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Re:PewDiePie’s Battle for the Soul of the Internet by AnthonyMouse on Saturday December 22, 2018 @09:38PM (#18744057)
> Maybe Vox picking on pewdiepie is unfair, or maybe they're justified. But viewed in the proper context it's inconsequential either way; neither Vox nor pewdiepie are provoking bullshit wars.

But they are provoking bullshit wars.

Being an unreasonable extremist and drowning out the reasonable voices on your team gives the unreasonable extremists on the other team license to do the same.

People being able to express contrary opinions in public is a release valve that allows a moderate consensus to form.

Polarizing everything and then shutting down public debate is how you get into a war. Just because nobody is actively building munitions factories doesn't make this a benign development that it's reasonable to ignore just because the country is not yet literally on fire.

Re:PewDiePie’s Battle for the Soul of the Internet by darkpuma on Saturday December 22, 2018 @10:55PM (#18744313)
> "But they are provoking bullshit wars."

No not actually. Hyperbole is fine but don't confuse it for the real thing.

Re:PewDiePie’s Battle for the Soul of the Internet by AnthonyMouse on Sunday December 23, 2018 @01:54AM (#18744832)
How does the real thing happen?
Re:PewDiePie’s Battle for the Soul of the Internet by darkpuma on Sunday December 23, 2018 @01:37PM (#18747567)
Similar process is not similar outcomes. The stakes in pewdiepie vs vox are far less serious than an actual war. This really should not require explanation.
Re:PewDiePie’s Battle for the Soul of the Internet by AnthonyMouse on Sunday December 23, 2018 @02:51PM (#18747938)
The media doesn't provoke an actual war by bombing anyone themselves.
Re:PewDiePie’s Battle for the Soul of the Internet by darkpuma on Sunday December 23, 2018 @03:07PM (#18748018)
I'm not sure what your point is, I never claimed media organizations were doing the bombing.

To reiterate my point: Yellow journalism that successfully warmongers is a far cry from yellow journalism that gets into a heated argument with a youtube celebrity. The methods employed by yellow journalists may be identical (in fact I'd argue they probably are), but there is a serious disparity in the severity of the outcome. And considering that in one case we're talking about significant loss of human life, I don't think you should be abstracting that away so coldly.

You should be thankful that the Vox/pewdiepie spat is not getting thousands of people killed and territory annexed. Is that not clear?

Re:PewDiePie’s Battle for the Soul of the Internet by AnthonyMouse on Sunday December 23, 2018 @11:50PM (#18750405)
That it's all the same methods is the issue. Honing a censorship apparatus on random people is how it becomes sharp enough to do real damage.

When you find a tiger loose in a city, the response should be to do what it takes to get it off the streets, not that we should be thankful that everything is fine because so far it has only been hunting puppies.

Re:PewDiePie’s Battle for the Soul of the Internet by darkpuma on Monday December 24, 2018 @03:11PM (#18754028)
> "That it's all the same methods is the issue."

Only if you're abstracting away the value of real human lives. If a tiger breaks loose you should be concerned by that tiger but ALSO be thankful that nobody has been eaten by it. If you forget the later, you forget your humanity.