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[#] Fri Jan 29 2021 10:33:30 EST from ParanoidDelusions

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Agreed. But really - the pervasive socialist agenda in society is the problem - almost ALL of the problems. 

 

Fri Jan 29 2021 09:26:40 EST from Nurb432

Modern, socialist focused, social media is the problem. 

Not the concept. 



 



[#] Sat Jan 30 2021 12:17:13 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

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I'm going to go ahead and disagree with that. It's easy to blame everything on "them", and this community is obviously a bit skewed to one side, but I think we would be better served by being technolibertarian critics of mainstream social media than by being politically libertarian critics. There's plenty to dislike about Facebook et al without getting into politics.

The original social media -- at least if you only count social media involving computers -- was dialup bulletin boards. And for those of us who go back that far, today's mainstream sites are repulsive because WE'VE SEEN IT DONE RIGHT. We indulged in the chaotic online experience of the 1980's and we learned how to act online. Sure, there was the occasional troll (r0dent, ruggie, whatever your local name for them was) but for the most part we knew how to make the medium work. You could have a flame war and then go out for pizza with the same people the next day. You could say what was on your mind and it would be read as what was on your mind, nothing more, nothing less.

Today's largest social media sites are, from a *technology* perspective, just really large bulletin boards, but on a human level they have been weaponized.
The people who run them have psychology experts on staff who understand the dopamine hit you get from having someone troll you or respond to a troll.
These sites are OPTIMIZED to get people wound up as much and as often as possible. Combine that with the fact that the vast majority of the people there never learned the proper way to act online ("eternal september") and you've got a recipe for serious psychological damage. But who cares, right?
As long as Zuckerberg and Dorsey make their billions, they'll happily let you brain-damage yourself to death while those lucrative ads appear right next to the next message from your newly minted enemies.

Don't blame the computer. The Computer Is Your Friend. Blame the people who took our playground away and ruined it the same way they ruined everything else.

[#] Sun Jan 31 2021 10:24:48 EST from Nurb432

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Like the godawful interface. 

Sat Jan 30 2021 12:17:13 EST from IGnatius T Foobar
 There's plenty to dislike about Facebook et al without getting into politics.

 



[#] Sun Jan 31 2021 10:32:16 EST from Nurb432

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Yep, but there is no money to be made off you that way.  Have to feed the flames, decide us, make us hate and bitch and moan.  And as you say, display the advertisement next to your new found enemy.

Even at the office, its no longer 'disagree during the meeting, but go have drinks during lunch'  it a 'f-u during the meeting and go opposite directions at lunch'.  The online culture of hate spilled over into daily life some time ago.

Sat Jan 30 2021 12:17:13 EST from IGnatius T Foobar
You could have a flame war and then go out for pizza with the same people the next day.

 



[#] Sun Jan 31 2021 22:42:05 EST from ParanoidDelusions

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I don't disagree with the basic thesis here. 

You may be dealing with the root *cause* of the polarization in society... but I think the Democrats, in particular Obama - weaponized Identity Politics intentionally to be divisive. 

I think the Right is divisive because they tend to be full of, "No, I'm right, you're wrong, now eff yourself," personality types. Especially on some of our hot-button topics - we're very likely to take a position of moral superiority that doesn't sit well with people. I've too often heard, "No, you're NOT a good person, even if you THINK you are, if you believe..." 

come from a Republican's mouth... far further back in time. We kind of owned that playing field on the Right. The Left has taken that ball and ran with it, though. 

But Obama was the first black President in US history, he had two terms, and it really wasn't until the last two years of his second administration when he REALLY started ramping up the critical race theory and using police shootings as a springboard to divide people in this country. 

The common theme, I think - with Obama, with Zuckenberg - is *academia*. Organic or intentionally - driven by BELIEF in their values or the rewards of the division and unrest it causes in society - the THEORY of cultural Marxism and critical race theory and everything associated with it - which is probably the most polarizing force in our society currently - begins in Academia. 

You have to think about the things that led us here. Student activists holding white instructors hostage at Evergreen College and other campuses - demanding PoC safe spaces, demanding that white people give up their seats or carry the books of PoC students from class to class... the "Trust Women/MeToo" movement, especially on college campuses, where males accused of sexual assault were presumed guilty until proven innocent, and even then - faced punitive action like expulsion because, "not believing the victim is assaulting her twice." Then Bert and Ernie cakes, then bathroom gender policies and gender itself... 

That led to Trayvon Martin - to "this is what my son would look like..." 

Facebook was just feeding this machine - but if you come back to what makes this segment of society buy into these dogmas - it is their liberal education at ivy league liberal colleges. Social media is just the broadcast media that brings this to the masses - but it starts in Academia, media feeds it, politicians promote it and it pervades society. 

The division of America, even including the Left eating their own - is a plan to keep us so busy angry and fighting one another we don't pay attention to what they're doing. More and more you're seeing Academics like Brett Weinstein and comedians like - that snarky English bastard going, "this is going too far, and it is OUR fault!" 

We can't be conciliatory about this, we can't be polite. The current division, and at this point it is actually global - is driven by the ideologies of the far left - and the results are EXACTLY what they wanted - they've even TOLD us so. This is what tearing down the "White Western Misogynistic, Homophobic, Racist, Xenophobic patriarchy," looks like. Everyone hating everyone else. It isn't a wall of hate they're creating... 

It is a tsunami. 




Sat Jan 30 2021 12:17:13 EST from IGnatius T Foobar
I'm going to go ahead and disagree with that. It's easy to blame everything on "them", and this community is obviously a bit skewed to one side, but I think we would be better served by being technolibertarian critics of mainstream social media than by being politically libertarian critics. There's plenty to dislike about Facebook et al without getting into politics.

The original social media -- at least if you only count social media involving computers -- was dialup bulletin boards. And for those of us who go back that far, today's mainstream sites are repulsive because WE'VE SEEN IT DONE RIGHT. We indulged in the chaotic online experience of the 1980's and we learned how to act online. Sure, there was the occasional troll (r0dent, ruggie, whatever your local name for them was) but for the most part we knew how to make the medium work. You could have a flame war and then go out for pizza with the same people the next day. You could say what was on your mind and it would be read as what was on your mind, nothing more, nothing less.

Today's largest social media sites are, from a *technology* perspective, just really large bulletin boards, but on a human level they have been weaponized.
The people who run them have psychology experts on staff who understand the dopamine hit you get from having someone troll you or respond to a troll.
These sites are OPTIMIZED to get people wound up as much and as often as possible. Combine that with the fact that the vast majority of the people there never learned the proper way to act online ("eternal september") and you've got a recipe for serious psychological damage. But who cares, right?
As long as Zuckerberg and Dorsey make their billions, they'll happily let you brain-damage yourself to death while those lucrative ads appear right next to the next message from your newly minted enemies.

Don't blame the computer. The Computer Is Your Friend. Blame the people who took our playground away and ruined it the same way they ruined everything else.

 



[#] Mon Feb 01 2021 13:49:21 EST from darknetuser

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Don't blame the computer. The Computer Is Your Friend. Blame the
people who took our playground away and ruined it the same way they
ruined everything else.


Slight offtopic. Do you enjoy the Paranoia RPG? Because in Paranoia RPG, The Computer is your friend and then it gets you killed.

[#] Thu Feb 04 2021 14:59:36 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

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If you got killed by The Computer then you must be a commie or a mutant. Come here so I can kill you again. :)

In other news, I'm giving Yandex a try. DuckDuckGo is big on privacy, but they're not big on avoiding bias. The CEO of DuckDuckGo is a rabid leftist.

[#] Thu Feb 04 2021 20:01:10 EST from zooer

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Why don't you create your own search engine?



[#] Thu Feb 04 2021 20:34:41 EST from Nurb432

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There already is yacy...

Thu Feb 04 2021 20:01:10 EST from zooer

Why don't you create your own search engine?



 



[#] Sat Feb 06 2021 07:27:22 EST from darknetuser

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2021-02-04 14:59 from IGnatius T Foobar
If you got killed by The Computer then you must be a commie or a
mutant. Come here so I can kill you again. :)

In other news, I'm giving Yandex a try. DuckDuckGo is big on privacy,

but they're not big on avoiding bias. The CEO of DuckDuckGo is a rabid

leftist.



Do you know of Startpage? It uses thge Google engine without the Google part.

[#] Sat Feb 06 2021 07:27:50 EST from darknetuser

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2021-02-04 20:01 from zooer
Why don't you create your own search engine?



You can deploy your own Searx if you like. It is open source.

[#] Sat Feb 06 2021 10:45:32 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

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Do you know of Startpage? It uses thge Google engine without the
Google part.

I am interested in unbiased search results. Try searching for anything even remotely controversial on Google, DuckDuckGo, and Yandex, and you'll see what I mean. So far, Yandex has provided the most unbiased results for American topics, which I'm sure wouldn't be the case if I were searching for Russian topics.

My problem right now is that I can't seem to get it to deliver only English language results without additional clicks on every search. That may end up being a deal breaker.

The interesting part is that nearly all search engines seem to be "usable" now. There was a time when you'd be hard pressed to find what you were looking for anywhere other than Google. That's no longer the case.

[#] Sun Feb 07 2021 09:38:39 EST from ParanoidDelusions

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This is true, although I occasionally still have to fall back to Google when I know DuckDuckGo isn't narrowing the target. 

 

Sat Feb 06 2021 10:45:32 EST from IGnatius T Foobar
Do you know of Startpage? It uses thge Google engine without the
Google part.

I am interested in unbiased search results. Try searching for anything even remotely controversial on Google, DuckDuckGo, and Yandex, and you'll see what I mean. So far, Yandex has provided the most unbiased results for American topics, which I'm sure wouldn't be the case if I were searching for Russian topics.

My problem right now is that I can't seem to get it to deliver only English language results without additional clicks on every search. That may end up being a deal breaker.

The interesting part is that nearly all search engines seem to be "usable" now. There was a time when you'd be hard pressed to find what you were looking for anywhere other than Google. That's no longer the case.

 



[#] Sat Feb 13 2021 07:25:31 EST from zooer

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TikTok was created to give Facebook users someone to look down upon. 



[#] Sun Feb 14 2021 16:56:31 EST from darknetuser

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In other news, I'm giving Yandex a try. DuckDuckGo is big on privacy,

but they're not big on avoiding bias. The CEO of DuckDuckGo is a rabid

leftist.



I must say I have been exposed to Gigablast as of late.

A true, traditional search engine with spiders and crawlers, under Apache license. Surprisingly complete and bullshit free.

The developer has a commercial instance running at gigablast.com. He makes money by selling API access for extremely cheap. It is a total blast. Go try it!

[#] Tue Feb 16 2021 16:00:24 EST from ParanoidDelusions

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(Thumbs Up)



I must say I have been exposed to Gigablast as of late.



[#] Wed Feb 17 2021 19:45:42 EST from ParanoidDelusions

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Now I just need to remember this the next time I have a search to complete. 

 

Tue Feb 16 2021 16:00:24 EST from ParanoidDelusions
(Thumbs Up)



I must say I have been exposed to Gigablast as of late.



 



[#] Thu Feb 18 2021 09:57:53 EST from darknetuser

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2021-02-17 19:45 from ParanoidDelusions
Now I just need to remember this the next time I have a search to

complete. 

 
Tue Feb 16 2021 16:00:24 EST from ParanoidDelusions



(Thumbs Up)







I must say I have been exposed to Gigablast as of late.


There is a Gigablast addon for Firefox. It is very simple. You can read it and decide if you like it even. The good things of open source.

The engine they run on the gigablast.com is quite ok, but I think the open source version they have at github is kind of crappy. I think Matt got bored of updating the repository and kept adding improvements to the customized version he is running in his website.

By "crappy", I mean it works very well (for what it is) but has lots of rough edges you don't expect in an enterprise solution ready to deploy.

Speaking of which, there are cool Searx instances in the wild, like Searx.be and Searx.ninja.

Also, I have been trying Yacy. I want to like it, but it sucks. It is a distributed search engine. The idea is awesome, but it rapes the CPU, gets frozen when you least expect it, and sucks for privacy because it does all the crawling from your computer. So, if you search for gnome cartoon gay porn, chances are it will start fetching pages related to the subject to index them, and everybody in the world will know you like gay gnomes.

[#] Sat Feb 20 2021 21:14:02 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

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A true, traditional search engine with spiders and crawlers, under
Apache license. Surprisingly complete and bullshit free.

This of course leads to the obvious next step: a decentralized search engine?

[#] Sun Feb 21 2021 09:31:09 EST from Nurb432

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Which is the "Yacy" i mentioned earlier. 

Sat Feb 20 2021 21:14:02 EST from IGnatius T Foobar
This of course leads to the obvious next step: a decentralized search engine?

 



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