Annoying

Bent Wrong

Chill Annoying, Lying Liars

Scapegoating the Algorithm. America’s epistemic challenges run deeper than social media.

This is very badly wrong, and in a way that’s typical of those with a more empirical bent: it mistakes extremely limited experiments with constrained inputs for an entire sociocultural landscape and media environment and concludes there is no effect. It’s the typical failure mode of this type of surface “well, ackshually” type of analysis and it hits all the clichés as if the author had a checklist to make it through.

The basic thesis is correct, which isn’t saying much. America’s epistemic problems do run deeper than social media. But pretending social media and even the rise of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News had nothing at all to do with the disintegration of political alignment is, frankly, farcical.

I know that the empirical breed hates all anecdotes no matter their applicability, but everyone I know has had a relative or multiple relatives who was a relatively normal well-adjusted conservative or sometimes even a centrist Democrat who got exposed to social media, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh or sometimes all three and who then went on to become some demented ultra-conservative rage-filled caricature of their former self. And that’s because it happened so very often. In this case, anecdotes reveal a lot in ways the pseudo-empirical sophistry above does not.

To elide a great deal I just do not care to write, what matters here is not some few months of posts on social media. Or exposure to Fox News. Or listening to Rush Limbaugh rant1 about “feminazis.” What is relevant is that there is a recursively self-reinforcing media environment that inveigles and then entraps those at the periphery in small, measured steps. One can see this with how the YouTube algorithm recommends increasingly unhinged right-wing content over time no matter what you view. The same is true of Facebook and other sites and how media ecosystems operate in general, particularly in the United States.

In short, the article is crap because the author does not understand his own sociocultural environment well enough to write about it cogently, nor how propaganda works and its actual function, nor how algorithms actually operate, nor what evidence here is or would be relevant. It is itself a propaganda piece intended to absolve media of blame while at the same time self-inculpating.

It’s worthless other than as a target to lampoon.

  1. Yes, I am aware that he is dead.

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Chill Annoying, Evil

Exactly. I was already a full-on adult at 10 years old.

Because of how Gen Z is not allowed to mature, many of them are functionally small children at even 30-35 years old. Which is absurd. This should’ve never been allowed to happen. But it did.

Butter Move

Chill Annoying, Clowns

Why is that when men talk to women we always are presumed to have some sort of evil thing we want, while when women talk to men no such base desire is presumed?

First of all, part of the problem is that men’s sexuality in general is assumed to be deviant and undesirable by its very nature. Second, ladies, most of y’all just aren’t that special. Get over yourselves, fuck.

When I ask you to move out of the way so I can get to the damn butter in the Albertson’s, I just want the damn butter. Trust.

Streets

Chill Annoying, Clowns

Japan also has very low crime. Used to have even lower.

I remember being utterly shocked when an American woman who had visited there told me that if she got tired in Japan while she was backpacking through the country, even in an urban area she’d lean up against a building and get some sleep. Not a single soul bothered her even a little bit.

No one would or could do that in the US. You’d be robbed, attacked, or far worse.

Why the liberals think we should just accept a whole lot of street crime for “equity” or whatever bullshit I will never understand nor agree with.

On My

Chill Annoying

I just received the finalized version of a deliverable for the really huge project I did almost completely by myself at work. This beast of an effort will directly lead to millions more in revenue possibility (and actuality) over the next few years.

And no one even said “Thank You” or “Congratulations” or anything. This is the project I mentioned that would normally be done by 8-10 people and I did it all on my own. I don’t normally need kudos other than a fat paycheck but man, I sacrificed nearly a year of my life to this damn thing. And no one seems to really care.

Bow Down

Chill Annoying, Clowns, Tech

First year IT Support and I’m treated like a dog

This is common in IT. It’s probably even worse if you’re a woman (as this poster is).

Most people see anyone in IT — no matter their title or role — as the computer janitor/servant who should be completely subservient and willing to do whatever bullshit no matter how unrelated to the job or what the business needs. I’ve seen it over and over again. And I’ve lived it.

There’s some good advice in that thread (as well as some bad). Her boss should be doing a much better job of having her back. If someone treated one of my people like that, I’d be raising hell and blowing up the CEO’s inbox and Slack. That’s what’s a quality boss does.

And it never ends! I make well more than $100 an hour and I still spend time helping people unmute their headset. Or plug in a USB thumbdrive correctly.

Makes no damn sense.

Fac

Chill Annoying, Clowns

The left’s tendency when you achieve something to say, “Well, that was easy for you but so-and-so couldn’t have done that for [purportedly good and noble reasons].”

First of all, no, it wasn’t in fact easy. It was not easy to grow up poor in rural North Florida and then go on to be an active paratrooper for five years. In no way could anything about that be described as “easy.” Why react that way? Do they really believe that everything anyone achieves or fails to achieve is due to social structures only? Because I do not and I’m 100% for more social support and programs where they make sense.

Second, this isn’t “give a crap about some loser shit” facility. Go down the road for that. They can help you. We don’t do that here.

Tayboo

Chill Annoying, Clowns

I have no idea who the fuck Lil Tay is and have never gone to any OnlyFans site, but this absolutely fucking nails the nature of female intrasexual competition and why the “age gap” crap is full-on nonsense.

Aspersion Dispersion

Chill Annoying, WTF

I know it’s popular to cast aspersions on Gen Z (I do it myself), but that’s very normal amount of time in which to expect a promotion from entry level. If I were in an entry-level role and I had not been promoted after two years, I’d be looking elsewhere. After two years you’re no longer entry level. Even if it’s just a bump from, say, tier 1 helpdesk to tier 2, two years is well more than enough time to learn a job and all its ins and outs. An exceptional person can do it in 9-12 months and also should be promoted.

This has always been true, by the way; this is not some weird Gen Z expectation.