Something has to be done. Obvious bullshit is fooling huge chunks of the population and causing huge damage. We have always selected acceptable content and it has usually been a positive. Schools have always picked which info to teach and what to not and that's largely a positive thing.
A Samuel Adams quote posted by Naval today on twitter I’ve been thinking about:
> If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom — go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!
Feeling hungry for change, what will our generation trade in exchange for our inheritance?
> Obvious bullshit is fooling huge chunks of the population
By definition, 'Obvious bullshit' cannot fool huge chunks of the population. If some bullshit can fool a huge part of the population then it is not obvious to them.
When people say things like "Obvious bullshit is fooling huge chunks of the population", they * mean* "views that I find disagreeable are becoming popular". Tough luck: that's how democracy works.
Anyone who wants to get in the way of strangers talking to each other is someone who thinks he's your king.
Obvious bullshit isn't a problem unless you consider all the world's religions a problem. But if you do, then that's by far the biggest and most serious problem and YouTube really must stamp it with priority over the piddly flash-in-the-pan crackpot science and conspiracy theories.
> Obvious bullshit is fooling huge chunks of the population and causing huge damage.
“Obvious” is debatable. Hardly anyone watching scientific content of any kind is an expert in the subject matter. What the public has always relied on is some sort of authority figure lending credibility to some idea or news story. For instance, saying masks don’t work is “obvious” bullshit. But remember back in March? Our glorious leaders were urging us not to buy masks because they don’t work, and besides, doctors need them. Even though they don’t work. And to have argued differently at the time was “misinformation.”
Now we’re trusting Facebook, Twitter, and Google to be the authority from which all truth flows.
> But remember back in March? Our glorious leaders were urging us not to buy masks because they don’t work, and besides, doctors need them.
I think this is a bit disingenuous. First of all, you're looking back with the benefit of hindsight and the knowledge of the virus that we have today. Additionally, weren't most of the recommendations around mask wearing that people not gobble up PPE because there was such a shortage of it around the country for first responders and hospital staff? Isn't that one of the primary reasons why people across the country started making homemade masks out of t-shirts and other spare cloth?
I'd also note that we just learned of this Virus at the end of December. We were and are still learning new things about how the virus spreads and how we can effectively fight its spread. The fact that some of the early guidance has been reversed is evidence that scientists are learning more about the virus, not that we shouldn't listen to them or that their advice is 'obvious bullshit'.
You’re completely misinterpreting the mask situation.
Of course they say there’s no evidence that a mask will protect YOU. Masks aren’t supposed to protect YOU. They prevent YOU transmitting the virus to OTHERS. So of course it doesn’t reduce YOUR risk of respiratory infection. That conclusion has not changed.
The guidance was pretty clear: they didn’t want people wearing masks because there was a PPE shortage. Now there isn’t a shortage, so they want people wearing masks.
Are you sure that masks don't protect you? You've made that statement three times in four sentences.
It's false that the guidance was clear the reason for recommending people not wear masks was because of a shortage. US health officials stated that masks were ineffective and may increase the likelihood of infection because of touching your face while wearing a mask.
As someone pointed out Sweden to this day has this to say about mask usage:
"The scientific evidence around the effectiveness of face masks in combatting the spread of infection is weak, which is why different countries have arrived at different recommendations."
The benefit of a free exchange of ideas is that it allows people to originate and develop the ideas that we later recognize are correct in hindsight. The eventual move towards masks wasn't inevitable; there are some countries even today where masks aren't broadly recommended, so if Internet platforms had banned mask advocacy in March there probably would have been a lot more.
(I'm not sure this is on point to Youtube's policy here, though - they say they aren't banning all vaccine skepticism, just specific categories of silly disinformation like microchips.)
That is one big leap, assuming the WHO and other public health organizations would not have changed their minds if it wasn't for "experts" on the internet. I highly doubt that.
Censoring content like this is pure bullshit that will have little effect on the positive side, but complaining about a measures that may safe lives is also not really enlightened in any way.
My country made masks for protests mandatory. Now people are complaining too. I would say that you should enjoy this new freedom. In normal times you meet the water cannon if you show up with a mask to a protest.
The problem is that many outlets lied directly in their readers faces with a reference to intelligence agencies. Turns out it was all a bunch of bullshit too.
