I’d argue the opposite. Meta caters to the kinds of people that want to believe in a specific worldview. It didn’t brainwash people into becoming bigots, racists, misogynists, fascists, and haters, it just gave them a platform where they could say things in a curated social circle and not suffer the consequences that might occur if they said it in public. Gradually they realized there were a lot like them in the world and networked. The worst of them banded together and became real world threats like Proud Boys and Oathkeepers, but the vast majority still won’t take the risk and don’t do anything other than vote for candidates who promise to make their online fantasy a real one. New medium, same bigotry that has always existed in America. If social media disappeared today it wouldn’t prevent haters from hating, it would at best simmer it until they found a new means of connecting because now they know their vitriol is shared by many.
You’re wrong. Many people are impressionable. Some are not. Those that are, the algorithm knows who they are. Especially young people. So it shows them things to brainwash them with. Make them think some groups are bad people, by what they show them. The people they know this won’t work with, they just show them what they want to see, and let that bounce around their echo chamber.
But they wont let certain things be seen by the people they are successfully brainwashing.
Musk didnt spend 44 billion to buy twitter for no reason. Paramount isn’t in a mountain of debt because brainwashing doesnt work.
Everyone on instagram is being brainwashed. But also being shown what they want to see, and given the illusion they are seeing everything they want to see. Its a trick. Its effective. People are fucking stupid to use the psyops weapons maga controls.
Musk bought Twitter after it became obvious social media was amplifying existing rage and the value of continuing to weaponize that anger for politics, social division, tribalism, and controlling the narrative. But again, this is nothing new. Rush was doing that in the 90s, newspapers were doing it before that. 4chan and Stormfront have been hotbeds for hate that predate Facebook, and there were hate forums and Angelfire/Geocities before that. Aryan Nations were having parades in the 90s, Rodney King was getting beaten by cops, Matthew Shepherd was beaten and left to die on a fence. If the term incel had been around the Columbine Murderers would have defined angsty, Nazi-obsessed, white male loserdom turned violent.
Modern social media normalized open bigotry that used to have to hide in the shadows. The people who own those sites definitely picked a side and choose to allow it (along with just enough dissent to keep the arguments rolling) because of revenue. Fighting with words online keeps both sides of the masses happy because they can get in their zings and hot takes and feel like they’ve won, when in reality there’s nothing gained, nothing lost, only words. Meanwhile the banter is filling Elon’s pockets and he’s looting the government while we bicker with some dude in Malaysia over Confederate Pride.
People are impressionable, but they still have agency. They pick narratives that they’re comfortable with. There’s also never been a shortage of white, straight, Christian male privledge in America that never died, just steadily declined in functional importance until “your rights are being stolen by everyone not like you having rights” became a bankable campaign slogan. Combine that with twisted nostalgia for a peak America that never existed outside Hollywood concepts like “Leave It to Beaver” and you end up with Boomers making a desperate last stand for themselves and a generation of youth who think they missed out on something grand even though it never existed. You don’t need a psyop when allowing people to shamelessly indulge in tribalistic, entitled narcissism, you just have to give them a target to punch down at. Get them onboard with that and they’ll let you rob them blind while fighting tooth and nail to keep their overlords from getting taxed on their billions they’re making platforming their hate while they wait in line for the foodbank.
The people like Zuck and Musk have a hand in what’s going on in this country, but they are not the source of it any more than Trump is. All of them are but the visible tumors of a cancer the left keeps trying to ignore. We share this country with a lot of people who choose to hate. Taking away their platforms and leaders is like cutting the tail off a rattlesnake. It’s still there, now you just don’t know where it is.
Yes, because he was already doing it before he bought it. Russian money and maga money was already paying influencers, getting data from Facebook and stuff, placing ads. You can make a video, and call it an ad, and pay meta to place that ad, to any demographic yoi want. So, they initially just used money to spread hate on these platforms, and then they outright bought them all.
Yes, many came out of the woodworks. Many narcissists people prone to be hateful. That obviously helps spread it, but it also shapes people. You raise people in a hateful world, they will be hateful. If you raise them in a loving generous kind world, then they are trusting and kind.
But there are always some people that are naturally hateful, and selfish, and greedy, and only care about themselves. The narcissists. And they will seek power, and try and spread hate.
backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 2 months ago
I’d argue the opposite. Meta caters to the kinds of people that want to believe in a specific worldview. It didn’t brainwash people into becoming bigots, racists, misogynists, fascists, and haters, it just gave them a platform where they could say things in a curated social circle and not suffer the consequences that might occur if they said it in public. Gradually they realized there were a lot like them in the world and networked. The worst of them banded together and became real world threats like Proud Boys and Oathkeepers, but the vast majority still won’t take the risk and don’t do anything other than vote for candidates who promise to make their online fantasy a real one. New medium, same bigotry that has always existed in America. If social media disappeared today it wouldn’t prevent haters from hating, it would at best simmer it until they found a new means of connecting because now they know their vitriol is shared by many.
Man_kind@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
You’re wrong. Many people are impressionable. Some are not. Those that are, the algorithm knows who they are. Especially young people. So it shows them things to brainwash them with. Make them think some groups are bad people, by what they show them. The people they know this won’t work with, they just show them what they want to see, and let that bounce around their echo chamber.
But they wont let certain things be seen by the people they are successfully brainwashing.
Musk didnt spend 44 billion to buy twitter for no reason. Paramount isn’t in a mountain of debt because brainwashing doesnt work.
Everyone on instagram is being brainwashed. But also being shown what they want to see, and given the illusion they are seeing everything they want to see. Its a trick. Its effective. People are fucking stupid to use the psyops weapons maga controls.
backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 2 months ago
Musk bought Twitter after it became obvious social media was amplifying existing rage and the value of continuing to weaponize that anger for politics, social division, tribalism, and controlling the narrative. But again, this is nothing new. Rush was doing that in the 90s, newspapers were doing it before that. 4chan and Stormfront have been hotbeds for hate that predate Facebook, and there were hate forums and Angelfire/Geocities before that. Aryan Nations were having parades in the 90s, Rodney King was getting beaten by cops, Matthew Shepherd was beaten and left to die on a fence. If the term incel had been around the Columbine Murderers would have defined angsty, Nazi-obsessed, white male loserdom turned violent.
Modern social media normalized open bigotry that used to have to hide in the shadows. The people who own those sites definitely picked a side and choose to allow it (along with just enough dissent to keep the arguments rolling) because of revenue. Fighting with words online keeps both sides of the masses happy because they can get in their zings and hot takes and feel like they’ve won, when in reality there’s nothing gained, nothing lost, only words. Meanwhile the banter is filling Elon’s pockets and he’s looting the government while we bicker with some dude in Malaysia over Confederate Pride.
People are impressionable, but they still have agency. They pick narratives that they’re comfortable with. There’s also never been a shortage of white, straight, Christian male privledge in America that never died, just steadily declined in functional importance until “your rights are being stolen by everyone not like you having rights” became a bankable campaign slogan. Combine that with twisted nostalgia for a peak America that never existed outside Hollywood concepts like “Leave It to Beaver” and you end up with Boomers making a desperate last stand for themselves and a generation of youth who think they missed out on something grand even though it never existed. You don’t need a psyop when allowing people to shamelessly indulge in tribalistic, entitled narcissism, you just have to give them a target to punch down at. Get them onboard with that and they’ll let you rob them blind while fighting tooth and nail to keep their overlords from getting taxed on their billions they’re making platforming their hate while they wait in line for the foodbank.
The people like Zuck and Musk have a hand in what’s going on in this country, but they are not the source of it any more than Trump is. All of them are but the visible tumors of a cancer the left keeps trying to ignore. We share this country with a lot of people who choose to hate. Taking away their platforms and leaders is like cutting the tail off a rattlesnake. It’s still there, now you just don’t know where it is.
Man_kind@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Yes, because he was already doing it before he bought it. Russian money and maga money was already paying influencers, getting data from Facebook and stuff, placing ads. You can make a video, and call it an ad, and pay meta to place that ad, to any demographic yoi want. So, they initially just used money to spread hate on these platforms, and then they outright bought them all.
Yes, many came out of the woodworks. Many narcissists people prone to be hateful. That obviously helps spread it, but it also shapes people. You raise people in a hateful world, they will be hateful. If you raise them in a loving generous kind world, then they are trusting and kind.
But there are always some people that are naturally hateful, and selfish, and greedy, and only care about themselves. The narcissists. And they will seek power, and try and spread hate.