Pirate's Cove

As usual, this Vox article is long, way, way, long, just keeps going and going. Hyper-Warmist David Roberts just can’t stop. What does he really want, though?

In a polarized world, YouTube can’t remain neutral

The US nonprofit Avaaz has a new report out detailing how YouTube is actively spreading climate misinformation to millions of viewers through its recommendation algorithms, including videos with exciting titles like, ahem, “CIA Whistleblower Speaks Out About Climate Engineering Vaccination Dangers and 911.”

The report contains a number of recommendations for the platform, including working with independent fact checkers to identify such videos and remove or demonetize them.

The recommendations make perfect sense — as long as climate misinformation can be reliably and fairly identified in a way that won’t get YouTube embroiled in political or ideological controversies.

Why is it their business? Why do they think they have the right to demand that Youtube use “independent” (meaning left leaning climate cultists) fact checkers? People put videos up. That’s the point. Don’t like it? Don’t watch them. Some are insane BS, like the one mentioned in the first paragraph, some are right on the mark. Of course, they consider anything that exposes the reality of the ‘climate change’ scam as disinformation, as you’ll see in the article itself.

YouTube and other social media platforms do want to limit the spread of misinformation and hate speech, if only to relieve social pressure and defend their reputations. But they want to do so while remaining ideologically neutral, refraining from anything that might appear to be choosing sides in America’s culture war.

Unfortunately, in a polarized and divided US, where even the most basic facts and values are contested, that posture is becoming impossible. The choice between neutrality and fundamental values like respect for evidence and non-discrimination is becoming unavoidable, and private companies like social media platforms, when pressed, will always choose neutrality, for business reasons.

It’s a cute argument, but, the point of Youtube is to allow people to upload videos. Get over it.

Anyhow, this long, long, long screed jumps into S1 and S2 thinking, because, well, this is Vox being Vox

The broad thrust of Kahneman’s work was to challenge “homo economicus,” the conventional economic view of human beings as rational interest maximizers. There’s a lot to it, but at its heart is a distinction between System 1 (S1) thinking and System 2 (S2) thinking.

Kahneman described S1 as “fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, and unconscious,” describing what are more colloquially known as “gut reactions.” S2 is “slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, and conscious,” which is closer to what we tend to conceive of as thinking — taking a step back, slowing down, consciously assessing and reasoning.

We eventually are told that America was founded on S2 institutions (if you’re still awake from reading the actual article), and that they’re breaking down (because people are allowed to post Wrongthink to Youtube, I guess), and other things like Rush Limbaugh and Fox News are Bad and Wrongthink. Essentially, if you make it deep into the article, you learn that Youtube and other social media outlets should censor the hell out of anyone not following the Climate Cultist point of view.

It is transpartisan institutions and transparent rules, equitably enforced, that create social trust in a pluralist democracy. And it is social trust that enables such S2 infrastructure to persist. When it’s working, it creates a positive feedback loop.

But right now it isn’t working. The opposite loop is running, thanks to the many failures of US institutions and the coordinated right-wing backlash against them. Social trust is declining; as it does, institutions have a harder time operating effectively; as they stumble, it further reduces social trust.

If anything can check that negative feedback loop, it’s not going to be social media companies writing better algorithms. Those who believe in liberal values, who respect science and expertise and seek a peaceful, equitable multi-ethnic democracy, must devote themselves to taking power and reshaping public institutions to be more effective, trustworthy, and democratic.

Building S2 infrastructure that lives up to the lofty ideals in America’s founding documents is long, slow work. But it is the only path back from the abyss.

This is the central argument: unless they follow not just the climate cult viewpoints, but all Leftist viewpoints, they’re failing, and this needs to be enforced. Nope, not Fascist at all.