Arab Autumn
People put way too much weight on the "power of human ideas." They think if thee is a "free marketplace of ideas" then naturally the best ideas spread and take over. But that's not how the real world works at all. The ideas that are propagated are those that reflect what is "going around on the ground" to speak, not whether or not the ideas are actually good or bad.
How has it been weaponized against democracy?
It’s still the best way to get info not filtered by MSM. There’s a reason politicians in both parties are calling for increased social media censorship.
Well, Kraut of all people should know how one can change their mind in the span of a decade.
Context?
Kraut (then Kraut & Te i think) was deep into Gamer Gate and Europe's far right, a large chunk of his video's were political commentary. I believe I first learnt of him through the "XY Einzelfall" video by Shaun. One day I read a comment saying Kraut response was pathetic, leading me to a Destiny stream where he defended the map, not believing that all the cases on the map just "magically vanish" under scrutiny. There apparently was a video he made in response too.
E: I just remembered, I actually watched the video itself. I can confidently say it included Kraut saying "Um actually, your definition of Arson only mostly correct" with the difference not mattering, and that the smoke in one of the cooking fires was not just a bit of smoke, but severe. Pathetic response indeed.
You can no longer find the stream or video, the only hint being this reddit post, with one comment mentioning Kraut was on the stream. Kraut rebranded himself and deleted his past videos in the process. This is just hearsay, but I heard he was attacked really hard by the far right after attacking their own for pedophillia. He left political commentary and made history videos instead, though there are still hints of Islamophobia and Racism in his videos, or common jokes just earn more criticism because of his past. I can't say, I don't watch them. However he definitely isn't nearly as much right as he used to be.
I recall watching Kraut's YouTube channel many many years ago, and I stopped following Kraut when he said "there is no such thing as a war crime." Justifying a certain action during a war as a necessity is one thing, sometimes there are necessary evils. It wasn't the particular thing he was justifying that even bothered me so much, but how he justified it. His argument wasn't even that it was a necessary evil, rather, he straight-up said you should be allowed to do anything you want in war period, there can be no "evil" in war. That just rubbed me the wrong way, assumed he might be a bit off his rocker and stopped following him.
Oh wow, I had no idea about the XY incident map. It certainly seems compelling on first glance.
I guess he got swept up in some shared hysteria at the time, went along with it, and then realised which group he was getting swepped up with, and backtracked, cutting ties.
Oh so you like the Internet eh?
It's just a fad, it'll go away.
I remember when people used to tell me that.
The ruling class, against whom the internet was a critical tool in the name of democracy, decided they were not going to let us have that tool anymore.
...it has?
I thought countries like China, Iran, India, and Pakistan ban access to social media and the greater internet because of the threat it still poses to information being shared and utilized by common citizens.
I'm fairly certain the flow information still has a net positive despite attempts to crackdown and control online interaction both from corporations and governments.
Pakistan's PTI is still alive despite being stabbed by the military because they can effectively reach their voterbase via the internet. I don't think anyone has actually taken a picture or video of Imran Khan ever since he was thrown in jail, yet he is as popular as ever.
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