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Post by redcase on Oct 23, 2024 19:39:46 GMT
Obama versus Romney and McCain were such amazing, intellectual, insightful debates. Absolute respect for each other and a yearning to do what was best for their country even if their paths to get there differed. Utter joy to watch. Instead now we’ve got that fucking quasi nonce insulting and abusing people on stage and half of an entire country lapping it up because all they want is a reality TV show. Appalling and pathetic. I really don't think we live in sane times anymore. I think it's time to turn the Internet off and go back to getting our news from Trevor Mcdonald at 10pm. Everyone's head is full of shit these days. Social media has been an utter disaster for western civilisation. I could not agree more re social media. It has made the world an unhappier, angrier and mistrustful place. Hate, bigotry, misinformation seem to dominate these platforms. It’s become yet another avenue for people to indulge their vicarious appetites more than anything. |
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Post by Jayrannasaurus on Oct 24, 2024 5:14:10 GMT
Social media has been a ride.
I was born in 1989, so lived through the novelty of the internet, Google, MySpace, then Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the rest.
Retired all my accounts including Facebook, which even a decade ago started turning very stale.
Basically only on LinkedIn and Twitter these days, but have made peace with the fact that Twitter might not survive after this election (depending on result).
SM has been a Pandora's Box situation for most governments, and I saw some graphs in a recent LSE course on International Relations I did where you can see almost an "awakening" of the voter-base in developing countries alongside the increase in access to Internet + Social Media use; people with more + instant access to live coverage of events (unfiltered) are becoming less likely to continue voting for despots in control of state media apparatus (e.g.).
The other side of that spectrum is social media under heavy government censorship (e.g what has come out in testimony around Covid), which has the power to brainwash everyone into believing things that may not be true, or destroying peoples' characters who are actually experts and worth listening to.
It's really, really difficult to see the right balance - I think about generative AI in the same way, we're teetering on the edge of a very scary world.
I saw this new function on the Google Pixel, for example, where you can literally generate anything and add it to your photo (HQ). Some examples were a series of helicopters hovering over a scene, a tank driving down a motorway and so on - it will be virtually impossible to distinguish reality from fiction soon.
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Post by johnboy14 on Oct 24, 2024 6:19:17 GMT
Social media has been a ride. I was born in 1989, so lived through the novelty of the internet, Google, MySpace, then Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the rest. Retired all my accounts including Facebook, which even a decade ago started turning very stale. Basically only on LinkedIn and Twitter these days, but have made peace with the fact that Twitter might not survive after this election (depending on result). SM has been a Pandora's Box situation for most governments, and I saw some graphs in a recent LSE course on International Relations I did where you can see almost an "awakening" of the voter-base in developing countries alongside the increase in access to Internet + Social Media use; people with more + instant access to live coverage of events (unfiltered) are becoming less likely to continue voting for despots in control of state media apparatus (e.g.). The other side of that spectrum is social media under heavy government censorship (e.g what has come out in testimony around Covid), which has the power to brainwash everyone into believing things that may not be true, or destroying peoples' characters who are actually experts and worth listening to. It's really, really difficult to see the right balance - I think about generative AI in the same way, we're teetering on the edge of a very scary world. I saw this new function on the Google Pixel, for example, where you can literally generate anything and add it to your photo (HQ). Some examples were a series of helicopters hovering over a scene, a tank driving down a motorway and so on - it will be virtually impossible to distinguish reality from fiction soon. People have no interest in learning about an issue. Nobodies reading books or studying the issue, they just want to watch a Jordan Peterson short and form their opinions that way. As Dave Chapelle once said, if you care about everything, then you care about nothing. I'll be honest, I'm not looking forward to an AI future for the same reasons you outlined. I work in the technology sector and my hopes are it will help us cure dementia, cancers etc etc but we've created more elaborate porn and political propaganda with it so far. The signs are not good. |
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Post by Jayrannasaurus on Oct 24, 2024 7:26:56 GMT
Couldn't agree more.
Many people began priding themselves on being able to find an answer via Google, versus actually understanding it.
A Professor I chatted with at work, who is massively knowledgeable on AI, described it as the species beginning to devolve its ability to learn.
Scary.
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Post by king nothing on Oct 25, 2024 7:19:04 GMT
Couldn't agree more. Many people began priding themselves on being able to find an answer via Google, versus actually understanding it. A Professor I chatted with at work, who is massively knowledgeable on AI, described it as the species beginning to devolve its ability to learn. Scary. That quote is bloody terrifying! I'm a bit older than you Jay, so I remember the days before any internet well. I would constantly have my head in a book. I would easily be reading a book a week if not more. Now it seems my ability to focus on reading something, whether it's fiction or non fiction just isn't there. Not only is that books, but I'm finding it with TV as well. I'm not a conspiracy nut but it feels like we are being dumbed down by higher ups! Case in point is these YouTube shorts I mentioned last night in the match thread. Hit you with 20-30 seconds of information then move on. It really is scary. I really miss reading books too 😞 Help!! |
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Post by redcase on Oct 29, 2024 6:50:02 GMT
That MSG rally certainly was one of the rallies of all time. Yeesh.
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Post by Rustin Cohle on Oct 29, 2024 11:04:56 GMT
One of the US pollsters did a talk at my work today. Yeesh, it was depressing. Even if Kamala wins, which they consider a one-third chance, she'll likely have a full Republican Congress. That means she'll get fuck all done, and get blamed for it, and Trump or a replacement Trump will walk 2028.
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Post by unitedsotex on Oct 30, 2024 16:57:32 GMT
PolyMarket showing Trump 66.3% and Kamala 33.8% forecast....
I just don't see it being this far apart
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Post by Jayrannasaurus on Oct 30, 2024 17:14:32 GMT
It looks like Kamala is likely to win the popular vote, but Electoral College may go to Trump. The polls generally seem to favor Dems + underrate GOP voters, but most of the swing states seem to be R+ (which is really surprising). You can filter the aggregate of polls by state here. x.com/ForecasterEnten/status/1851621958317662558 |
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Post by unitedsotex on Oct 30, 2024 17:34:46 GMT
It looks like Kamala is likely to win the popular vote, but Electoral College may go to Trump. The polls generally seem to favor Dems + underrate GOP voters, but most of the swing states seem to be R+ (which is really surprising). You can filter the aggregate of polls by state here. x.com/ForecasterEnten/status/1851621958317662558The popular vote will be an interesting one for me to watch. (rhetorical thought) Is Kamala really that popular amongst the populus in country or everything we are seeing on socials just a paid push by the left to make it seem that way? She was wildly unpopular during her first run so I am finding it hard to believe that she is this popular in such a short period of time. You didn't really a ton of her in the first 3 years as VP, or maybe I didn't. |
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Post by Rustin Cohle on Oct 30, 2024 18:28:01 GMT
PolyMarket showing Trump 66.3% and Kamala 33.8% forecast.... I just don't see it being this far apart You're misunderstanding what they mean I think - they're saying if this election happened three times, Trump would win twice and Kamala once. All three of those wins could easily be 51-49 in the vote/Electoral College. It's still a super tight race. |
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Post by unitedsotex on Oct 30, 2024 18:42:27 GMT
PolyMarket showing Trump 66.3% and Kamala 33.8% forecast.... I just don't see it being this far apart You're misunderstanding what they mean I think - they're saying if this election happened three times, Trump would win twice and Kamala once. All three of those wins could easily be 51-49 in the vote/Electoral College. It's still a super tight race. Oooooh ok, that would make more sense then, thank you for clearing that up. At a glance those numbers didn't really line up |
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Post by Karma on Oct 30, 2024 19:51:07 GMT
I think she’s one of the weakest candidates you could put against Trump. A bumbling Biden is more appealing.
Not sure wheeling out celebrities is the big vote winner they think it is either.
Celebrities lives are the polar opposite of ours.
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Post by unitedsotex on Oct 31, 2024 1:26:15 GMT
I think she’s one of the weakest candidates you could put against Trump. A bumbling Biden is more appealing. Not sure wheeling out celebrities is the big vote winner they think it is either. Celebrities lives are the polar opposite of ours. I think this cycle the celebrity "endorsement" has had less appeal than in previous due to the realization that it's doesn't matter who gets elected because it won't effect them at all. A lot of the realization I believe stemmed from the COVID lock downs and how they all made more money sitting at home and endorsing shit while everyone else feared for their lives from a pandemic. I can't stand celebrities and think they are all bought and paid for.... well accept Robert Di Niro. He has hated Trump way before he became president in 2016 lol. |
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Post by johnboy14 on Oct 31, 2024 6:26:37 GMT
I think she’s one of the weakest candidates you could put against Trump. A bumbling Biden is more appealing. Not sure wheeling out celebrities is the big vote winner they think it is either. Celebrities lives are the polar opposite of ours. Ricky Gervais nailed Hollywood a long time ago. Have to say Trump is the ultimate Troller lol. The garbage truck I mean. |
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