news
Welcome to c/news! We aim to foster a book-club type environment for discussion and critical analysis of the news. Our policy objectives are:
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Newcomm and Newsmega Rules:
The Hexbear Code of Conduct and Terms of Service apply here.
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Link titles: Please use informative link titles. Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed.
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Low effort material: Avoid memes/jokes/shitposts in newscomm posts and top-level replies to the newsmega. This kind of content is OK in post replies and in newsmega sub-threads. We encourage the community to balance their contribution of low effort material with effort posts, links to real news/analysis, and meaningful engagement with material posted in the community.
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American politics: Discussion and effort posts on the (potential) material impacts of American electoral politics is welcome, but the never-ending circus of American Politics© Brought to You by Mountain Dew™ is not welcome. This refers to polling, pundit reactions, electoral horse races, rumors of who might run, etc.
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Electoralism: Please try to avoid struggle sessions about the value of voting/taking part in the electoral system in the West. c/electoralism is right over there.
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AI Slop: Don't post AI generated content. Posts about AI race/chip wars/data centers are fine.
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I’d believe it. Sometimes our intuition about stuff is just right. Like if a surge of attention or engagement feels inorganic it’s because we’re subconsciously picking up on weird patterns that we can’t fully describe
The thing we can't fully describe is why tf would anyone listen to vaush
Yeah that's how it felt back then. When we gave pushback in the form of reddit bots and visible opposition to him the growth dropped off a cliff like they gave up on the strat or something. He then went back to something that looked more natural.
I also felt this way recently during the height of Israel's invasion of Gaza, H3H3's content was unnaturally higher than it was beforehand which gave it a boosted feeling.
Specific periods of certain influencer's history give off this vibe, like Ben Shapiro doesn't feel unnatural these days but there was definitely a period of time where I think he may have been boosted unnaturally.
It's been funny watching how bad Ben Shapiro's viewership numbers have gotten after all the boosting has gone away.
I don't like vibes-based analysis.
I like evidence-based reasoning.
Here the evidence is that only a small percentage of protestors in the country say his name. That ralliers failed to get others to do so.
Selection bias? What if people are too afraid?
Counter-Evidence: many crowds are chanting death to the dictator, and the fact that they are protesting already contravenes the fear argument.
Think of all the vibes MAGA people get about how things are and how things will happen. They are reactionary and idealist.
We should try to disprove or prove our claims.
You can use vibes to help you identify areas to investigate, but you shouldn't use them to make conclusions.
When time or resources are lacking and you have to operate on vibes, you should make a note in the back of your head of which things were vibes and what things were derived from that.
If I post something and it doesnt have a source then ask me for a source. I try to set example
Sounds good.
Yes you’re right I definitely overstated it. I should have said that intuition is something to listen to as an indicator of what might be worth suspecting / being careful of. I do think that if you have spent a long time tracking sentiment in an area, you gain a feel for the patterns of the flow of information and influence and if something feels inorganic it can trigger the spidey senses. But it shouldn’t be treated as definitive