Re:How YouTube converted people to flat Earth
by transreal on Thursday July 18, 2019 @11:29AM
(#20470835)
I spoke to a flat earther once. Trying to convince her via science - explaining how GPS works, showing her images from space, etc, was not convincing her.
So I tried to understand her mindset, and just talked about her life. Turned out she was abused by a parent who was "doing it for her own good" - it was a horrible story. Her whole childhood was a lie, she was trained by the parent not to trust her instincts, and to believe something false so the parent could benefit.
My takeaway was that her childhood experience taught her that you can't trust people and that "big lies" are possible, and so she latched onto the flat earth thing due to that.
Re:How YouTube converted people to flat Earth
by brigandish on Thursday July 18, 2019 @11:45AM
(#20471013)
This reminds me of something I read of Thich Nhat Hanh's - don't answer the question, answer the questioner. The belief they're espousing is really secondary to the attitude that leads them to buy into it. I find your approach as not only more likely to effect positive change with that, it's just more compassionate and respectful.
There's an almost palpable element of dehumanisation among those ridiculing them and wanting to silence them, as if holding on to untruths makes them unworthy to exist in our society.
Re:How YouTube converted people to flat Earth
by rjsw on Thursday July 18, 2019 @11:43AM
(#20470997)
Doesn't have to be political propaganda, the anti-vax movement wouldn't be as big without the publicity it gets on social media.
Re:How YouTube converted people to flat Earth
by RandomTisk on Thursday July 18, 2019 @11:37AM
(#20470923)
The way to truth is never censorship. SV/Google employees have become the book burning church of the 60's and 70's, complete with shoving their morality down everyone's throats by any means necessary.
Re:How YouTube converted people to flat Earth
by 481092 on Thursday July 18, 2019 @12:05PM
(#20471199)
So you're going to try to silence, or censor, a company into not choosing a more relevant algorithm? Their original algo changed and it "censored" more relevant content. I had a few videos on youtube giving my own personal experience of 9/11 but they quickly got overshadowed once the algo changed to prefer dramatic conspiracy content over regular content, even if it is more relevant. I don't like being "censored" either and I'd rather youtube change the algo.
For some reason, it's not controversial to say "we're banning ISIS propaganda videos which radicalize young muslims", but it is controversial to say "we're banning political propaganda videos which radicalize young americans".
Young or old, actually.