Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Monday, March 27, 2017

Proposed

Capitalism as the system that destroys the world so straight guys can pretend they are working when they are playing golf.

2 comments:

jimf said...

> Capitalism as the system that destroys the world. . .

You know, one of the blindnesses of the so-called liber[techbro]tarians
is that, while they wail and whinge about the destructive power of
large governments, they turn a blind eye to the aggregations of
private power embodied by large corporations.

One didn't need Noam Chomsky to make one aware of this, but what
the hell:

(via https://amormundi.blogspot.com/2015/07/weekend.html)

2014 "Noam Chomsky": Why you can not have a Capitalist Democracy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mxp_wgFWQo
----------------
[Libertarians are] in favor of private tyranny -- . . .which is
what corporations are. It's worth bearing in mind how radically opposed
this is to classical liberalism. They like to invoke, say, Adam Smith.
But if you read Adam Smith, he said the opposite. . . [T]he claim is that he
was opposed to regulation, government regulation, interference
in the markets. It's not true. He was in favor of regulation. . .
when it benefits the working man. He was against
interference when it benefitted the masters. That's traditional
classical liberalism. [W]hat's called "libertarian" in
the United States, which likes to invoke the history that they've
concocted, is radically opposed to basic, classic libertarian
principles. And it's kind of astonishing to me that a lot of
young people. . . are attracted by this kind
of thing.
====

So now we have the entertaining spectacle of an archipelago of
libertarian-leaning content providers on YouTube (including members
of the Mens Rights Activist and MGTOW communities) pitching fits
because YouTube is demonetizing their channels -- presumably this is
fallout from the recent spate of corporations backing away from
advertising on YouTube because the ads were turning up in
association with content that the corporations (or at any
rate their customers) were finding objectionable.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/26/business/media/google-youtube-advertising-risks-publishers.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/25/technology/farhads-and-mikes-week-in-tech-youtubes-problematic-advertising.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/business/media/youtube-advertisers-offensive-content.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/22/business/atampt-and-johnson-amp-johnson-pull-ads-from-youtube-amid-hate-speech-concerns.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/technology/google-advertising-apologizes-ad.html]

Why should these people expect to be protected from the self-serving
business decisions of a large corporation? (Perhaps they think if they
complain vociferously enough their own viewers will provide sufficient
countervailing political pressure on Google? Don't hold your breath!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9jva4zTcKo
----------------
YouTube Censorship: The Ugly Truth
Paul Joseph Watson
Published on Mar 28, 2017
The hammer is about to drop.
====

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ8NvWvMF-I
----------------
An Important Message About YouTube and Freedom
Stefan Molyneux
Published on Mar 29, 2017
====

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bnQrajRfTM
----------------
MY LAST EVER VIDEO?
Paul Joseph Watson
Published on Mar 24, 2017
Your favorite YouTube channels could be about to disappear.
====

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxU4Ib4K3cI
----------------
#AdsenseGate: The Truth About Youtube Demonetization
Computing Forever
Published on Mar 27, 2017
====

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3ergDlRAps
----------------
My last video? MGTOW
MGTOW 101
Published on Mar 27, 2017
====


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gn9A-kdsRo
Ella Fitzgerald - Cry me a river

jimf said...

> Why should these people expect to be protected from the self-serving
> business decisions of a large corporation?

At the other end of the political spectrum, we also have shouts
of outrage from LGBTQ+ YouTube content providers who recently
discovered that YouTube has been somewhat sneakily disappearing
their videos when a little-known restricted mode is engaged that
guards young eyes against what skittish Bible-belt parents might
find objectionable.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/technology/youtube-lgbt-videos.html
-------------
YouTube Filtering Draws Ire of Gay and Transgender Creators
By NIRAJ CHOKSHI
MARCH 20, 2017
====

Not all the content providers being blocked self-identify as
being gay (or transgender). All they have to do is to **mention**
The Gay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBoOf6KazzE
-------------
My Channel is DISAPPEARING
SupDaily06
Published on Mar 19, 2017
====

I wonder if Dan Savage has weighed in on this topic yet.
I remember that when he started the It Gets Better project
a few years ago, he said that it was a way of getting **around**
the isolation of LGBT kids whose adult "handlers" --
parents, school principals, etc. -- would **never** allow
an LGBT adult to talk to them directly. YouTube, he said,
provided an end run around this limitation.

Well, not any more. Except that 1. kids in the internet
generation have from the beginning been subject to their parents'
restrictions on computer usage at home, at school, and in the
public library; and 2. those same kids have always had to worry about
their parents or teachers discovering sites in their browsing history
they might be disinclined for the adults to know about and
3. **all** generations of kids -- or at least the cleverer and
"naughtier" ones -- have always been able to sneak access to stuff
their parents and other grownups didn't want them to have,
whether it be cigarettes and Playboy magazines,
pot and booze, or now, internet porn and straight talk about
LGBT issues.

Still, I'm glad I don't work for Google's public relations department.

;->