I don't consider silentsam a proper canary. I think we have an echo chamber already, and what silentsam says is so out of touch and blind that we just filter him out from the echo.
If I were to talk to a random stranger on the street about covid, censorship etc I think their view would more align with SS's than my own.
We can rarely (anymore) have fully honest conversations about those things in the real, so to have them anon online is sometimes useful to me.
The problem is that you are wrong to think your comparison to the SS is valid. I know it's just hyperbole, but there is no valid reason to fear the vaccine, or think this is control.
'SS' as an abbreviation of SilentSam/you, not nazis SS (:
Average Jo Normal would tend to agree with you, not me. So barometer might have been a better analogy than canary.
OMG, that is hilarious. I'll be on the look out for people using an acronym to refer to me, not to the Nazi's.
I once was a bit of a conspiracy theorist. I fight the ones I believed.
I use to think 911 was an inside job, and that climate change was a hoax, and was once Christian.
Those are the three I go after the most now that I have learned more about them.
There is a middle ground. You don’t have to choose between total acceptance of the mainstream narrative or ‘conspiracy’.
There is. Although there is a growing problem of fabricated conspiracy theories directed at populations with intent to manipulate. Ignoring that is like ignoring other forms of attack.
This is probably true most places, yes. Still, when was the last time you took his "arguments" seriously? When did he last change your mind on these issues?
Suppose you need to know which direction to go, and you have a set of advisors, one of which always says "go north", will you not just ignore that guide? Is silentsam any different?
while I don't recall him providing me with an epiphany or changing my mind, I think i at least need to know what the 'other side' is thinking, or even just remind myself that it exists
this is true irrespective of the quality of argument. Since I shunned twitter and reddit I am very aware that I mostly only dwell online in [near] echo chambers. It makes me cautious.
You are definitely right to be cautious. There are a lot of things in here that are tempting to agree to but which likely are no good. But to me other guides than silentsam are needed
Its not just echo chambers that are a problem for society, but the way AI algorithms use that to make you more predictable to them. Its the outcome of targeted marketing.
The algorithm tries to make you more predictable to it by trying to fit you into one of its categories. The boys polarised people to simplify targeting them. Its not even companies.
Its an unintentional consequence of how the algorithms ended up working.
Another advantage of memo. Algoless
While algo's are basically throwing petrol on the fire, they are not the sole source of human division. The current ideological conflict goes deeper.
Its a little more than that I think. Its interesting that they end up influencing our beliefs simply to make us more predictable to them. They give you narratives to push your belief.
