So are you railing against the nature of humans? I mean you're not the 'Wake UP! sheeple' type generally, and you're contribution here (and presumably elsewhere) is clearly appreciated, so you are taking action on your concerns (which is great and way ahead of a number of others).
Patrick rightfully called me out the other day for creating out of whole cloth this 'other' which could be held up and criticized. Is that what you are doing by saying "... we are O.K. with this,"? Who are the 'we' in that context, I don't like it, you don't like it, so it isn't you and I but is this group of 'others' some great uncritical mass of readers? And then to go one step deeper are you railing against, 'their' agenda or this technique of spinning?
"Pandering to the crowd", "Preaching to the choir", and other colloquialisms for providing positive feedback on a system of beliefs is as old as humans. Maybe older. I suspect its in our nature to have self doubt and to seek out re-assurance of our beliefs. It takes practice and introspection to catch yourself being 'sold' rather than 'educated.' For some people that effort doesn't pay sufficient dividends to invest the effort.
I find these human driven belief systems to be some of the most intriguing from a systems analysis point of view. I feel compassion for folks who are unwitting participants, and I feel anger towards folks who manipulate them to their own advantage, and admiration for folks who manipulate them for the greater good of the community.
You're chasing this pointer maybe a few links farther than I intended. I'm just saying that it's annoying that message board threads are comfortable ignoring the dishonesty of sources like Techdirt and Torrentfreak, so long as those sources are whipping up rageviews from people who vocally support copyright infringement.
Patrick rightfully called me out the other day for creating out of whole cloth this 'other' which could be held up and criticized. Is that what you are doing by saying "... we are O.K. with this,"? Who are the 'we' in that context, I don't like it, you don't like it, so it isn't you and I but is this group of 'others' some great uncritical mass of readers? And then to go one step deeper are you railing against, 'their' agenda or this technique of spinning?
"Pandering to the crowd", "Preaching to the choir", and other colloquialisms for providing positive feedback on a system of beliefs is as old as humans. Maybe older. I suspect its in our nature to have self doubt and to seek out re-assurance of our beliefs. It takes practice and introspection to catch yourself being 'sold' rather than 'educated.' For some people that effort doesn't pay sufficient dividends to invest the effort.
I find these human driven belief systems to be some of the most intriguing from a systems analysis point of view. I feel compassion for folks who are unwitting participants, and I feel anger towards folks who manipulate them to their own advantage, and admiration for folks who manipulate them for the greater good of the community.