AI Censorship And The Power Of 'Steem' To Preserve Truth
Content adapted from this Zerohedge.com article : Source
by Tyler Durden
Just read a great article by Caitlin Johnstone over at Medium where she discusses the automation of censorship tools by companies like Twitter and Google.
Putting paid Julian Assange's warning last year on this, Ms. Johnstone details just some of the abuses that Twitter and Google engaged in to subtly and not-so-subtly shift public perception of major issues that run counter to the narrative the power structure wants us to believe.
And it is for this reason that projects like Steemit are so very important.
I talked about how important Steem is after James O'Keefe's latest expose of Twitter (read it here). Watching people like Mrs. Johnstone wake up to the problem is great, but she also needs to take the next step.
You can't hack something whose underlying content is stored in a distributed blockchain. Because the blockchain's ledger is immutable, what you wrote is preserved in all of its glory (ignominious or otherwise) forever.
As she points out, type of censorship is far worse than simply throwing books into piles and burning them. With DRM and all digital assets, inconvenient truths can be memory-holed off your Kindle never to be seen again.
Abridged versions of books can be substituted for the original text and worse.
So, the blockchain as it pertains to how we communicate is a fundamental need to disrupt this communications super-state they are building.
I can't stress enough how important this is today.
Now, more than ever, the information war is heating up. And the ability to control not just the validity of what people produce but what everyone consumes is the single most important issue of the age.
If we are to finally break the backs of the people working so hard to maintain their gravy train, we have to build systems that are beyond their control.
This is an ideological war.
One in which those that feel they have a right, nee a duty, to guide humankind to their preferred outcome for society.
On the other side is the force of the individual and chaos and the beauty of decentralization to create order versus forcing it to.
The essence of the authoritarian mindset was expressed beautifully in the much-maligned film, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
At his lowest point a paranoid, angry and bitter Batman is trying to kill that which he can't control, Superman. And he says with all the fury of a frustrated villain, "The world only makes sense if you force it to."
As a long-time Batman fan I died a little inside to see him brought to that low. But it was always there. That's the problem when you fight for something without remembering what it is you are fighting for.
It's so easy to become that which you think you're fighting against.
And there is a better way than using their methods, which are inherently violent. What they do is commit fraud in the name of progress. And fraud is just another form of theft.
Steem is the way to beat them at their own game, without using their methods. Simply speak the truth and record it for all time.
Moreover, it takes earning power of the idea-creator and puts it in their hands, not the hands of the distributors and the rent-seekers, like Google and Twitter.
The growth of the platform is the way to claw back the capital they have been taking for themselves because before this we were just happy to have a platform to express ourselves.
Now those platforms have become chains around our necks. Tools of censorship and oppression; spreading false narratives and suppressing the truth while making them billions.
The worst part is that we are so inculcated in this abusive system that we come to devalue our own work. That it's not worth $2 or even $20 for us to produce something that changes the course of someone's life.
And so people's first reaction to Steem is that it's a scam. It is nothing of the sort. The scam is Twitter. The scam is Facebook. Your life, ideas and work have value. But, they've taught you to think that it doesn't.
That is the true power of ideas… and you know what the man said about ideas right?
Properly managed and protected, so are blockchains created to hold those ideas, preserve them in digital amber and allow us to find our own way to the truth.
I saw this earlier and just did a write up about the same thing. It appears from the pricing action that most are getting a clue about what this blockchain offers.
Facebook and Google are known for their censoring. These entities are the exact opposite of what they promote. They want people to believe they are different from the establishment yet they simply want to control like all others.
It is great that the media is starting to expose this and STEEM is benefiting. The blockchain offers a way around this. Hopefully we see growth coming from the anti-establishment people. So far, there have no been too many heavy hitters from the media world come on here. Where are some of the alternative news people? I guess the big ones are really like everyone else, part of the establishment too.
Steemit offers freedom of speech a true chance. Like the article said, put it on the blockchain and it is there forever....there is no going back and changing it because you dont like something.
Perhaps $10 is right around the corner.
Blockchain offers what r these??
Yes bro...steem price will be reach to 20 usd within few days..its really good thing to who have a couns cept I got too many memories and now it makes it seem like I cant remember anything correctly, so its sounds good..
I am very surprised to hear 10$ target for you for Steem :D Did you miss a zero ? :)
Dont want to scare the masses just yet.
Actually, in truth, missed two zeroes but few believe it. :)
You know what they say - best revenge is massive success.
Steemit is becoming more and more popular nad we can see this in the price action the last few days. When you add the fact that weissratings rated Steemit the 5th best crypto there is, you can definitely conclude that it is getting hotter and hotter. People will flood in once they realize ethe benefits of this system.
The only thing we should do is to protect the values of the community.
I agree with you @ervinneb.
There should be some activity moving this thing higher in the near-future. We all know, compared to what else is out there, STEEM is under valued. The big thing, to me, is HF20....get the automated sign ups going and we will see the number of users explode.
Perhaps they are waiting until they introduce the communities before doing the fork. That would make sense.
Either way, all good stuff happening in the coming days for STEEM.
@zer0hedge..bro any land slide and decide with surgical precision, those who have a desire to usurp individual creative minds of individual men and women, she called them 'mystics' ,A mystic is a man who surrendered his mind at its first encounter with the minds of others. Somewhere in the distant reaches of his childhood, when his own understanding of reality clashed with the assertions of others, with their arbitrary orders and contradictory demands, he gave in to so craven a fear of independence that he renounced his rational faculty. At the crossroads of the choice between “I know” and “They say,” he chose the authority of others, he chose to submit rather than to understand, to believe rather than to think. Faith in the supernatural begins as faith in the superiority of others. His surrender took the form of the feeling that he must hide his lack of understanding, that others possess some mysterious knowledge of which he alone is deprived, that reality is whatever they want it to be, through some means forever denied to him. Thank you for sharing with us...
I like this mystic man's incident.
The problem is a great forgetting of some principles that have been honed over all of recorded history.
Chief among all of these is foundational to all others, the meaning of life.
If you live life as if you are the center of the universe you are doing it all wrong. If you live life as if you are part of a much greater whole then you're getting closer to being on track.
To properly attain enlightenment ultimately requires personal freedom of choice which will reside forever within each individual conciousness as it journey's through life towards it's own reunification.
You can't help this thing along other than to provide an enviroment conducive to it's journey and what is hardest for most to understand is that reality is simply the universes most complex algo ever that is written to achieve that end.
Everything that does not harmonize with this will ultimately be destroyed or simply cease to exist as it is all counter to core reality in the first place and nothing more than mere tools to an inevitable end.
Yes bro the main problem is that one..Kim Dotcom has been toying with something similar.“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete...
Yeah you got this.
I'm tired of censorship on platforms like Google, facebook, twitter. How free are you now in these media? If you ask me, you are not free. To prevent or restrict an argument against the will of the government. How free? The protection of the Steemite block chain is more advantageous in this regard. You already explained why. The war of knowledge is being done as you say now. The simplest tension between Russia and America. The missile system that Russia has done to destroy the communication system. I do not think the name is right now. Your future wars will be for information. Just like it is now. For example, Edward Snowden (wikiliks documents) I watched Batman (The Dawn of Justice) and I understood very well the contradiction that Batman had experienced. They do not understand people and do not investigate for fear. They're attacking. In other societal networks they think they are free. Steemit is at a really different level. A much more free platform. Like other social media, he is not trying to convince you that you are free. Steemit is not cheating. I want to finish my most recent writing with a bit of cliché but with a word that makes sense. @zer0hedge
Behind this mask there is more than just flesh. Beneath this is an idea ... and ideas are bulletproof.
Properly managed and protected, so are blockchains created to hold those ideas, preserve them in digital amber and allow us to find our own way to the truth.
That's exactly it! I think this is a complete guide to thinking motivation
Yeah properly protected I agree.
I think it's the best movie that shows the power of "V for Vendetta" ideas. So original ideas are very valuable. Steemit is a great platform where original ideas can be shared. I think you should see more support. Thanks for sharing. @zer0hedge
"The world only makes sense if you force it to."these words strongly agree
Really @zer0hedge steem has got a lot of potential and it has a very bright future because it is the platform which gives you the opportunity to express your interest. Our steem community is small but still it is growing everyday hope so our steem reaches new hights... Thanks for sharing this article @zer0hedge
Steam the way to beat at their own game without using their method. Just speak the truth and record it all the time