Re:Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are ...
by pjc50 on Friday August 10, 2018 @06:18AM
(#17732028)
> White supremacy doesn't help white people
It absolutely does help the people who believe in it: it gives them a sense of superiority and someone to blame. People walked away from lynchings with a sense of satisfaction and justice, not a recognition that they'd just committed a horrible crime.
These aren't rational reasons, but since people can go through most of their lives without really having to do things for rational reasons that doesn't matter.
Re:Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are ...
by AgentME on Thursday August 09, 2018 @10:58PM
(#17730375)
>For instance, consider white supremacy: if you give people a choice between social groups and make them feel welcome, they can use simple, self-serving logic to join the one that meets their needs. White supremacy doesn't help white people, rationally, it's just stupid, except for very convoluted goals.
Doesn't the fact that white supremacists groups still get members contradict your idea here that people won't join them?
Re:Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are ...
by lmm on Friday August 10, 2018 @06:25AM
(#17732061)
> Doesn't the fact that white supremacists groups still get members contradict your idea here that people won't join them?
I think their point was that people join because they aren't welcome anywhere else; if there were other places where those people were welcome, maybe they wouldn't join those groups.
Why is that a problem? You can't force people to believe in reality. Might as well have this process happen in the open to actually provide a disincentive to believing conspiracy theories/propaganda/ads/fake news/whatever.
Hell, I'll go as far to say that controversial/commonly mis believed concepts are the most worth discussing in a public forum. For instance, consider white supremacy: if you give people a choice between social groups and make them feel welcome, they can use simple, self-serving logic to join the one that meets their needs. White supremacy doesn't help white people, rationally, it's just stupid, except for very convoluted goals. See: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/podcasts/the-daily-transc...
If you don't enable conversations between white supremacists and anti-racists, there is no real choice--they'll gravitate the group where they're accepted.