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Silicon Valley 'Divided Society and Made Everyone Raging Mad', Argues Newsweek (newsweek.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the demonizing-data dept.

"Anyone who is pissed off can now automatically find other people that are similarly pissed off," argues author Jamie Bartlett, in a new essay shared by Slashdot reader schwit1 which calls the internet "a bottomless well of available grievance." Here's an excerpt from Newsweek: Silicon Valley's utopians genuinely but mistakenly believe that more information and connection makes us more analytical and informed. But when faced with quinzigabytes of data, the human tendency is to simplify things. Information overload forces us to rely on simple algorithms to make sense of the overwhelming noise. This is why, just like the advertising industry that increasingly drives it, the internet is fundamentally an emotional medium that plays to our base instinct to reduce problems and take sides, whether like or don't like, my guy/not my guy, or simply good versus evil. It is no longer enough to disagree with someone, they must also be evil or stupid...

Nothing holds a tribe together like a dangerous enemy. That is the essence of identity politics gone bad: a universe of unbridgeable opinion between opposing tribes, whose differences are always highlighted, exaggerated, retweeted and shared. In the end, this leads us to ever more distinct and fragmented identities, all of us armed with solid data, righteous anger, a gutful of anger and a digital network of likeminded people. This is not total connectivity; it is total division.

23 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. Meh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    > It is no longer enough to disagree with someone, they must also be evil or stupid...

    You'd think at least *some* people would be smart enough not to jump to such conclusions. There's gotta be some middle ground somewhere. So, I disagree and this is stupid.

    Oh, wait...

  2. The Hitchhiker's Guide on the Babelfish by locater16 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."

    1. Re:The Hitchhiker's Guide on the Babelfish by sysrammer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yeah, I thought that was an incredibly insightful paragraph from that book. It's said that civil wars are the bloodiest because the people are very similar and speak the same language.

      --
      His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
    2. Re:The Hitchhiker's Guide on the Babelfish by djinn6 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't think that's actually true, looking at this list, for every civil war, there's a bigger international war that killed more people.

      I think this is because different civilizations tend to see each other as barbaric or less than human, and find it more acceptable to massacre entire cities of their opponents to make room for their own. On the other hand, in a civil war, you are only fighting for the control of the nation. Once you obtain that control, you'd want everyone to stop fighting and start working for you. Killing more people at that point would be meaningless.

  3. It's never good enough with identity politics. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What wasn't wrong yesterday is totally bigot, racist and sexist today. We live in the most sexist society ever.

    But if you look at the numbers, the real ones only thing that's happening is that over the past 30 years equality has become better.

    1. Re:It's never good enough with identity politics. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Men use their power to get sex. Women use sex to get power.

      Just as many or more women used Weinstein's cravings to advance their career as Weinstein victimized because he could. A small number of people claiming Weinstein victimized them were part of the previous group and are now using the culture of victimhood to acquire even more career advancement.

      This sexist idea that women aren't predatory, or that they are in the same way as men are but less often, needs to be left in the past.

  4. It's the economy stupid by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The crazy shit going on is all due to a weak economy for the working class. The pro corporate folks have their knickers in a twist because they didn't expect Trump or Brexit and they're not sure how that's all going to play out. News flash, you can't have the cake and eat it too. Keep shitting on the working class and eventually they'll do something dumb. Probably another World War or they'll pick a minority for genocide.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:It's the economy stupid by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's just about degree. The costs of Globalism are largely born by the blue collar workers. Outsourcing IT is nothing compared to just moving multiple industries at the same time.

      They just need to adjust an exchange rate (or three) a few tens of points for the next decade.

      The real problem with 'managed anger' (kept just below boil), is that all governments do it, many with multiple groups. Eventually all the governments can't manage all the groups and ugly shit happens.

      Right now, the good path is all about China. But anyplace could be the trigger for the bad path. The post WWII baby boom is still a financial demographic bomb for 'the west'.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    2. Re:It's the economy stupid by alvinrod · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's only a small piece of the puzzle, and this is nothing new. American politics has always been divided to some degree because the first past the post system essentially guarantees that there be two big parties opposed to each other. The biggest change is that the internet has made it easier for people who would have never been able to organize previously to get together and build their own little digital enclaves. People can form communities more easily now than at and point in history and physical presence is no longer a requirement. This is incredibly awesome on the whole, but of course there are going to be bad outcomes as well.

      The other big problem is that the internet is entirely impersonal. If you put 99% of people who get pissed off at each other on the internet together in the real world, they'd be a lot more civil. It's pretty easy to forget that there's another human being at the other end of the online conversation when you're just starting at a screen. When there's a real person there, you start to pick up on all manner of body language cues that just don't exist online and can't just mentally write them off as Satan.

    3. Re:It's the economy stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let's face it, you can't physically assault me online. That's why people say whatever they want whenever they want. In real life, you start spouting enough stupid shit at enough people and eventually someone is going to punch you in the face.

      Most of us just walk away, but eventually someone won't.

    4. Re:It's the economy stupid by jonsmirl · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I agree that neither party is remotely ready for the impact of the baby boom fully retiring. A huge day of reckoning is looming when the baby boom asks for their Social Security and Medicare and then discover that the cupboard is bare and those IOU's at the Fed are worthless because the money has been spent. I have no clue how this will get resolved, but it is not going to be pretty.

    5. Re:It's the economy stupid by jlowery · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hmmm... now, why would American society be divided?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      For those who can't afford health care though working two jobs, the only way to keep them docile is to turn them against imaginary bogey men. This works, because they don't have an inkling as to how obscenely wealthy the 0.01% are.

      --
      If you post it, they will read.
    6. Re:It's the economy stupid by jeff4747 · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's a massive amount of wrong condensed into a single paragraph.

      1. Social Security and Medicare are paid out of two different funding sources.

      2. Medicare has no expected shortage despite the Baby Boomers retiring. The taxes paid by GenX and Millennials will cover it, just like GenX and Boomer taxes paid for Silent/WWII-generation's Medicare.

      3. The Social Security Trust Fund is supposed to go bankrupt.

      It was created in 1983 in anticipation of the Boomers retiring. In the original design, Social Security benefits are paid out of the taxes collected today. That works as long as each generation is larger than the previous. When GenX turned out much smaller than the Boomers, there was a problem. Enter the trust fund. Boomers, GenX and now Millennials have been paying higher taxes over the last 34 years to build up a trust fund to cover the Boomers. And only the Boomers.

      After the Boomers, we go back to each generation being larger than the last. So we can go back to the ~2 younger generations funding the one older generation. (Technically, this will depend on how many kids the Millennials end up having. So far, so good on that front.). Under current projections, the Trust Fund will last until virtually all the Boomers have died of old age.

      4. There will not come a day where we suddenly have to pay the Social Security Trust Fund back, because we've already been paying the Trust Fund back. The Social Security Trust fund can only invest in US Bonds. Those bonds have a maturity date where the money has to be paid back. And that maturity date has already passed for some of the bonds. (The principal and interest were used to buy more bonds initially, at the moment some of the interest is being paid as benefits. Just as planned)

      So no, there will not be a sudden need for more money. There has been and will continue to be a gradual reduction in how many bonds the trust fund can buy. That could theoretically increase the deficit, but if you give a damn about that then fix it via the general fund instead of a Rube Goldberg design involving Social Security.

      6. If you really want the trust fund to continue to exist, the fix is incredibly easy - raise the cap on FICA taxes. Back when Social Security started, about 95% of income was subject to FICA taxes. Thanks to the growth of income inequality, only 70-someodd percent of income is subject to FICA taxes. The difference is caused by the wealthy making more money.

      In 2017, the cap is $127,200. $127,201 and up are not subject to Social Security taxes. So raise that cap to ~$200-250k and the trust fund lasts forever...not that it would actually be needed.

      7. Remember point 1 about Medicare and Social Security having different funding streams? Medicare taxes don't have the cap mentioned in 6. That's why it doesn't have a near-term funding problem.

      8. Attempting to balance the budget 30 years from now is an incredibly stupid exercise. We can't predict the economy 10 years from now with reasonable accuracy. You think we can nail 30 years?

      In summary, any pundit or politician giving dire warnings about insolvency and sudden repayment are lying to you in an attempt to convince you to support cuts.

    7. Re:It's the economy stupid by jeff4747 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The taxpayers paid into Social Security. The money paid was treated like general revenue and spent.

      False

      In its place there is an IOU from the treasury called a US Bond.

      False

      How does the treasury repay these bonds in the future?

      Same way we've been repaying the bonds for the last 30 years. Again, there will not be some sort of sudden payment coming due.

      The scheme keeps working until China stops buying treasuries.

      False.

      First, China stopped buying significant amounts of US bonds in 2006. They were trying to use these transfers to keep the Yuan low versus the Dollar, but you can only make a river flow upstream for so long. They currently use other, more direct methods. So if China not buying bonds was supposed to be a disaster, we'd have started that disaster a long time ago.

      Second, countries are not the only entities that can buy government bonds. In fact, about 80% of US federal debt is owned by Americans and American corporations. And considering inflation-protected bonds are selling at close to 0% interest, we're not in danger of that drying up overnight.

  5. Re:Newsweek is evil AND stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    not or.

    How is the summary incorrect? Our divisions are growing wider and it is easier to find like minded people.

    I seriously think that if impeachment starts Trump will go nuclear, possibly with nuclear weapons to distract or such, but more likely by ramping up the us vs them stuff to infinity and beyond until there is blood in the streets. He used the divisions and furthered them for his own end, but the divisions were there. Make America Great Again is just a polite way to blame everyone that isn't like them. It is at its heart exploiting deep seated racism and hate for political power.

    I very much fear that this is going to all end badly. The expression fiddling while Rome burned is apt and seems to apply here. Winning at all costs is not winning at all.

    Leaders must have a moral center, else our society suffers. They must have a sense of decency. I knew Donald Trump was the lowest form of life I've ever seen as a presidential candidate when he approved shoving Bill Clinton's mistresses in Hillary's face. Hillary is not Bill. That was beyond despicable.

    The fact that so many people in America think that kind is okay if they just get their guy is well, truly sad.

    What has happened to us? Wearing a flag pin does not make you patriotic. Preaching of your religion does not make you moral. The ends does not and never will make the means morally right.

    You can't build a country on a stack of sinful decisions and expect good to flourish. I had thought we were better than this, but I'm less sure these days.

  6. The internet doesn't force anyone to be a nitwit. by hey! · · Score: 5, Interesting

    However it rewards them if they try.

    Specifically social media, which is a massively distributed operant conditioning machine which rewards people to conformity. Conformity to what? Here's the novel wrinkle: anything. The owners of social media don't really care where the bandwagon you jump on is going, as long as a lot of people jump on; people whom they will be able to sell.

    It's not access to information. It's the intrusion of information designed to trigger montetizable responses that's the problem.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  7. Re:still that guys fault? by sysrammer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sadly, the alt-left has many of the same techniques and the same goal: power over others.

    As Mr. Adams so eloquently states, "People are a problem".

    --
    His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
  8. Re:The internet doesn't force anyone to be a nitwi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Interesting operant conditioning basiclly describes perfectly shows like John Oliver.

    It goes like this:
            fact
            fact
            fact, with a sincere face
            lie
            joke
            loud pun or shout something
            serious face

    EXAMPLE:
            polar bears are cute
            polar bears are important
            here's a picture of a polar bear
            republicans want to kill all polar bears
            TIMOTHY STOP TRYING TO FUCK THE POLAR BEAR!
            But seriously, here's a picture of a dead baby seal

    This is how we consume 'news'. These shows have embraced the quick bites of youtube and twitter.

  9. It's not Silicon Valley, it's the Internet by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Behold, the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  10. Twitter is for lazy reporters by mveloso · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Twitter is the ultimate source for lazy reporters. Need an opinion? Find it on twitter. They can find anyone saying anything and use them as a source.

    Twitter should be banned from reportage, period.

  11. Guess who feels threatened? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Anyone who is pissed off can now automatically find other people that are similarly pissed off," argues author Jamie Bartlett, in a new essay...

    This used to be the prerogative of essayists in newsmagazines. Now they feel marginalized by public access to rich sources of information and online pulpits far bullier than any fora they had available to them in the days when freedom of the press was only available to those who owned presses.

  12. Re:"identity politics gone bad" by Nicolas+Cage · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I was also struck by this phrase. The author was on to something, but implying that identity politics sometimes can sometimes be good is laughable.

  13. Re: Newsweek is evil AND stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The problem is people are diving in to ideological bubbles and hear nothing but the echo chamber. The fact that you chose the words "honest" and "ethical" shows your bias. You're so buried in a world of group think you believe that anyone that thinks differently is automatically dishonest and lacks ethics. The entire point of this article is that we as a society need to intermingle. Hear differing points of view. Have honest debate (that means actually listening). People on the right are very much as guilty as well of searching for those they agree with.

    We're stronger as a people when we have mutual respect and work together. All we're doing by being smug and thinking we're smarter, more ethical and have all the answers is tearing ourselves apart.

    This article is an interesting read on perspective. I can't vouch for how authentic it is though. I didn't bother researching the author. http://nypost.com/2017/10/21/the-other-half-of-america-that-the-liberal-media-doesnt-cover/