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A comment on E Pur Si Muove. Parent comment

Re:E Pur Si Muove by psyc on Thursday December 14, 2017 @01:04PM (#15924674)
You’re leaving out the part where B whips up a Twitter mob to demand A be fired and ousted from the industry.
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Re:E Pur Si Muove by igor47 on Thursday December 14, 2017 @01:15PM (#15924826)
Ah, we come to the heart of it. If Sam had said, "Twitter is a problem because it enables dangerous groupthink, promotes overreaction, and stifles meaningful discourse" then (a) his argument would have been a lot more clear and (b) I would have been 100% onboard
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Re:E Pur Si Muove by jedharris on Thursday December 14, 2017 @01:34PM (#15925146)
Why is Twitter the problem if a company fires an employee.

If I can just ignore Twitter (and I do) then Twitter mobs don't directly affect me. But if my management does things because of Twitter mobs (or anything else like that) we have a big problem.

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Re:E Pur Si Muove by librvf on Thursday December 14, 2017 @01:26PM (#15924995)
Well, is twitter actually the problem, though? Twitter's biases are a problem, but that's a separate issue. Twitter can't be expected to prevent all forms of propaganda from its users, and even if they could the problem is not just twitter specifically, it's all social media. While the parent made a pithy comment using Twitter as an example, in reality instigators rely on an array of platforms to spread the message and whip up the proverbial mob.

And more importantly, people with decision-making power have shown a remarkable tendency to submit to the will of these capricious and volatile online mobs.

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Re:E Pur Si Muove by beaconstudios on Thursday December 14, 2017 @01:26PM (#15924987)
I'm not sure twitter is the cause, more the primary avenue. People can be dangerously groupthink-y and overreacting in person or on social media, and our culture certainly seems to be moving more in the direction of instant reactions and emotional self-satisfaction over engaging in nuanced debates.
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Re:E Pur Si Muove by librvf on Thursday December 14, 2017 @01:38PM (#15925205)
> You're leaving out the part where A whips up a real mob and lynches somebody.

Yeah because that hasn't happened, and if it did would be met with universal condemnation and be up against full weight of law enforcement and the legal system.

> And what do you think has a stronger chilling effect: the possibility of being fired or the possibility of being murdered?

If the possibility of being fired for ideas is highly likely while the possibility of being murdered for ideas is essentially zero, then the possibility of being fired has a stronger chilling effect.

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Re:E Pur Si Muove by librvf on Thursday December 14, 2017 @01:44PM (#15925329)
We're discussing the situation in present-day tech culture, mostly with regards to Silicon Valley and the Bay Area as compared to China.
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Re:E Pur Si Muove by Avshalom on Thursday December 14, 2017 @02:01PM (#15925602)
The broad history of violent bigotry in the United States does not get magically forgotten by people just because they write code for a living. And that history and that present reality means that many things are not just abstract propositions but are direct threats.
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Re:E Pur Si Muove by librvf on Thursday December 14, 2017 @11:16PM (#15929646)
> And that history and that present reality means that many things are not just abstract propositions but are direct threats.

Historical context alone does not make a direct threat. A direct threat is a direct threat, and right now being accused of racism (no matter the truth of it) is far more scary than racism itself.

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Re:E Pur Si Muove by ThrowAwayFSp on Thursday December 14, 2017 @03:36PM (#15926746)
So you're the D that never read the paper?
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