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PG: The biggest source of stress for me at YC was running HN

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482 points ilamont | 6 comments | 11 Jul 20 21:53 UTC | HN request time: 1.41s | source | bottom
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im3w1l ◴[11 Jul 20 22:49 UTC] No.23806845[source]▶
People were always like this. You just weren't able to see it, because you were in an offline "filter bubble" of peaceful and reasonable people. There have been countless civil wars in history after all.
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ianai ◴[11 Jul 20 22:57 UTC] No.23806901[source]▶
No, what online media are doing is massive propaganda at scales and levels of insidiousness unlike ever imaginable before now. Cambridge analytica for instance targeted ads at people to maximize their outrage toward other citizens. Before advertisements were much easier to avoid or ignore and weren’t being used for outrage. Ads have to get clicks nowadays for revenue and in the past they just had to be associated with wide viewership. People click on what infuriates them more often than other content.
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1. sneak ◴[11 Jul 20 23:01 UTC] No.23806931[source]▶
Long before the internet there were people generating enough outrage in a society to slaughter millions of people on flimsy or no basis. I don’t think this is anything new.

If anything, it offers a counterbalance: you can also communicate with groups of reasonable people not physically proximate to you.

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2. neonate ◴[11 Jul 20 23:54 UTC] No.23807283[source]▶
Not in the postwar West, and that's the area where the change we're talking about is notable, so your point is actually an argument for the opposite conclusion.
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3. mindslight ◴[12 Jul 20 00:23 UTC] No.23807459[source]▶
Iraq? Vietnam? Surely those count as slaughtering massive numbers of people on flimsy bases.

But yes that trend seems to be slowing down, which I'd attribute to the splintering of mass media. Are we actually becoming more divided, or are we just becoming more aware of divisions because we're all more connected?

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4. intended ◴[12 Jul 20 03:41 UTC] No.23808610[source]▶
Uh, the postwar west developed the modern techniques.

For a while the rationalist approach was dominant and media channels tended to reflect that ideology.

But with the creation of the 24/7 news cycle a whole new system to leverage the modern media tools that were created.

Eventually in the 1990s this trend came to a head with the creation of Fox news and the rest is frankly history.

But before that, for a short while, it did look like reason was overcoming superstition and ignorance.

5. neonate ◴[13 Jul 20 18:57 UTC] No.23824274{3}[source]▶
For sure those count. I mean domestically. Obviously we do things abroad that we would never tolerate at home, and that's one of the biggest problems with our society. Nonetheless the domestic situation has been stable for a long time, and if the foundation cracks there, it will be notable.
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6. mindslight ◴[14 Jul 20 16:34 UTC] No.23834081{4}[source]▶
I read sneak's comment as being about wars, which are mostly foreign. What domestic events were you thinking of that fit that description?