If every writer fled from every space that Nazis and their proto-fascist ilk insinuated themselves into, there would be nowhere left to run to. Sometimes, you gotta pick a hill.
The ability to block is one of the great strengths of this platform. I’m not on Bluesky, but don’t believe in the concept of a “pure” venue regardless.
I was taught to read - then first using the knowledge and tools I was raised with - slide things into the credible, the unknown/unfamiliar (I should go to the library and look this up if I give a shit) and the “naaah, this seems like BS” buckets. Admittedly it’s getting tougher in the AI/bot farm/“Boomer with a compooter” era, but JFC people, don’t give up.
Too many people are afraid of being exposed to things they don’t agree with… or disrupt their own rigid views.
I’m not saying you should have to sit outside the Nuremberg rallies every time you log on, but here you can engage at will. Or just block them if the opener is mouth breathing vitriol. Bluesky is going to have to prepare for an onslaught of Bot hate, Incel raging and probably legal attacks from the new regime. No site will be safe.
Of course every time I hope that the “I’m not a Nazee!” crowd might be rethinking their choices, I pop over to r/Conservative for a cold shower of disappointment.
Use every venue that seems reasonably available at this point. We might not have many choices left in a few weeks.
Great piece. I think we do want and need platforms to allow broad expression of ideas and concepts, because even as a left wing writer, you want confidence that your own views aren’t going to be curtailed in the future and that necessitates some level of content neutrality (within broad but limited boundaries).
Substack isn’t, as far as I’m aware, actively boosting particular political views. This is clearly happening at X and is why using that platform is becoming untenable.
I’m probably blowing it out of all proportion by even writing about it. The fact that engagement with substack content is so high over at blue sky tells me straight up that most people just don’t care. But it’s the consistency of one or two needling voices that begins to irritate after awhile
Yeah, that seems to be the MO. Someone wants to keep hammering their point view, without necessarily wanting to engage with andunderstand other perspectives.
Cynically, the far right like to push the right to free speech to push out other voices via abuse etc. While the far left seem to push for curtailing free speech to achieve same end.
There is so much behind this - what different people are interested in and how tech facilitates like-minded people coming together (social media etc) both for good and for ill. Also how the tech can facilitate changing people’s interests and preferences (algorithms that choose content for us) as we are what we consume - both gastronomically and mentally.
Competing principles of free speech vs freedom from harm - absolutes will never work in practice, coz dealing with humans.
So long as the owners of the tech are making ‘reasonable efforts’ to filter out the worst (being what most people would consider unacceptable), that’s about the best we can hope for.
We also need to collectively learn critical ignoring of info, before we get to critically analysing info. Interesting article on this from a couple of years ago:
Agree - Meta & Musk have definitely walked away from this. They now offer the monitoring you have when you don’t want to pay for proper monitoring (to paraphrase Morrison Gov’t’s effort on NACC).
I don’t know about Substack or others where people have shifted to avoid the Zukermusk hydra.
Not related but did you see Netflix is dropping a new limited series? Called Zero Day and its about a cyber attack on transport and infrastructure. Bob de Niro is starring. This anything to do with your book series?
Surprised you didn't delete your substack over this. I mean, you wouldn't want people to think you're a demonic white devil colonizer NAZI would you? Oh wait, you're Australian, they already do.
Isn't this a similar conundrum you rasied about hitting the big red button for Facebook over on your other column? Similar issue with similar questions and similarly a personal maths for you to decide. We all have different reason and arguments. Its easy for me my only stake in these media formats is my own enjoyment and keeping in touch. If these sites want to claim that they are 'free speech bastions' or we don't want to restrict hateful nazi speech because they bring in money then I am free to leave. My investment is much lower than yours.
“we all have different reasons and arguments” - yeah I was just thinking about this a couple of minutes ago. Partly it’s about where you feel the responsibility for duration falls. The blue sky, true believers truly believe that it is the responsibility of the platform owners to police the boundaries of reasonable discourse and hold the gate against any barbarian invaders. Good luck with that when there tens of millions of them coming at you. I’m perfectly happy guarding my own walls and deciding who gets into my timeline and who doesn’t.
Part of the issue is the subjectiveness of where to draw the line (illegal vs offensive vs distasteful), but also the cost involved. If it’s cost-prohibitive to filter out absolutely everything, then we end up with nothing, or worse, the Zukermusk Hydra currently running the big ones.
I broadly agree with you - my personal view is that as long as platform owners are making genuine & reasonable attempts, have publicly stated aims & methods, and adhere to them, then we have a role to play as well.
It’s good to have a starting point (purists), but need to factor in practicalities as well too.
And the black and white view of what should and shouldn't be allowed (beyond who gets to decide this) means that the populace is not exposed to the fact that there are people among us who have these abhorrent ideas. And those that have the abhorrent ideas don't then get exposed to the rest of society telling them in no uncertain terms that the ideas they have are abhorrent.
This low level discourse conflict serves as a societal immune system/inoculation to weed out the truly abhorrent stuff before it goes mainstream and becomes normalised.
I shared a news article with a mate yesterday, which documented the bewildered offence a bunch of Nazis felt when they turned up to have a little Nazi rally and the local townsfolk greeted them with pepper spray and threw stuff at them before they got arrested. My mate responded: "You. Are. A. Fucking. Nazi. We had a whole war about this. We don’t do “reasonable” with fucking Nazis."
People are rightly alarmed about the rise of fascism and the far right, but alarms have been sounding on this for more than a decade, which means that the societal immune system is working.
Cynically, I suspect tech is challenging that societal immune system. When social media and some so-called news channels can be used as an echo chamber, it means that people can effectively choose to not be exposed to different viewpoints. If all they consume is one perspective, it is their norm. And coz humans are tribal, humans will defend their tribal norms from outsiders and new info that challenges those norms.
Joys of humans developing (evolving) our own creations faster than we can biologically evolve to adapt to them, and faster than our systems of regulation (gov’t) can change laws to mitigate the worst elements. Let’s not get into discussing biological integration with the tech to help make up for lack of human evolution - my brain is hurting and needs some junk comfort food 😜
Not posting because of the Nazis is exactly what the Nazis would like you to do.
If every writer fled from every space that Nazis and their proto-fascist ilk insinuated themselves into, there would be nowhere left to run to. Sometimes, you gotta pick a hill.
And if you die on it, then so be it.
The ability to block is one of the great strengths of this platform. I’m not on Bluesky, but don’t believe in the concept of a “pure” venue regardless.
I was taught to read - then first using the knowledge and tools I was raised with - slide things into the credible, the unknown/unfamiliar (I should go to the library and look this up if I give a shit) and the “naaah, this seems like BS” buckets. Admittedly it’s getting tougher in the AI/bot farm/“Boomer with a compooter” era, but JFC people, don’t give up.
Too many people are afraid of being exposed to things they don’t agree with… or disrupt their own rigid views.
I’m not saying you should have to sit outside the Nuremberg rallies every time you log on, but here you can engage at will. Or just block them if the opener is mouth breathing vitriol. Bluesky is going to have to prepare for an onslaught of Bot hate, Incel raging and probably legal attacks from the new regime. No site will be safe.
Of course every time I hope that the “I’m not a Nazee!” crowd might be rethinking their choices, I pop over to r/Conservative for a cold shower of disappointment.
Use every venue that seems reasonably available at this point. We might not have many choices left in a few weeks.
Oh, and Fuck Nazis.
Great piece. I think we do want and need platforms to allow broad expression of ideas and concepts, because even as a left wing writer, you want confidence that your own views aren’t going to be curtailed in the future and that necessitates some level of content neutrality (within broad but limited boundaries).
Substack isn’t, as far as I’m aware, actively boosting particular political views. This is clearly happening at X and is why using that platform is becoming untenable.
I’m probably blowing it out of all proportion by even writing about it. The fact that engagement with substack content is so high over at blue sky tells me straight up that most people just don’t care. But it’s the consistency of one or two needling voices that begins to irritate after awhile
I cop it on Bluesky as well. There's a couple of Aussie offenders that are really annoying. Fred Nurk is one.
Yeah, that seems to be the MO. Someone wants to keep hammering their point view, without necessarily wanting to engage with andunderstand other perspectives.
Cynically, the far right like to push the right to free speech to push out other voices via abuse etc. While the far left seem to push for curtailing free speech to achieve same end.
Hear hear, jolly well said old chap.
There is so much behind this - what different people are interested in and how tech facilitates like-minded people coming together (social media etc) both for good and for ill. Also how the tech can facilitate changing people’s interests and preferences (algorithms that choose content for us) as we are what we consume - both gastronomically and mentally.
Competing principles of free speech vs freedom from harm - absolutes will never work in practice, coz dealing with humans.
So long as the owners of the tech are making ‘reasonable efforts’ to filter out the worst (being what most people would consider unacceptable), that’s about the best we can hope for.
We also need to collectively learn critical ignoring of info, before we get to critically analysing info. Interesting article on this from a couple of years ago:
https://theconversation.com/when-critical-thinking-isnt-enough-to-beat-information-overload-we-need-to-learn-critical-ignoring-198549
"So long as the owners of the tech are making ‘reasonable efforts’ to filter out the worst" but are they?
Agree - Meta & Musk have definitely walked away from this. They now offer the monitoring you have when you don’t want to pay for proper monitoring (to paraphrase Morrison Gov’t’s effort on NACC).
I don’t know about Substack or others where people have shifted to avoid the Zukermusk hydra.
Not related but did you see Netflix is dropping a new limited series? Called Zero Day and its about a cyber attack on transport and infrastructure. Bob de Niro is starring. This anything to do with your book series?
time to dust the lawyers off? Too many coincidences surely . . . .
Hopefully I can post. Great piece.
Surprised you didn't delete your substack over this. I mean, you wouldn't want people to think you're a demonic white devil colonizer NAZI would you? Oh wait, you're Australian, they already do.
Perhaps the friction between users and shareholders would be best solved but comforting it as a co-op. So your users are your shareholders.
There's always going to be someone who takes umbrage with you no matter how innocuous your post is.
Blessed be the Block Button
Yes, a thousand times, yes. It would be like not speaking on the Acropolis because the guy before you sold out to the Persians.
Isn't this a similar conundrum you rasied about hitting the big red button for Facebook over on your other column? Similar issue with similar questions and similarly a personal maths for you to decide. We all have different reason and arguments. Its easy for me my only stake in these media formats is my own enjoyment and keeping in touch. If these sites want to claim that they are 'free speech bastions' or we don't want to restrict hateful nazi speech because they bring in money then I am free to leave. My investment is much lower than yours.
“we all have different reasons and arguments” - yeah I was just thinking about this a couple of minutes ago. Partly it’s about where you feel the responsibility for duration falls. The blue sky, true believers truly believe that it is the responsibility of the platform owners to police the boundaries of reasonable discourse and hold the gate against any barbarian invaders. Good luck with that when there tens of millions of them coming at you. I’m perfectly happy guarding my own walls and deciding who gets into my timeline and who doesn’t.
Yeah, it’s a tricky one.
Part of the issue is the subjectiveness of where to draw the line (illegal vs offensive vs distasteful), but also the cost involved. If it’s cost-prohibitive to filter out absolutely everything, then we end up with nothing, or worse, the Zukermusk Hydra currently running the big ones.
I broadly agree with you - my personal view is that as long as platform owners are making genuine & reasonable attempts, have publicly stated aims & methods, and adhere to them, then we have a role to play as well.
It’s good to have a starting point (purists), but need to factor in practicalities as well too.
And the black and white view of what should and shouldn't be allowed (beyond who gets to decide this) means that the populace is not exposed to the fact that there are people among us who have these abhorrent ideas. And those that have the abhorrent ideas don't then get exposed to the rest of society telling them in no uncertain terms that the ideas they have are abhorrent.
This low level discourse conflict serves as a societal immune system/inoculation to weed out the truly abhorrent stuff before it goes mainstream and becomes normalised.
I shared a news article with a mate yesterday, which documented the bewildered offence a bunch of Nazis felt when they turned up to have a little Nazi rally and the local townsfolk greeted them with pepper spray and threw stuff at them before they got arrested. My mate responded: "You. Are. A. Fucking. Nazi. We had a whole war about this. We don’t do “reasonable” with fucking Nazis."
People are rightly alarmed about the rise of fascism and the far right, but alarms have been sounding on this for more than a decade, which means that the societal immune system is working.
this is why we all need to be a little bit G.I.Robot from D.C's series Creature Commandos
Thanks for that - a new perspective for me.
Cynically, I suspect tech is challenging that societal immune system. When social media and some so-called news channels can be used as an echo chamber, it means that people can effectively choose to not be exposed to different viewpoints. If all they consume is one perspective, it is their norm. And coz humans are tribal, humans will defend their tribal norms from outsiders and new info that challenges those norms.
Joys of humans developing (evolving) our own creations faster than we can biologically evolve to adapt to them, and faster than our systems of regulation (gov’t) can change laws to mitigate the worst elements. Let’s not get into discussing biological integration with the tech to help make up for lack of human evolution - my brain is hurting and needs some junk comfort food 😜