]

I thought violent people dont respond but initiate.

And Connal was talking about them initiating violence.

Well, violence is always an option. You better no keep their options limited, like you virtue crusaders do with limiting their other forms of expression (speech).

Nobody's freedom of speech is being limited in any of this. At all. That's a bullshit propaganda bit that ignores what basic human rights and freedoms fundamentally are.

As we keep mentioning one persons terrorist is another persons freedom fighter.

Wherein you implicitly support domestic terrorism.

But you push people, label them “terrible people”, and generally demonize them, they will attack. You yourself have admired(Freudian slip... I meant admitted) that more or less, when talking about that one ideology that must not be named.

Again, appeasement is an agenda that has been proven, time and again, to not work. I'm not going to entertain it again, not to try and forestall criminal violence from wannabe domestic terrorists. Am I saying violence won't break out? No. I'm saying that if and when it does, we have law enforcement to handle it, and I'm not willing to overhaul society as a whole to bow down to the whims of those potential terrorists.

Because I'm not afraid of them. Fear doesn't drive my decisions. Principle does.

[LiiLoSNK]

You must be extremely new to the internet if you don't know how to circumvent being arrested/permabanned for your controversial/troll opinions.

The internet is fine if you aren't a total dumbass. I can't feel bad when someone posts something that could be taken the wrong way FROM THEIR MAIN and then wonders why they lost their job. Use you brain.

[Endus]

One, you think compromise is appeasement, that’s interesting.

When one side's perspective is something like "kick all foreigners out of the country", there is no compromise to be had. Just appeasement. I'm not the one confusing the two, here.

Two, you think I’m afraid, or, that gun crazed rednecks are afraid... they are itching for an excuse to use their guns.

You really don't see how thoroughly you're damning them, do you?

Why should I care if some violent-minded psychopaths might lash out? They're the ones responsible for their own actions. The legal system can handle that, as it does with any domestic terrorism or gang activity. It doesn't mean we should make any kind of changes to try and forestall their murderous whims.

The only reason to make such changes is fear of their violent tendencies. Otherwise, they're pitiable people who are threatening criminal behaviour. They deserve as much consideration for their views as MS13 or other gangs.

[ohwell]

The extreme left happened, that's what

But but Europe is not extreme left they're only slightly left and the left in the US is actually center right.......

Gotta love that terrible argument they always seem to produce.

[Misuteri]

They’ve been regulating speech and media since Gutenberg invented the printing press. It used to be as extreme as to forbidding certain groups to learn how to read.

Same thing with radio and television. Ask any Eastern European what it meant to listen to the BBC overseas service or VOA during the Cold War. The DPRK despises South Korean broadcasts. Jamming signals still exist in the world.

I’m surprised the internet has lasted almost 25 years without more nations doing what China does to it. Information is dangerous to totalitarians and to CNN’s viewership levels.

[zenkai]

But but Europe is not extreme left they're only slightly left and the left in the US is actually center right.......

Gotta love that terrible argument they always seem to produce.

Everyday someone on these forums tells us how the left in the US is closer to the right in EU, but all off a sudden the right is now US right.

[ohwell]

I've been over this before; I don't respond to implicit threats.

And the very fact that you explicitly admit that these people will become violent certainly calls into question your attempt to defend them from the accusation that they are "terrible people". Yes, violent reprobates don't respond well when challenged. This is why we have laws against such violence. Bowing down to their views out of fear and cowardice isn't a reasoned response.

An oppressed people become violent. If we suddenly made it illegal in the US to practice your favorite "protected" religion, they would lash out in violence. Guess they were just waiting for violence to become an option too?

- - - Updated - - -

The left having a voice in this is quite new, absolutely. For years my generation fought the right and its attempts to be puritanical, about movies, games, the Internet, crying about religion, crying about the kids, and overall just being their warmongering-selves with wild abandon.

I always considered that standing up against these people is the GOOD thing to do, and that the left has a vested interest to protect free speech, as a tool of speaking truth to power and holding those elected (and sometimes unelected) responsible.

It's pure insanity to me to see many on the left arguing for more speech control. Making my jaw drop in disbelief. Abandonment of what we used to believe in and fight for just 10-15 years ago.

SNL made this skit about a Trump voter burning books when honestly I'd expect the left to be burning books and wouldn't doubt they have at Antifa rallies etc. Burning books seems like the exact thing the left would do today.