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Journal BarbaraHudson's Journal: Sex used to sell - now hate is king. 10

Sex used to sell - now hate is king.

It's been known for some time that rates of mental illness increase with use of social media and other sites that allow "user engagement." We can continue to lie to ourselves that the benefits outweigh the risks, but I would invite you to look at how slashdot has changed over the years, then ask yourself if you would induce any woman (wife, significant other, sister, daughter, co-worker, etc) to visit the site.

Case in point: Google's firing of James Damore. One post in particular sticks out in my mind - a guy who said he hates all women because when he needed to get laid to "build up his confidence", no woman would have sex with him. Whether this is true or he was just trolling isn't the point - others backed him up. He took no personal responsibility for his failure with women - it never dawned on him that his attitude, that he believes it is the woman's obligation to be his personal cum bucket to stroke his ego (among other things), is a total turn-off.

Anyone who objected to Damore's screed was immediately labeled a social justice warrior. No further proof needed. All the first amendment loonies claimed that firing him was a violation of his constitutional rights, despite it being repeatedly pointed out that the first amendment doesn't apply to private businesses, and that workers have a right to a non-hostile work environment.

His screed has been repeatedly debunked elsewhere for those who want to search for it - I am going to concentrate on slashdot. The user population has changed. Women are now a legitimate target of hate speech, and woe betide those who come to our defense.

All web sites have a value proposition, but after incessantly experiencing the huge increase in hatred towards women, both genetic and trans, I'm saying "fuck it." This site is just too depressing. Upon further review, there really isn't much on the net worth my time, so I've decided to abandon all participation in any web site that allows user comments on articles, with the exception of checking in once in a while to see if Simon's posted a new BOfH story.

The real world has a better value proposition. For example, I was given a Jack Russell dog last month because the owner knew of my reputation with dogs and her son had moved to Asia. I have received a few dogs that way - but none off the net. The real world has user benefits that the net can't match, and won't, not even with virtual reality. It's far more edifying to meet other dog owners than wade through the doggerel of slashdot, far more effective to volunteer my time at the local food bank where I'm part of helping between 800 and 950 people a week than arguing with misogynists, and far easier to maintain relationships in the real world without the distractions devoid of any real value that most of the internet has become.

Anyone wanting to get hold of me can still do so via email, sms, phone call, or just drop in. They won't find me with my nose buried in "news for nerds" that has become "abuse from nerds."

Bye, and take care. I'll miss some of you, but certainly not this site.

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Sex used to sell - now hate is king.

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  • Sorry, but "corporate censorship is government censorship" [medium.com].

    The anti first Amendment loonies should toughen up a bit.

    Hope you stay...

    • by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

      You linked a fact-free opinion piece. The actual amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

      It has absolutely nothing to do with the private sector.

      • When the private business becomes a de facto agent of the state the same laws must apply. When it doesn't we have a problem. The government can just hire out to make the end run. The article is hardly "fact-free". Or maybe you could elaborate further on why you think it is.

        Or maybe I'm wagging wagging the dog. The state is actually regulated by the corp, via its "contributions" to specific politicians and/or covert threats of violence, and the voters have learned to be helpless against it through things lik

  • Not questioning your decision here, I completely understand it, but I've been wondering myself for a while now what to do about a similar conundrum.

    When I was a kid, I was under the overwhelming impression that "normal people" just sucked -- that is, most people were awful, and it was only a few rare gems who were not. (Young me was so convinced that everything about most people was awful that something being popular made me assume it must suck by association).

    Then I got on the internet, earlier than most p

    • by JustNiz ( 692889 )

      Slashdot has been going downhill for years. Look at the ongoing steady decline in the ratio of quality technical articles to quasi-political/peecee crap and you'll exactly see the root of the problem.

      This trend leading to less and less nourishing content for actual techies is pretty much exactly why SoylentNews came about, and they seem to still be keeping it much more together. I very much recommend taking a look over there if that's what you're actually looking for.

  • by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

    Try Soylent News, [soylentnews.org] split from /. a few years ago. It's much like /. used to be.

    Any more I only come here to read journals.

  • It seems that as Reddit drives their user base away (who wants to hang around a place where if you sneeze wrong you're shadow-banned, and if you look at someone cross-eyed, you're banned from half the site?), they look for other places to go. Some go to Voat or some other up-and-coming social media site, some come here.

    I'm not going to try to defend how people think. I will simply state that it's what happens when people are lead to believe that their thoughts are more important than anyone else's, and th

From Sharp minds come... pointed heads. -- Bryan Sparrowhawk

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