It can be inferred how you react to various turns of phrase, which ways of presenting an idea will ring with you, and therefore how to present a story to you, such that you will be likely to repeat the sound bites on one side of the issue or the other.
There is a simple defence against this sort of thing. It's called thinking.
It says more about the author that they'd group homosexuality, drug use, and republicanism together as "dirty secrets". So much for tolerance.
Even as a non-American, I can see that it's a mild joke aimed at a party perceived as being anti-drugs and anti-gay. Why do right wingers get so upset by a mild slur when they're always insisting everybody should let neo Nazis spew their filth in the name of free speech?
It's not Godwinning just to mention the Nazis, or else they'd become some sort of taboo. It's inappropriately comparing someone to Hitler/a Nazi that's a Godwin.
Although GP's comment was wildly paranoid (since it seems unlikely that either Facebook or Teh Government are going to be exterminating gays any time soon) it was not exactly a Godwin.
Socialism is NOT compatible with christianity because socialism supports a tyrannical state that forces people to hand over all of the means of production and it does not promote an honest work ethic.
Well, apart from the work ethic thing being bollocks, you do illustrate why communists want to destroy the power of the church after a revolution. Some things are just too evil to be allowed to flourish unopposed.
Individual christians are just deluded, I don't care whether you believe in God or Gollum, that's your choice. But when the poisonous influence of your beliefs spreads like a cancer through society, well...there's always a cure.
The name "Manse" is of course a lame anagram for "Mensa" but also a very funny male name often seen used for submissive somewhat effeminate husbands from the upper class.
There are plenty of intelligent people who use facebook and twitter. There are rather more unintelligent people who use facebook and twitter, because there are rather more unintelligent than intelligent people in the world and a high percentage of the population uses them.
I bet you can deduce a lot from what I have to say.
You're a bitter college drop-out with mild self-diagnosed Asperger's, your parents told you that you were special because you once got over 120 on an IQ test after they force fed you answers for three straight weeks, you're puritanical in your outlook on life despite thinking of yourself as socially progressive, and (above all) you need to get laid?
I assume you're one of theose "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" types who thinks they're a libertarian because they smoked dope at Harvard before taking over daddy's bank?
At least those based on things like country, now people of the same profession on the other hand can actually be disturbingly like their stereotype. It's something to do with the personality of people attracted to the same line of work and the cultural conformity, like a friend of mine once said after speaking at a conference for county auditors. "I went to the conference thinking it would dispel the stereotypes I had, instead I found they were all true." People have an incredible way of adjusting to what they perceive as normal and that becomes the stereotype.
Just because you act like a county auditor at conferences and at work, does not mean that's how you are at home or relaxing at the weekend with friends.
If you're in a profession like surgeon, teacher or lawyer, you have to act sober and serious when you're working. It doesn't mean you're not an individual human being who gets drunk and goes snowboarding on holiday.
8.2% apparently just like having sex with people of the same sex. Clearly, they're not gay.
Cause they don't identify with being gay.
Cause it's all about identifying.
That is not what your quote is saying. It is saying that 8.2% of the population has at some point in their life experimented with same-sex sex. It does not say if they liked it nor if it was more than once. It is like going to Church a few times is not the same as being a Christian.
But when you add in people who are gay/lesbian but have not engaged in same-sex sex (Catholic priests, and so on), you're probably up to the 10%.
Now, while there is clearly a difference between someone who jerked off their friend once when they were 14 and someone who has a string of same-sex lovers, a keen interest in musical theatre and so on, the fact remains that close to 10% of the population are at least a bit gay. This is interesting because if only 2% actually admit it, it means there are a lot of more or less repressed homosexuals out there, and it is often these people who are the most stridently anti-gay.
Maybe they use the same recommendation algorithm as Amazon, which specialises in telling me I want to buy things in the same category as something I've just bought?
That would make sense if OP spent a lot of time on facebook searching for mail order brides, otherwise, not so much.
What happens when it says you "like" a page about signing up to train in an Al Qaeda camp in the Yemen, or a page that promotes the compulsory rape of six year olds?
The vast majority of the data will be a fairly accurate representation - the user base is so large that a few "clever" people trying to piss in the well won't have any effect
Yes, but so what? If it turns out that, on average, 95% of people who watch Top Gear are heterosexual and 95% of people who watch Glee are homosexual, if I like both it proves absolutely nothing about me.
And averages of society as a whole are just interesting sociological information, not the basis for individual persecution.
I also regularly search for terms on terms in Qu'ranic Islam (I'm an atheist but find it interesting) and nuclear technology (I'm a physics geek and that's one of my "things".)
I hear the weather in Gitmo is great this time of year.
Here in the UK it's not yet illegal to be a Muslim, although no doubt after the next election when UKIP/EDL are in coalition that will change.
Even assuming some future Evil Government makes it illegal to be gay or a drug user or Republican, these sorts of analyses can only prove that you are statistically more or less likely to be gay, a drug user or Republican. They can't prove that you are gay, a drug user or Republican.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes. it's lucky there'd be no fallout on South Korea or China isn't it?
They are beautiful in their own right I suppose. My most common shortcut in Windows would be WinKey+D.
Is this where I say the best shortcut key is Alt+F4 repeatedly until you can install a proper operating system like Linux?
What about the hetero dads who watched countless musicals with their Disney-obsessed daughters?
I feel your pain, bro, I feel your pain.
The real question for non-Americans is who's Tyler Perry?
It can be inferred how you react to various turns of phrase, which ways of presenting an idea will ring with you, and therefore how to present a story to you, such that you will be likely to repeat the sound bites on one side of the issue or the other.
There is a simple defence against this sort of thing. It's called thinking.
I loved the fact that on opposite ends of the "artistic and liberal" to "conservative" scale were Oscar Wilde and I Don't Read. Who'd have thought?
So what though? You get a "suggested post" about marijuana? do you really think the FBI are going to raid your house based on that or something?
It says more about the author that they'd group homosexuality, drug use, and republicanism together as "dirty secrets". So much for tolerance.
Even as a non-American, I can see that it's a mild joke aimed at a party perceived as being anti-drugs and anti-gay. Why do right wingers get so upset by a mild slur when they're always insisting everybody should let neo Nazis spew their filth in the name of free speech?
Although GP's comment was wildly paranoid (since it seems unlikely that either Facebook or Teh Government are going to be exterminating gays any time soon) it was not exactly a Godwin.
If you like musicals, you're gay. If you like Ann Hathaway, you're either female or gay.
God, life is just so simple isn't it?
Socialism is NOT compatible with christianity because socialism supports a tyrannical state that forces people to hand over all of the means of production and it does not promote an honest work ethic.
Well, apart from the work ethic thing being bollocks, you do illustrate why communists want to destroy the power of the church after a revolution. Some things are just too evil to be allowed to flourish unopposed.
Individual christians are just deluded, I don't care whether you believe in God or Gollum, that's your choice. But when the poisonous influence of your beliefs spreads like a cancer through society, well...there's always a cure.
The name "Manse" is of course a lame anagram for "Mensa" but also a very funny male name often seen used for submissive somewhat effeminate husbands from the upper class.
Oh, how you must have laughed at your own wit!
The highest intelligence indicator were the people who never joined facebook and want nothing to do with it.
And the highest smug indicator were [sic] the people who posted the fact that they don't have a facebook account on slashdot.
I agree. Especially when I hear the constant "follow us on Facebook and Twitter" plugs on every major news agency.
Or you buy something trivial on line and get a button to automatically post what you bought to some popular social networking site.
Who's forcing you to click on that button?
But I really couldn't care less if Facebook knows I just bought a new charger for my phone.
There are plenty of intelligent people who use facebook and twitter. There are rather more unintelligent people who use facebook and twitter, because there are rather more unintelligent than intelligent people in the world and a high percentage of the population uses them.
I bet you can deduce a lot from what I have to say.
You're a bitter college drop-out with mild self-diagnosed Asperger's, your parents told you that you were special because you once got over 120 on an IQ test after they force fed you answers for three straight weeks, you're puritanical in your outlook on life despite thinking of yourself as socially progressive, and (above all) you need to get laid?
My wife and I are socially liberal Republicans
I assume you're one of theose "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" types who thinks they're a libertarian because they smoked dope at Harvard before taking over daddy's bank?
Why not just never hit a like button?
Well, why not just never use facebook then?
At least those based on things like country, now people of the same profession on the other hand can actually be disturbingly like their stereotype. It's something to do with the personality of people attracted to the same line of work and the cultural conformity, like a friend of mine once said after speaking at a conference for county auditors. "I went to the conference thinking it would dispel the stereotypes I had, instead I found they were all true." People have an incredible way of adjusting to what they perceive as normal and that becomes the stereotype.
Just because you act like a county auditor at conferences and at work, does not mean that's how you are at home or relaxing at the weekend with friends.
If you're in a profession like surgeon, teacher or lawyer, you have to act sober and serious when you're working. It doesn't mean you're not an individual human being who gets drunk and goes snowboarding on holiday.
8.2% apparently just like having sex with people of the same sex. Clearly, they're not gay. Cause they don't identify with being gay. Cause it's all about identifying.
That is not what your quote is saying. It is saying that 8.2% of the population has at some point in their life experimented with same-sex sex. It does not say if they liked it nor if it was more than once. It is like going to Church a few times is not the same as being a Christian.
But when you add in people who are gay/lesbian but have not engaged in same-sex sex (Catholic priests, and so on), you're probably up to the 10%.
Now, while there is clearly a difference between someone who jerked off their friend once when they were 14 and someone who has a string of same-sex lovers, a keen interest in musical theatre and so on, the fact remains that close to 10% of the population are at least a bit gay. This is interesting because if only 2% actually admit it, it means there are a lot of more or less repressed homosexuals out there, and it is often these people who are the most stridently anti-gay.
Maybe they use the same recommendation algorithm as Amazon, which specialises in telling me I want to buy things in the same category as something I've just bought?
That would make sense if OP spent a lot of time on facebook searching for mail order brides, otherwise, not so much.
What happens when it says you "like" a page about signing up to train in an Al Qaeda camp in the Yemen, or a page that promotes the compulsory rape of six year olds?
The vast majority of the data will be a fairly accurate representation - the user base is so large that a few "clever" people trying to piss in the well won't have any effect
Yes, but so what? If it turns out that, on average, 95% of people who watch Top Gear are heterosexual and 95% of people who watch Glee are homosexual, if I like both it proves absolutely nothing about me.
And averages of society as a whole are just interesting sociological information, not the basis for individual persecution.
I also regularly search for terms on terms in Qu'ranic Islam (I'm an atheist but find it interesting) and nuclear technology (I'm a physics geek and that's one of my "things".)
I hear the weather in Gitmo is great this time of year.
Here in the UK it's not yet illegal to be a Muslim, although no doubt after the next election when UKIP/EDL are in coalition that will change.
I suppose I'm just not paranoid enough.