Sarah Valentine

Where’s the structural societal incentive to “do so much good”, and why would we need it?

That’s a great question. There are some college courses that can help you answer that. The short answer is “because in terms of the flourishing of an entire species, cooperation trumps competition, but it’s a recent evolution and doesn’t come naturally to everyone”. If we are to flourish and advance instead of strangling ourselves in the crib, we need to stop tolerating the kinds of selfish behaviors that prove detrimental to every society that permits them.

people do not know how to act properly

They do, in communities where rules exist and are enforced. Anonymity may lead some people to feel more emboldened to act out, but when handled properly I believe the vast majority of them will just settle down and either learn how to participate in good faith or find somewhere else to be. The bad behavior patterns we see in some places are, in my opinion, the result of insufficient social norms and enforcement thereof. This is also a situation capitalists will foster, because it drives engagement and inflates content.

Unless we can force people to act with civility - which implies people being fairly conscious of the consequences of their words and actions

So you already understand that this is a problem that only exists in places where bad actors are given license to continue acting out.

Social media has the power to do so much good: connecting people across the globe, enabling the sharing of information across language barriers and in circumvention of government censorship, and more. But because the world is run by greedy power-hungry pigs, we can’t have social media without it being exploited to the furthest extent possible in the name of profit. The mental health of the public is not even a secondary concern - it is completely disregarded in favor of squeezing further growth out of a saturated market for a service that should be both simple and free.

Shoplifting is a felony charge.

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Want can mean a state of lack, not just an animal desire.

…As opposed to AI being poisoned by the propaganda being fed it by the techbros who made it? Boo fuckin hoo.