Melvin_Ferd
@Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
- Comment on Anon time travels 4 hours ago:
I just tried searching up a desk on google because I wanted to see what it looked like in someones room. Instead all I got was 100% links to wayfair for pages. I kept scrolling and it was all wayfair links. I remember when I would search for something and it was links to shit people posted, not businesses.
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 1 day ago:
You just showed that you’re no better than a MAGA.
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 1 day ago:
Deleting Facebook does not delete MAGA content. What is gone are the views and framing of events from the left.
Facebook’s user base are primarily older, Apolitical low-information voters, community groups, parents, workers, retirees, church groups. These are not MAGA voters, they are regular people who mostly passively scroll and absorb whatever dominates their feed that day.
When large numbers of left leaning users deleted accounts, MAGA content didn’t shrink. It rebalanced the algorithm. Comments and posts became more dominated by right leaning voices because fewer people were there to counter them.
Silence functions as consensus.
When passive scrollers see MAGA or right leaning content, they don’t think ‘this is extreme’ they instead think ‘this must be normal or widely accepted’. Without content that shows where it is wrong, these right leaning messages begin to shift public opinion. You can see this reflected in polls, these are regular folk not MAGA. Public opinion you’ll hear how protestors are violent or burning down cities, vaccinations are dangerous, ANTIFA is a terrorist organization, media is always fake and lying, etc…
Here is something that is very critical to allof this. Research shows a small, committed minority can flip majority opinion once it crosses a critical threshold, around ten percent. That minority does not need to convince everyone. It only needs to dominate what people see often enough to make its position feel normal.
Social consensus through the influence of committed minorities
Here is the abstract
We show how the prevailing majority opinion in a population can be rapidly reversed by a small fraction 𝑝 of randomly distributed committed agents who consistently proselytize the opposing opinion and are immune to influence. Specifically, we show that when the committed fraction grows beyond a critical value 𝑝𝑐≈10%, there is a dramatic decrease in the time 𝑇𝑐 taken for the entire population to adopt the committed opinion.
Does it mean every time when you have a small dominate minority that opinions will flip? No. But it does give evidence to the idea that there is some small value like 10% of a group needed to change their views for the rest of the group to flip 100%.
MAGA understand this, the left seem to be out of the loop on this however. This is why we see right leaning content that is more engaging and users who flood the zone.
In 2024 there was 1.9 billion spent.
Facebook Says 10 Million People in the U.S. Saw Russia-Linked Ads
Far-right news sources on Facebook more engaging
How right-wing influencers are bending reality in Minneapolis
MAGA are using platforms like Facebook to become > committed agents who consistently proselytize the opposing opinion and are immune to influence. And they can only become those agents when the left is not there to challenge them. When we all left Facebook and x and whatever else, we played right into their hand.
You can put hundreds of millions of people in the streets, but if digital spaces are dominated by MAGA frames then public opinion will turn against any protests or efforts.
Online perception shapes IRL legitimacy.
Leaving Facebook feels morally correct. But it’s a retreat.
Public support matters. Views matter. Presence matters. Framing matters. Abandoning the largest passive audience on the internet only serves to accelerates the normalization of MAGA
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 1 day ago:
Can you explain how sharing a link like this is helping MAGA
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 1 day ago:
Do you mind if I add this as the description
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 2 days ago:
The fact that you think having a Facebook account connect to that is immeasurably ignorant.
Not sure what this means
But I’ll digress. You go ahead and justify your contribution to MAGA any way you choose.
You contribute more to MAGA by giving them free access to people’s content rather than fighting against their misinformation. The minute you deleted your account was the minute you start contributing to MAGA success
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 2 days ago:
Looks like you went back to watching Bluey. I’ll check back in after the next recorded setting protest and you can let me know how unified you’re feeling.
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 2 days ago:
You’re wrong on a few things here.
There are more than enough reasons to be on Facebook right now depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. Personal feelings about the platform are valid reasons to stay off, but they are not good enough if you also expect people to show up to protests. It is callous to dismiss Facebook as a place to organize and use a unified voice while expecting others to take on risks without making efforts at a lower level that can accomplish the same goals.
Whether people like it or not, memes are far more powerful than protests in the current media environment. We have seen massive protests with hundreds of millions of people in the streets and nothing meaningful came from them. Attitudes did not change. Policy did not change. The same politicians are still in power.
To prove my point look at Howard Dean. His entire national political career was ended by a single meme. One moment, repeated endlessly, reached more people and shaped public opinion more than huge demonstrations that required arrests and injuries ever did. That is how influence works today. If there are no measurable goals or direction, then protests are just something people do to feel like they participated. Some of us think effort should happen earlier and at lower risk stages before asking people to put their lives on the line. Expecting people to risk losing an eye, being arrested, or worse just to feel symbolically united and then go home is not strategy.
If you want real outcomes, you start where people already are and use the tools that actually move opinion and behavior right now.
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
Your intention is to rage bait. Otherwise what why comment to announce you’re not going to honestly engage with this
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
You made a comment on a post to say ‘didn’t read’ and you’re accusing me of baiting
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
I’m not sure what the purpose of protesting for us means.
Protests carry a significant risk. There are severe financial, medical, legal and career risks. With how things are there is even risk to lives.
What I struggle with understanding is given this risks what is the reward for protesting. If we’re asking others to bare these things, should there not be a due diligence on our part to make sure we did everything we could to ensure these protests are successful.
All protests are not equal. Civil rights protests or Montgomery bus boycotts came with clear measurable goals that protestors knew the risks and rewards. Other protests where shit shows like occupy Wallstreet or many of the Iraq war protests where laws were already locked in and there was no actionable goal.
So what i struggle with here is what do you mean protests are for us because it sounds like you think protests should be more like occupy or the Iraq protests rather than any of the civil rights or bus boycotts.
Facebook is going to make money no matter what. That’s because there are so many people using it. Which is why it’s why everybody but the left use it to raise awareness. I get the moral argument but you still have to be aware of the consequences. Not using Facebook means they spread their message to the average person. If you want any support or success you have to engage and convince that vox populi to support your efforts or your dead in the water before you even started.
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
You’re arguing decorum after opening by dismissing the post solely because it came from Facebook. That’s not principled discourse that’s selective tone policing
Engage with the content. If you don’t want to engage, then move on. Don’t come here to smugly dismiss it. But writing it off based on platform and then lecturing others about how questions should be phrased. That’s hypocritical.
You don’t get to police comments after you’ve already derailed the conversation.
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
It was a genuine question. What is inflammatory about it. Some people don’t care some do.
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
.ml crew are the worst of the left.
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
Yes it is how that works. It’s exactly how that works. It’s why the right invest everything they have on controlling it. This is basic stuff.
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
The problem is you here. This is why the left has lost so much ground over the past ten years. You’re just not thinking. I dont’ think you understand this isn’t 1967. It’s time to wake the fuck up. Protesting is effective but their ability to diminish those efforts are greater and until you nullify that then you’re just jeopardizing every effort people make going out there to protest.
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
That is exactly the point I am arguing. Going out to protest will not be as effective if you aren’t able to counter the efforts they will use on digital spaces to smear and spread bullshit like what is shown in this post. It’s jumping critical steps in making a proper defense before going on the offense.
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
Wait, so then what is the goal of protests? It’s awareness is it not. What is the point of that awareness?
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
But not having a facebook account grows their base so much larger leading to another victory come election time. I don’t understand how any person things protesting is effective but combating this stuff online is not. You get more bang for your buck every single time with online effort. There’s no way to argue you don’t.
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
It would let you know their tactics and how they’re convincing people to attack the left. Being aware makes it easier to pull people away from the right especially during elections if people think they’re lying or out to lunch like they did with the left.
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
Honest question, are you good just passively watching all this MAGA shit spread?
- Comment on Using AI to create rage bait 3 days ago:
Facebook is a mess, no question. But if your goal is to counter MAGA narratives, it’s still the best return on effort right now. That’s where the misinformation is spreading fastest, and it’s where more people are needed to consistently challenge lies and keep them from going unopposed.
- Submitted 3 days ago to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world | 48 comments
- Comment on At this point, what should we do about the ICE raids? If an ICE agent breaks in without a warrant or holds you at gunpoint, what do you do? 1 week ago:
‘Don’t reinvent the wheel’
Wait, this is horrible advice. It’s the opposite of what any successful entity does. The wheel here is a problem that the authoritarians have solved long ago. If you’re not reinventing it then you’re cooked before you even go to the store to buy your markers and bullshit cardboard supplies. They have studied the same old civil protests for decades. They have made laws to prevent protestors from being effective. They have decades of behavioral studies and actionable propaganda that they pull out and dust off every time you even think about sharing one of those ‘no kings’ or ‘general strike’ posts. Any protest you can imagine they have solved. If you don’t reinvent the wheel, you’re going to look fucking stupid when you show up with another 700m people and go home having accomplished nothing except get your leadership and organizers arrested.
That wheel needs to be reinvented. Look at the truck convoy. Hate them all you want but they did something brilliant. It was brilliant because at their top they had people who studied and knew police and authoritarian response and they found solutions to break them. After all, they were the authoritarians. They first drove through the streets across America to build awareness and hype. It’s a fucking parade. People came out and cheered on over passes as they rolled through. Others joined. Then they filled cities with so many vehicles and trucks that the police had no idea how to even responsed. How do police safely weave themselves into that formation to make arrests. Then what do they do with the trucks just sitting there? The truckers made it a street party to prevent police from committing violence. They invited families down to enjoy music and hot tubs while also shutting down major parts of cities everywhere neutralizing police ability to do their job.
The left do not have the same effort at the top. It’s lacking. But they need to figure it out super fast because I promise you if you’re just showing up to the streets with the same old shit then you’ve already lost. That wheel needs to be reinvented quick
- Comment on At this point, what should we do about the ICE raids? If an ICE agent breaks in without a warrant or holds you at gunpoint, what do you do? 1 week ago:
Laws specifically targeting disarming leftist
- Comment on At this point, what should we do about the ICE raids? If an ICE agent breaks in without a warrant or holds you at gunpoint, what do you do? 1 week ago:
The clownvoy showed up with enough big trucks that the police could not fight out how to handle them. They also invited people to come hang out so police couldn’t just tear gas and beat skulls in. The left are still protesting in ways that they protested 70 years ago. The police and military have literal books and charts to deal with it. Unless these protest evolve, they’re really not doing back shit
- Comment on At this point, what should we do about the ICE raids? If an ICE agent breaks in without a warrant or holds you at gunpoint, what do you do? 1 week ago:
Would be incredible to see protest where they show up to any ice presence fully armed. Still act as observes but also to ensure ice doesn’t execute anymore Americans
- Comment on What a great idea 1 week ago:
Skiddly woop wopp
- Comment on Definitely the safest source for advice 1 week ago:
I just said the most common sense thing and you don’t like that. In all these stories they should include the chat history. You sound like a MAGA here for a reason. You should explore what causes MAGA to make similar arguments
- Comment on Definitely the safest source for advice 1 week ago:
My point is I don’t buy into any of it unless they release the entire chat history vs sniping snippets