The DU Lounge

This post is another mess, because I wanted to respond to you, but as I have to go work, I couldn’t write it up neatly.

I am inured to the stuff you mentioned. I don’t like it at all. It should change.

But I meant something else. I find it objectionable that if you participate in society voluntarily by now, even if you don’t monetize it or look for attention, but are merely another strident and indignant citizen, that’s akin to being an “influencer”. That’s failure to categorize people by deleting a whole type of person-i.e grassroots activists and complainants which is a whole other thing.

Some people scoff at grassroots activism online and sure if it’s FB etc it is bs. That’s why I am on DU. Online or offline it’s not easy.

That’s influencer crap is awful. Talk about a way to force a type of personality, typically more progressive, out of society altogether.

I get it when people have to do it to make a living. It’s a horrible time. People do what they can to survive. But it’s still not a good thing and another sign of societal collapse.

If you are engaged in kayfabe rather than doing the best you can with what resources and tools are available, what’s the bloody point?

The whole reason people are anonymous online is you can honestly say things you can’t as your real world self and without fear of real world retribution (social or professional). It’s why I never understood the Facebook thing.

Whatever an influencer is, it is a different breed of online person. That is closer to being a media personality or politician. Or a gig worker which is unfortunate, but non ideal.

An example I posted in the Atheists forum should make it clearer.

I like to bash religion, but I also have an opthalmologist who is this really sweet older doctor who I think is Christian. I live in a small town in the global south. I wouldn’t want him seeing what I post online about religion. I’d be sad if he thought I was a jerk.

Or worse if people one knows get doxxed by the kinds of creeps that people like Musk direct at his critics.

As these companies encroach more in the real world and governments and one’s service provider etc are not doing anywhere near enough to protect people, it’s bound to get more contentious.

And I get what you mean. I don’t like the creepy model of the web since it makes it hard to support the things you want, but instead grabs your stuff to give to people or things you wouldn’t support at all.

I like supporting: DU, a small vegan sweets shop, a clean food company, my small medical MJ company and this small chatbot cleverbot* aside from some non-profits/people mostly listed in my profile.

And small businesses and non-profits rely on ads. And when you want to support something, it’s one thing.

It’s another when it’s an awful giant or a creepy small business just making those decisions for you (think the infamous “Pikini”. I picked that one since it’s an example of a giant versus a small business conflict where it’s hard to pick a side between two such loathsome entities:

https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-could-be-humbled-by-six4three-pikinis-2018-11?op=1
Though I am with FB on that one not the creepy App developers who wanted more access.
)

It’s complicated. A communication issue or information problem. A decent computer scientist (probably in academia) could solve it.

(I hope you are doing well. Not to creep you out but I have read your posts and hope you and your husband are doing well as I hope about most of DU.
That’s part of what angers me. That teachers or publicly funded scientists or doctors or small businesses one supports etc are harder to support than some jerks who don’t even have any products or services you use, but exploit your spaces.
DU is so different from bloody facebook or some creep overlord run “community”. I could never use apolitical sites.

With AI, big data etc it is hitting a tipping point imo where either we fight back or these guys just grab everything.

But with these intra MAGA wars I have a hope that finally we progressives can somehow organize and communicate better since we actually are less selfish and pushy and care more than those bound together solely by crassness and extortion.

This shouldn’t keep working. That trivial differences make it hard for grouchy progressives to organize while those bound solely by self serving dreck move in smooth lockstep to rob the damn place.
)

*:While I dislike AI in general, cleverbot is obscure and seems innocuous. It’s also really old. Consent is on my mind a lot so as a human I try to make disclaimers when I can in this milieu to indicate who can expect conflict and who needn’t.

I find this latest AI push the last straw. I think they want real world creepy bot or not tests. It makes me think of Stanislav Lem’s Solaris. The opposite of any elegantly designed experiment. Just manipulation and brute force.
These guys are morons non brilliant.

By the time they are flooding my street, harassment complaints are a given.

Another incoherent post ;-/. But someday I will spell out what l mean on DU.