Off Topic Thread 5.0

French seem to love uncertainty and chaos lol

I see people are rejoicing online like it's Robben Island in 1990. All because Twitter banned them from <checks notes> saying mean things to the transgender community?

I expect he will despite the fact that he's hitched himself to his own platform. Which has been an absolute unfunctioning joke since its launch.

I'm reminded of this:

If the pro-censorship types don't like it couldn't they go and set up their own platform?

This is not going to result in anything good. I don't think "free speech" and "being able to say absolutely anything" are the same thing but it looks like the latter is what Musk is aiming for.

More hatred, more division, more extremism. These are the last days of liberal democracy.

No fb or Twitter. No interest tbh. Venjur said there's a decline in public representation, I think the standards have been low forever. Social media brings this to light.

Social media might bring more things to light but it has utterly done away with accountabililty, so bringing things to light doesn't matter nearly as much as it used to.

Like, when Trump was running for president, so many things came to light about him that would have buried any candidate ten or even five years previously. But he understood perfectly that you don't have to answer for your actions any more. You only have to create enough noise to confuse people long enough for them to lose interest.

Then when the scandals kept coming, what happened? An entirely fictitious scandal emerged which tainted Trump's opponent. Pizzagate would never have been published by any proper newspaper or TV channel, but tens of millions of people believed Hilary Clinton was a child sex trafficker because of social media. Thirty seconds of critical thinking would have told anyone it was bollocks, but social media is designed not to challenge your beliefs but affirm them, dragging you further and further down the rabbit hole. It is literally written into the code of Twitter and Facebook that if you read crazy conspiracy theory #1, then your timeline will now feature crazy conspiracy theory #2, 3 and 4.

People have always been manipulated by the media. However, back in the days of the Sun and the News of the World screaming pro-Tory headlines, it was very obvious, thus could be countered and there were rules by which everyone had to play. With social media, the rules are gone out the window and lies and disinformation keep morphing and resurrecting. At the same time, people have abandoned reputable news outlets and no longer have the attention span to really find out the truth.

We are in a very dangerous place right now and I don't see it improving. The worst thing is a lot of people will think the end of democracy will be a good thing.

This is a truly excellent summary.

I know he wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea. The Blindboy podcast this week was a conversation with Keith Earls. Probably no massive insights but interesting all the same. Especially when he talks about hating rugby for about 6 years after the lions tour.

He talked about how that has improved and how players look out for each other now. That it’s a much more open and supportive environment when it comes to mental health.

Sir John Kirwan was the first player I heard openly discuss his mental health. Sure it was after he retired but he was such a legend of the game to have someone like that be so open about his struggles when playing caused shock waves in NZ society. It absolutely changed how so many men viewed mental health.

I think sometimes we tend to put players on pedestals. That dehumanize them to a certain extent. Like they don’t feel what we feel because of the talents they have. Where as the truth is, their talent exposes them to a lot more stress than most experience.

Earls talked about an Instance in Ravenhill of a fan shouting at him that he had butter fingers. That it totally messed up his game as he was totally fixated on not dropping the ball. Something so small having such a big impact really surprised me.