Collected Over Spread @collectedoverspread@qoto.org

"The problems are these:

"We don’t have anything resembling a consensus on what 'cancel culture' is and we’re not having a serious discussion about defining it;

"We don’t have a consensus on how we reconcile the interests of speakers and responders, and we’re not making a serious attempt to reach one.

"We don’t have a consensus about what to do about it and we’re not trying to reach one."

"Our Fundamental Right To Shame And Shun The New York Times" by Ken White in The Popehat Report https://popehat.substack.com/p/our-fundamental-right-to-shame-and

#FreeSpeech #CancelCulture

Additional hashtag variations #303Creative #303CreativeLLCvElenis

Curious about the ramifications of the recent #303CreativevElenis #SCOTUS decision. Does it mean that I, as an atheist website designer, can refuse to create wedding websites with religious references? (This would not be based on the actual religion of the partners, only the content of the site.) Or what if I want to create websites for only same-sex couples? Must I have a sincerely-held religious belief to this effect or can I simply exercise my #FirstAmendment #1A right to not speak in certain situations?

I always had a distaste for Pinterest since it required you to login to view things, while #Twitter didn't. Now Pinterest doesn't require login (just found this out today, I'll admit) and Twitter does.

@test Seems like posts from Mastodon and similar Fediverse applications appear in the "microblog" in Kbin, which I guess makes sense, but I'm still not sure about this dichotomy.

Test post from Mastodon to the "Threadiverse" (Kbin) @test

Today #Twitter released much of the code used for their recommendation algorithm https://blog.twitter.com/engineering/en_us/topics/open-source/2023/twitter-recommendation-algorithm

An machine-learning system relies on both an algorithm and training data so I wonder exactly what insights can be gained from what's been made public (I'm definitely not an expert in this area so I invite corrections and clarifications here). Regardless, it's an unusual level of transparency for a major social-media platform.

#SocialMedia #RecommendationEngines #RecommendationAlgorithms

Is there a name for that stupid argument that goes something like, "There's no point in outlawing X because criminals who are intent on breaking the law a will find a way to get X anyway"? As if making X illegal won't make it harder to access, including to would-be criminals?

Yes, this remark is primarily motivated by recent events in the news (USA) but there are so many other things where this sort of argument comes up. I don't mean to say I support every sort of restriction that this is meant to argue against, but it's a poor argument most of the time.

"The media's lab leak fiasco" by Matthew Yglesias in Slow Boring https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-medias-lab-leak-fiasco

I'll admit, this is what finally convinced me that there was something wrong with how mainstream news media in the US covered the "lab-leak" hypothesis regarding COVID-19 early in the pandemic. I don't subscribe to the sort of "I told you so" attitude that some seem to have (there's still no real conclusion about whether a lab contributed to the pandemic, and "the" lab-leak hypothesis is a misnomer as it can encompass a wide variety of claims), but it lays out exactly how certain early lab-leak claims got mangled into conspiracy theories.

"CPAC Speaker Calls for Eradication of 'Transgenderism' — and Somehow Claims He’s Not Calling for Elimination of Transgender People" by Peter Wade and Patrick Reis in Rolling Stone https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/cpac-speaker-transgender-people-eradicated-1234690924/

I'm sorry, but what in the world is "not a real ontological category" supposed to mean? Obviously it exists as a category, even if people may disagree on the exact definition.

Honestly, I think "genocide" is hyperbolic, but you could say the same thing about "eradication." Hyperbole has been the soup of the day for years, and frankly I'm tired of it.

Can we sit down and talk about actual policy and take a moment to actually consider how it will affect people? (I'm questioning whether I'm part of the problem here by talking about this instead of the actual legislation that has been proposed in various US states recently that affect transgender people.)

"The fact that the NYT thought we needed yet another 'wokeism running amok on college campuses' piece, completely indistinguishable from all the other ones, is more interesting to me than the essay itself, which has absolutely nothing new or substantive to add."

Twitter thread by Thomas Zimmer: https://twitter.com/tzimmer_history/status/1631000637243641856

I admit that most perspectives on the culture wars I've come across lean towards the "cancel culture is a problem" perspective and I think it's good to see the "cancel culture doesn't exist" perspective laid out as well.

Although all this just seems to reinforce my belief that the question of whether cancel culture exists/doesn't exist/is bad/is actually good is horribly (dare I say hopelessly) muddied by unclear definitions and parameters. To me the term is poisoned: Even if I were to attempt to set a definition for my own purposes, I'd expect to be met with criticism over the definition and what should or should not fall under it. Ultimately I'd rather just discuss specific incidents and types of behavior rather than try to make some sort of generalization.

"It was not an opinion piece nor a prescriptive article, and it focused solely on year-over-year percentage increases for eggs, cereal, coffee, and some juices. The only mention of 'skip[ping] breakfast' occurred in the headline, seemingly designed to 'tantalize' readers and create anger-based engagement on social media — a clearly successful strategy known as 'engagement bait.'"

I should have guessed this was taken out of context...

"'To Save Money, Maybe You Should Skip Breakfast' WSJ Headline" by Kim LaCapria in Truth or Fiction https://www.truthorfiction.com/to-save-money-maybe-you-should-skip-breakfast-wsj-headline/