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RE: Goodbye Internet. Hello Intranet. UK Gov silences the rest of the world.
Hi uruiamme. I'm new here too and wondering how to spot trolls through steem ... there's a lot of people using it to just make money and troll important topics.
That actually sounds about right. I think a lot of platforms are designed to put Trolls in the driver seat. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. I think that some of the most lucrative YouTube channels are based on the fact that people want controversial, off-beat, unconventional content. Many of the major media personalities in the US are essentially accused of hyping their positions to the point that drama ensues. It's all about the ratings.
It's pretty lucrative for the talking heads, bloggers, vloggers, radio talk show hosts, political pundits, and Hollywood gossipers.
I think it's the monetization of gossip. Hello Web 3.0.
(Most) truth is relative and wholly based on perspective. The opinions expressed in the author's blog are strong, but so are those to the contrary, and the mainstream media is more or less an echo chamber, along with every social media outlet.
On trolls : On the one hand, it would be amazing if Steem could be troll free (not calling author that) - but there's no way to ensure that without clamping down on personal freedom, and drawing a bunch of arbitrary lines as to what's appropriate and what's not, what's good for the steem community, what's not...and then, bam, it's rules and regulations here too.
(deeper question - why do humans constantly need to create systems and rules that oppress us and go against our nature...or is it our nature to classify and condemn?)
I agree that the author's post is one sided, he doesn't pretend it isn't. I agree with some of his points. Now, as an American, I'm not fluent by any means in UK politics, aside from what I hear in my own echo chamber across the pond. (Every thing we learn is colored by the lens of nationalism to some degree - whether we despise our country's leaders or embrace them...whether we are conscious of it or not simply being American or British or Chinese is a lens...)
My natural reaction was to take everything he said with a grain of salt, and research it before I form an opinion. And that's the heart of the matter - censoring everything or saying people shouldn't speak their mind implies readers are too dumb/lazy to do their own research (yes, many are. maybe not dumb, but lazy).
The problem isn't what's written and where it's written it's the entire culture of wanting to have our news with our coffee - hot and ready to go.
I don't think steem pretends to be a community of hard news journalists, and the assumption should be that readers aren't so weak as to lap up every word someone writes and take it for gospel ...
That said, journalism was my first career path - as a student I was taught not to include my personal biases in articles - but I realized thats impossible. Every adjective we choose adds a slant to the story - think about Trump visiting Saudi via the lens of CNN vs Fox.
Anyway, I like the freedom of Steem. I think dialogue is important. Your comments, other critics comments, the writer's opinions, etc . Restricting any of that would be a real problem.