Comment on 14,000 routers are infected by malware that's highly resistant to takedowns
TehPers@beehaw.org 1 day agoBy extremist, I was referring to the absurdity of the statement. Either it’s the end of the world, or the article authors are conspirators. Surely it can’t be something simple that isn’t on one end of a spectrum. This is what leads to radicalization.
Do you think that government intrusion into media, or the existence of online influence campaigns, are “extremist” conspiracies rather than proven realities?
They are both. An extremism can be real. A conspiracy can be proven true, and in your example it is.
There is no evidence, nor reason to believe, the authors of the article in question are conspirators. There is no reason to believe the contents of the article are intended to be anything more than informational, even if with the inherent bias all authors posess. To perceive it as such would be a sign of extreme radicalization or, as you put it, an “online influence campaign” which would be conveniently set before a midterm election in the US.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting the commenter actually is part of some campaign. I wouldn’t know. I do believe its contents are extreme though.
t3rmit3@beehaw.org 20 hours ago
So to be clear, asking whether an article has ulterior motives qualifies as an “extremist” question, in your eyes?
Because that seems a pretty extreme limitation on acceptable critical and contextual interrogation of news, to me.
TehPers@beehaw.org 19 hours ago
The suggestion that the authors of an article have ulterior motives is an extreme position to take, yes.
At no point did I ever say that it’s a bad thing to hold that position, nor did I say it’s an invalid position, nor did I say it’s an incorrect position. But in the society we live in, that position is pretty extreme.
t3rmit3@beehaw.org 19 hours ago
By what metric? And “Extreme” and “Extremist” are two different words, with different meanings and connotations.
Extreme simply means the far end of a spectrum. Extremist means
Without offering any metric by which to assert that, you most certainly did convey the commonly understood negative connotation by calling it extremist.
TehPers@beehaw.org 19 hours ago
I added a second edit it appears after your comment, but repeating it here: what’s the point of this? To me it seems like an argument over the semantics of a word which I honestly couldn’t care less about. Are you defending that the commenter’s comment reads like a sane interpretation of the article?
Nobody here is saying that it’s ridiculous to question your sources or try to identify potential bias in articles. Those are things you should always do. That’s not what this commenter was doing, though.