The Liberal Struggle For Dominion

The Liberal Struggle For Dominion

by

R.E. Prindle

 

One of the strangest paradoxes of the past century was the strange demand for the separation of Church and State while at the same time struggling to impose a theocratic State on the US.  Even more strangely Christianity was not one of the contestants.  Those were the three religions of Judaism, Moslemism and Liberalism.

Moslemism was a late comer only becoming a rival to Judaism and Liberalism after the 1965 Immigration Act opened the door for unlimited immigration from the Moslem States.  Currently the two major contestants are Judaism and Liberalism.  The latter incorporate the Socialists and Communists.  Judaism  at this point seems to have rejected all outsiders to their faith.

It was with some interest then that I read in the 2/8/18 Wall Street Journal an article with the byline of one Jack Nicas titled: You Tube Drives Viewers to the Internet’s Dark Corners.  Other than that Jack Nicas is following a Liberal ideology it is difficult from his name to guess the background he is coming from.  Nicas is obviously a shortened version of a longer name.  Not Anglo in any event.  That his name appears on the front page of the WSJ indicates that he and the Journal are in full accord.

The two seem to be terrified by the thought that someone might view a video of which they don’t approve.  Their concern is that Internet recommendations don’t recommend exclusively orthodox opinions thus poisoning innocent minds.  In their lexicon it seems that if the viewpoint is not orthodox then it falls into conspiracy theory territory.  Conspiracy theory rhymes with anti-Semitism and racism, heretical notions all.  In other words, a conflict between good and evil.

Mr. Nicas does offer some interesting statistics.  His opening paragraph states:  ‘You Tube is the new television with more than 1.5 billion users.  He then overstates his case by saying:  ‘…videos the site recommends have the power to influence viewpoints around the world.’  I would have to question how influential videos that might be viewed with few exceptions by no more than a handful of people can be?  The percentage of viewers for pap like entertainment and sports must receive a huge proportion of views not to mention the perennial dogs, cats and other animals leaving little for conspiracy theorist to influence.

Mr. Nicas also assumes that vast numbers of viewers actually click links.  In my experience they don’t.  He worries that one of the recommendations for the search ‘lunar eclipse’ offered a link to a flat earth society.  You know, the flat earth people are right up there in the population with the global warming fanatics.  Heavens to Betsy, a flat earth video might actually convince someone that the planet isn’t round?  Me thinketh Mr. Nicas and the WSJ doth protest too much and then some.

Raising his hysteria to a higher pitch Mr. Nicas says and I quote:

People cumulatively watch more than a billion You Tube hours daily world wide, a 10-fold increase from 2012, the sites says.  Behind that growth is an algorithm that creates personalized playlists.  You Tube says these recommendations drive more than 70% of its viewing time, making the algorithm among the single biggest deciders of what people watch.

 

At 70% I would say that the algorithm is the Great Decider and I don’t accept that.  I only view musical videos on You Tube so I find WSJ’s and Nicas’  concerns hysterical, both in psychological and humorous terms.

Worse still, check out what kind of videos the algorithm is directing people to. 

The Journal investigation found You Tube’s recommendations often lead users to channels that feature conspiracy theories, partisan viewpoints and misleading viewpoints.

 

There you have it, the fear of the unorthodox heretics- racists, anti-Semites and the much despised, even hated, conspiracy theorists.  Heck, you and I both know the Nazis were conspiracy theorist to the bone therefore conspiracy theorists must be Nazis, right?  The obvious conclusion there is that the algorithm is propagating Nazism and Hitlerism.  At a time when the alt-right is burgeoning and growing at exponential rates that is disturbing isn’t it?

Check this catalog of fear out.

A search for “the pope” this week returned conspiracy theories and sensationalist videos alongside mainstream clips.  The top result, from a channel that pushes conspiracy theories was titled:  “How Dangerous Is The Pope?”

 

Gosharoonies, if that goes viral the Catholic Church is all but destroyed, we’ll probably find the Pope hanging by his heels next to Mussolini on the lamp post.

But, not to worry…too much.  After a strident campaign to get the algorithm to mend its ways we have the good news…for some people/

A later analysis of December’s top search terms showed You Tube was returning more mainstream sources for news-related queries but still was promoting many divisive videos.  You Tube most frequently recommended videos from CNN and the late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live.

 

Glory be, CNN and the Jimmy Kimmel Show!!!  Two guiding beacons of rationality for our times.  God bless the mainstream media for quality undivisive programming like that.  No partisanship on those two shows.  No sir, just straight ahead objective stuff there.

One might also note this mighty fine non-partisan article by the the WSJ too.  Let’s clean up the Internet and make it a safe space for Liberals.  Censor those divisive conspiracy theorists right off the Net.  We don’t want no conspiracy theorists, partisanship and divisiveness  where we and a billion and a half other people can be swayed away from orthodoxy.  If they don’t want pure Liberalism let ‘em watch a blank screen as someone once famous said.  Churchill?  That Austrian Lady?  I forget.