Comments by "Curious Crow" (@CuriousCrow-mp4cx) on "Riot in Southport" video.

  1. Prof Wilson is right. Entrepreneurs are making money and gaining power from outrage that they deliberately provoke in groups susceptible to being manipulated. It's not stupidity or a lack of intelligence that makes them susceptible. Everyone has a trigger, because the oldest and most automatic parts of our brain are those that focus on fear, anxiety, and safety. That where the biases come from, and they can override the intellect through emotion. Put people under pressure, and their defence mechanisms kick-in far more easily, which override and dominate their intellect. It's not about intelligence, or who is "smart" or "stupid". It's the way our brains have evolved. Everyone is susceptible to falling back on their biases, when put under pressure. When emotions like anxiety, fear, greed, or desire flow in, thought and reason tend to be pushed out. And we react, and act out based on those emotions rather than reason It's an age old problem, because we evolved to be like this in a time when sabre-toothed tigers roamed the earth. Those reactions made it more likely we could identify dangers and escape, but this tendency has become more problematic the larger and more complex our environment has become. We don't come equipped with the knowledge and skills to deal with media or people wanting to provoke us and capture our attention for money or power on an industrial scale. We may not know when we are being led by our nose. So, perhaps we need to think more before we react. Perhaps we need to ask Cicero's question of "Qui bono?" "Who benefits? " when we read, watch, or listen to media that seems designed to evoke strongly negative emotions in us? That isn't something easy to do, but we need to question more before we commit to investing on, or identifying with any particular point of view based on information you aren't personally familiar with. The professor is right, and the Internet companies know he's right too, because there are teams outside this ckuntry competing to manipulate you. If you have the time, look up online articles about media literacy. There's also free resources for children and adults, about how to use the Internet safely. Finland do this in schools because they have been the target of certain political ambitions. We need to do that here too. And we need to give every one access to the knowledge and tools how to use the Internet safely.
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