SW vs SWARM
Been sleeping poorly in hot weather, which means my physical and emotional skins are thinner than usual, requiring more caution to protect both borders.

Got better sleep this morning, so decided to take a look at some known idiocy. Arstechnica has been leading the warmongers in the techie realm. Are they still at it? Yup, even worse.

This is EXACTLY like 1917, when ALL publications on ALL subjects were SOLELY devoted to stirring up war against Germany. (Which turned out in the end to be more against Russia.)

This is NOT like the 1950s, when mass media pushed anti-Russian propaganda but alternate views were openly available and openly discussed.

Especially among techies, Cold War I was distinctly different. Tech types had strong reservations about going to war.

Why? Biggest reason is obvious. Older tech types in the '50s had served in WW2 and knew what war was like. They didn't want another war.

War experience didn't affect the younger tech types, including me. Why were 1967 techies so much less SWARMY than 1917 and 2017 techies?

Best guess: Shortwave. Hams and SWLs had direct contact with foreigners, including Soviet Bloc foreigners. We knew that Russian techies didn't get to "vote", but we also knew that Russian techies got more respect and better treatment than our techies. We also knew that Russians were not ferocious war-seeking monsters, which made us wonder about the standard depiction by our mass media.



BUT: the Web makes foreign views and personalities vastly more available. Youtube lets you see ordinary people in all countries. You can see their rooms, their streets, their social behavior. Why doesn't this have the same effect?

Best guess: Because the Web makes SWARMING possible. Like-minded people gather in ZeroHedge and ArsTechnica, and gang up on the tiniest hint of heresy. Ganging up isn't possible on shortwave, and ganging is more difficult with paper-based newsletters and mailings.

Labels: Asked and sort of answered, switchover

  ¶ 3:28 AM