Cory DoctorowThis profile of me in *The New Yorker* came out really well, if I do say so myself:
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕@woozle Excellent bit at the end of Doctorow's New Yorker profile on content moderation:
I worry that, because of the attacker’s advantage, the people who want to break the rules are always going to be able to find ways around them, and that we’re never going to be able to make a set of rules that is comprehensive enough to forestall bad conduct. We see this all the time, right? Facebook comes up with a rule that says you can’t use racial slurs, and then racists figure out euphemisms for racial slurs. They figure out how to walk right up to the line of what’s a racial slur without being a racial slur, according to the rule book. And they can probe the defenses. They can try a bunch of different euphemisms in their alt accounts; they can see which ones get banned or blocked, and then they can pick one that they think is moderator-proof.
Meanwhile, if you’re just some normie who’s having racist invective thrown at you, you’re not doing these systematic probes—you’re just trying to live your life. And they’re sitting there trying to goad you into going over the line. And as soon as you go over the line they know chapter and verse. They know exactly what rule you’ve broken, and they complain to the mods and get you kicked off. And so you end up with committed professional trolls having the run of social media and their targets being the ones who get the brunt of bad moderation calls. Because dealing with moderation, like dealing with any system of civil justice, is a skilled, context-heavy profession. Basically, you have to be a lawyer. And, if you’re just a dude who’s trying to talk to your friends on social media, you always lose.
I think Doctorow's touching on a universal truth: that any rules-based system ultimately ends up being a sort of barristered hell. It's why content moderation is so damned context-sensitive. And also why and how extremists on both sides of a divide can drive out moderates and give rise to a highly-partisan shriekfest. Closely related to SSC's "Toxoplasma of Rage":
https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage/
#CoryDoctorow #NewYorker #ContentModeration #Lawyering #ToxoplasmaOfRage
ZeNeece 🦄🏎️@dredmorbius @woozle @pluralistic OMG Exactly! It's so frustrating that if you are a bad actor with a malicious agenda, because you are able to get around any rules, you get to destroy everything. I agree completely. It's functional psychopathy in action. It's sort of amazing how it works.
Psychopaths are fantastic at blaming others for the exact thing they are doing. And somehow they get away with it more often than seems possible. It's beyond comprehension in some ways.
Psychopaths are fantastic at blaming others for the exact thing they are doing. And somehow they get away with it more often than seems possible. It's beyond comprehension in some ways.
Woozle Hypertwin@ZeNeece @dredmorbius @pluralistic
They are able to get away with it because of two significant populations: (1) people who don't know enough to understand that they're lying (and therefore believe the lie and all that stems from it), and (2) people who see the unifying power of the lie as more important than honesty.
They're also passively enabled by a third group that understands enough to see the lie, but not enough to care about it (there's probably some fuzzy overlap between this group and the other two).
@woozle @dredmorbius @pluralistic We are a fascinating species. Yes, I agree. The cognitive dissonance of many people here, all of whom are vociferous, is astounding. And once they buy in, they just keep doubling down to the lies.
It's so easy to lie to someone if you are telling them something they already want to hear.
But yes! The ex president was nothing more than a convenient puppet for the greedy and power hungry puppet masters who can cut the strings and bail when things get ugly.
It's so easy to lie to someone if you are telling them something they already want to hear.
But yes! The ex president was nothing more than a convenient puppet for the greedy and power hungry puppet masters who can cut the strings and bail when things get ugly.