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Is it a problem that Google and Facebook have a bias against conservative posts?

dianaiad

Well-Known Member
... but you have a right wing party in power?* The UK has a conservative government too. Fox News is the most watched news channel in the US. Conservatives are doing incredibly well in the current political climate. I don't intend this as an attack, it just honestly baffles me when people feel that conservatives are struggling or poorly represented.


*I'm assuming you're from the US. My apologies if not.

I am, and here's the problem. When EVERYBODY is liberally biased (and they are), then pointing out one conservative medium doesn't impress me a whole lot. Face it...Fox News is one outlet. Then you have CNN, MSNBC, ...in fact, everybody else, I don't get impressed because there is a Fox.

....and frankly, it is the dems who are 'in power' right now, since they have control of the House....which has control of the purse. All the Senate can do is say 'no.' when the House gets weird.

And believe me, the House gets weird.

Conservatives are struggling and 'poorly represented,' because the liberals are quite willing to do things to conservatives that conservatives are not willing to do to them....like utterly ruin lives and businesses, which actually happened to me last year. It's odd, but...I have been to demonstrations of both viewpoints now, and when Conservatives meet, the atmosphere seems to be positive, welcoming...and they leave the venue in better shape than they find it. Liberals hit people, insult people, and leave the cities with million dollar clean up fees. I am not impressed.

...and that is even if I were impressed by the ideas. Which I'm not.

The biggest annoyance I have is that it is assumed that if I have a single conservative idea, I must be ill-educated, stupid, a high school drop out or something equivalent. In reality, I have several degrees. I came to my opinions because of data I personally accumulated, not because some 'Me Too" group (that for some reason doesn't include anybody with a liberal target) tells me I must believe.
 

columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
Conservatives are struggling and 'poorly represented,' because the liberals are quite willing to do things to conservatives that conservatives are not willing to do to them....
As a gay atheist, who's business took a hit when I helped foment an anti-war demonstration in the lead up to the Invasion of Iraq, I'm not impressed by your suffering.

It looks more like the conservatives who object to equality, and feel persecuted when they don't get special rights, to me.
Tom
 

Erebus

Well-Known Member
I am, and here's the problem. When EVERYBODY is liberally biased (and they are), then pointing out one conservative medium doesn't impress me a whole lot. Face it...Fox News is one outlet. Then you have CNN, MSNBC, ...in fact, everybody else, I don't get impressed because there is a Fox.

....and frankly, it is the dems who are 'in power' right now, since they have control of the House....which has control of the purse. All the Senate can do is say 'no.' when the House gets weird.

And believe me, the House gets weird.

Conservatives are struggling and 'poorly represented,' because the liberals are quite willing to do things to conservatives that conservatives are not willing to do to them....like utterly ruin lives and businesses, which actually happened to me last year. It's odd, but...I have been to demonstrations of both viewpoints now, and when Conservatives meet, the atmosphere seems to be positive, welcoming...and they leave the venue in better shape than they find it. Liberals hit people, insult people, and leave the cities with million dollar clean up fees. I am not impressed.

...and that is even if I were impressed by the ideas. Which I'm not.

The biggest annoyance I have is that it is assumed that if I have a single conservative idea, I must be ill-educated, stupid, a high school drop out or something equivalent. In reality, I have several degrees. I came to my opinions because of data I personally accumulated, not because some 'Me Too" group (that for some reason doesn't include anybody with a liberal target) tells me I must believe.


First of all, I'm genuinely sorry to hear that you've had people try to ruin your life for your views.

The rest of what you're saying here though doesn't really hold up in my view. I will add a heads up that I'm coming at this from an outsider perspective so I'm not intimately familiar with the intricacies of US life and politics.

So first off, the issue of Fox being just one news outlet. Fox is massively influential both in terms of its wide reach (Again, it's the most watched news station) and the fact that Trump himself heavily relies on it for his own news consumption. Secondly, Fox is far from being America's only conservative news outlet. Sinclair Broadcast Group is well known for its conservative and pro-Trump political leanings and operates almost 200 stations. There's a wide range of television catering to conservatives out there even if we don't count internet sources.

I'm afraid my limited knowledge of the US political system makes it hard for me to address your claim that the Democrats are the ones who are actually in power. From across the pond it certainly doesn't appear that way.

"Liberals are willing to do things to conservatives that conservatives are not willing to do to them." Is utterly untrue. When we're talking about the left/right divide, acts of domestic terrorism are far more common from those on the right. Even if you don't want to count white supremacists as conservatives, you still have the murders, arson and harassment from anti-abortion groups. To be clear, a left-winger committing murder or arson is just as reprehensible as when a right-winger does it. However, the argument that the left is more violent or aggressive than the right doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Your last point about negative stereotypes of conservatives is one that I can understand. However, it's worth mentioning that this one goes both ways and that both sides are perfectly happy to caricature the other. The point about education is an interesting one as I've faced accusations that I'm a liberal because I hold degrees. My political opinions could only have come from my indoctrination at university and the lack of common sense academia instills.
 
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columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
The biggest annoyance I have is that it is assumed that if I have a single conservative idea, I must be ill-educated, stupid, a high school drop out or something equivalent.
I can sympathize with this part.
As a gay non-theist I'm assumed to be a liberal God-hating abortionist, who hates America and the Constitution and recruits young people into homosexuality. That the reason I vehemently oppose Trump is because I want the USA to be overrun by Hispanics and Communists and Muslims.

Welcome to the world I've been living in most of my adult life.

Tom
 

Kangaroo Feathers

Yea, it is written in the Book of Cyril...
Oh look, another thread where OP makes a baseless claim of unfair persecution against his 'side' only to vanish as soon as anyone shows up with inconvenient contrary facts.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Is it really fair to right to life views, conservative views etc for social media to effectively promote biased left leaning views.

Facebook And Google Are Facing Criticism Over Unexplained Content Takedowns
You can barely search for conservative point-of-views because the Google algorithms keep redirecting to leftist sources time and time again.

It's pretty much an impossible endeavor unless you keep trying by re-entering search terms over and over again until you finally come across it through trial and error.
 

tytlyf

Not Religious
Oh look, another thread where OP makes a baseless claim of unfair persecution against his 'side' only to vanish as soon as anyone shows up with inconvenient contrary facts.
Just another RedHat. Reminds me of esmith. They come in, create propaganda threads from RW gossip outlets, then vanish when facts enter the picture.
It's trolling and they should be banned.
 

Yerda

Veteran Member
Whether I wish it were different or not, it seems to me that in this day and age, much of conservative political and religious belief is deeply tied to hatred, ignorance, and demonization of certain groups or denial of their rights.
Right. It's hard to see how social media sites can remove plainly racist, bigoted, and violent speech without disproportionatley removing the posts of right wing members. They're the ones posting it.
 

ecco

Veteran Member
By the way, I have read 1984, and today, if one is a conservative, it looks very much like that.

Are you referring to:
  • The constant attacks on the media.
  • The constant cries of fake news.
  • The constant lies to appeal to his supporters.
 

ecco

Veteran Member
On the other hand, they also seem to have the power to stop conservative thought and expression.

Back in the Obama days I had access to Facebook. There was a story going around in the redneck conservative circles of some acquaintances, that there was a Bill being introduced that would allow Obama to run for a third term. Lordy, Lordy! This story was passed around and passed along and became quite a little rallying point for the hardwing Repubs.

The story was absolutely true!

However, the truth behind the story was never discovered or discussed by these nutcakes. The truth was that a Republican had submitted a Bill to eliminate Presidential term limits, and had done so every year for about eight years. Needless to say, the Bill never made it onto the floor regardless of the party in power.


This is just one example of the lies that flow unchecked through the social media scene and have for years.
 

ecco

Veteran Member
I can sympathize with this part.
As a gay non-theist I'm assumed to be a liberal God-hating abortionist, who hates America and the Constitution and recruits young people into homosexuality. That the reason I vehemently oppose Trump is because I want the USA to be overrun by Hispanics and Communists and Muslims.

Welcome to the world I've been living in most of my adult life.

Tom


As a straight atheist, I'm assumed to be a liberal God-hating abortionist, who hates America and the Constitution and recruits young girls into promiscuity with drugs and alcohol. And that the reason I vehemently oppose Trump is because I want the USA to be overrun by Hispanics and Communists and Muslims.

Welcome to the world. Mine ain't much different from yours.
 

ecco

Veteran Member
You can barely search for conservative point-of-views because the Google algorithms keep redirecting to leftist sources time and time again.

It's pretty much an impossible endeavor unless you keep trying by re-entering search terms over and over again until you finally come across it through trial and error.


I guess you are right. I Googled:
"Trump is an upstanding truthful humanitarian"​
The first result was:
Search Results
It looks like there aren't any great matches for your search
Tip: Try using words that might appear on the page you’re looking for.​
 

dianaiad

Well-Known Member
As a gay atheist, who's business took a hit when I helped foment an anti-war demonstration in the lead up to the Invasion of Iraq, I'm not impressed by your suffering.

That figures. I don't like a bit that you suffered. It was wrong. However, I don't figure that your own suffering (because you are gay or anti war) is the only suffering that matters. I don't want 'special rights." I want to walk into a craft store that was not forced to have an 'everybody is welcome here, gay, transgendered, no matter what their skin color is or gender identification...(unless, of course, you support Trump or are conservative in any other way, in that case don't come in here)" and then have rainbow flags over every aisle whether they are appropriate to the display or not. I understand, when I see those, that this business has been targeted, and that if I go on facebook or instagram or twitter, I will find attacks, threats, boycotts and long winded apologies. not for anything that business actually DID, mind you, but because those signs were not previously there.

Frankly, they shouldn't be there. all this stuff should be presumed, and only gone after when someone violates common courtesy....and I am going to tell you right now that selling a MAGA hat pattern next to a 'F***Trump" hat pattern doesn't count.

YOU chose to 'foment' (and that's a word that absolutely implies violence, btw) an anti war movement.You should expect push back. That's what having a different opinion does. It's a good thing. But when a business that has absolutely no intention of offending anybody, and only wants to sell books or yarn or patterns to anybody who comes in...when that business is told that if they don't have a sign with a list of welcome people (which of course means that there are unwelcome people, like me...I'm not on the list) and rainbow signs all over, even though being gay has NOTHING to do with the business...when that business is told that they will be targeted and destroyed unlesss they comply?

That's wrong. That isn't 'special privilege.' Thats exactly the opposite. That is being the target of bullies.

You, as a gay athiest, are not any better than I, a straight theist, am. Sorry, but you aren't. The opposite holds true, too, of course, but I'm beginning to think that those on your side somehow think that simply because you are NOT straight or theist, that you are superior to the rest of us, and I am getting tired of it.

Look. I don't care who you love. I'll bake your cake. I'll dance at your wedding. Good luck to you all your life. But I have news; you try and MAKE me make your cake because you are gay and have special rights none of my other clients do? You can whistle for it. Your opinions don't mean one whit more than mine do, whether you agree with them or not.

Look around at the signs, how Ravelry, for instance, will destroy you, kick you off, vilify, bully and stalk you, if you have the effrontery to offer a 'MAGA" hat design rather than a "F*** Trump" one, and tell me that again. Show me one site where the opposite is true. Just one. Show me one business that was driven from business, or had to apologize at length, for saying something that supports a conservative viewpoint. Show me one law suit against someone who...for instance...thought that two black students had more right to shoplift wine than two white students do. I can show you what the university, it's faculty and students did to a bakery which DID figure that skin color or not, shoplifting was wrong, and I can show you the lawsuit that resulted from that, but that skin color or gender identification automatically gives one rights that being straight and white don't give you? No. You won't see those.

You need to understand that strong opinions mean strong reactions...and that's a good thing, not a bad one. If you are going to 'foment' something, expect resistance. If you see opinions you don't like, GIVE resistance, but don't figure that YOUR opinions are special because they are yours.

Because they aren't.
It looks more like the conservatives who object to equality, and feel persecuted when they don't get special rights, to me.
Tom

It is precisely the other way around. It is not ME, or other conservatives, who object to having you voice your POV. You go right ahead and offer your "F*** Trump" pattern along with the MAGA hat pattern. You should. It needs to be available and seen. It is you and other liberals who want to make sure that none of the rest of us can say anything with which you disagree. It is you and other liberals who will destroy businesses and lives if they so much as offer a differing opinion along with yours.
 
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