Ideological Echo Chambers Are Making Us All Stupid: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

May 18, 2023

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Source: Caitlin Johnstone

Ideological Echo Chambers Are Making Us All Stupid: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

By Caitlin Johnstone

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American liberals just spent days raging at CNN for hosting a town hall with Donald Trump like it’s the worst thing CNN has ever done. CNN isn’t horrible because it “platformed” Trump, CNN is horrible because it’s an imperialist propaganda firm whose whole job is to deceive people into supporting the most depraved agendas of the world’s most powerful people. Hosting that town hall was one of the least evil things CNN has done.

Liberals shouldn’t be upset at CNN for betraying their trust by platforming Trump, they should be upset with themselves for trusting CNN. It’s so, so much worse than they’re giving it credit for.

If you find Elon Musk’s hiring of a new Twitter CEO with a background in mainstream media and the World Economic Forum shocking and contradictory, it’s probably an indication that your worldview isn’t informed by an accurate perception of what’s really happening. You probably haven’t been thinking accurate thoughts about Musk, and you probably haven’t been thinking accurate thoughts about the WEF. Nothing about this stands out as surprising for those who see both as figures of status quo global capitalism.

In many right wing circles Musk’s beneficence has been massively overstated and the WEF’s nature has been wildly distorted. Really they’re both just garden variety manifestations of the mundane capitalist dystopia we live in, and are deeply invested in maintaining this dystopia.

Lately the WEF has served as an ideological scapegoat for rightists who are critical of the establishment but are ideologically unable to see capitalism’s role in this mess. They paint the WEF as some freakish aberration rather than the true face of the capitalism they support. In such circles the WEF has taken on a narrative role as a villainous antagonist that capitalism supporters can point to and say “Look at those freaks, they’re ruining the capitalism!” When in fact the WEF is just the face of what capitalism looks like when it gets to this stage.

Musk’s new hire isn’t an indication that anything has changed or that anything new is happening. Whatever happens with Twitter from here on out was the trajectory Twitter was on from the moment Musk bought it.

The Biden administration eliminating think tank funding transparency requirements set by the Trump administration is one of the most Biden administration things that has ever happened.

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Having an ideologically diverse audience has really opened me up to how politically cloistered everyone’s used to being these days. People are always expressing surprise at the fact that they agree with me on some things yet disagree with me on others, either positively like “Wow we’re not on the same page economically but I love a lot of what you say”, or negatively like “OMG how can someone be so right about war and authoritarianism but SO WRONG about capitalism??”

This wouldn’t stand out to them as something surprising or unusual unless it was something they don’t normally experience in life. Which is a sign that something is off, because agreeing with people sometimes and disagreeing with them other times is the normal state of human interaction. That’s what you experience constantly in life if your interactions are allowed to move naturally.

That just shows how successful the powerful have been in herding the populace into ideological echo chambers where propaganda that’s custom-made for their ideological preferences can be administered to them:

We need to fight Russia because Putin’s a homophobic Hitler.
We need to fight China because the Asian commies are coming for us.
We need internet censorship to fight right wing extremism.
We need more militarized police to fight thugs.
Etc

Empire propaganda is tailored for each ideological echo chamber so that it slides in with as little resistance as possible.

That’s why I consider it a win whenever I can get healthy ideas and information over the echo chamber walls. When I’ve got a bunch of shitlibs or rightists in my notifications responding to something I’ve put out there, that means I’ve been successful in punching holes in the matrix.

We’re not supposed to agree with every political opinion we’re seeing. It isn’t natural to agree with any person or political faction all the time. If you find yourself agreeing with your preferred slice of the political spectrum all the time on every issue, that means you’ve stopped thinking for yourself and are just letting yourself be pulled along by the herd. Disagreement is normal. Universal agreement is a symptom of a debilitating disease.

I’ve never encountered anyone with whom I agree all the time, and it would be silly for me to expect to. I agree and disagree on various subjects with the communists I follow, and the libertarians, and everyone else. I’ve agreed and disagreed with things I’ve heard from Noam Chomsky, Glenn Greenwald, Alex Jones, Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. And you should too. That’s normal.

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Source: Poynter.org

Echo chambers: how they’re created and how to avoid them

By: Story Pennock

May 5, 2023

Recently, I tried a little experiment on social media. I set up two fake Twitter accounts. On one, I followed a bunch of left-leaning accounts. On the other, a bunch of right-leaning accounts.

The “For You” feed on both accounts was filled with only political content within just 10 minutes. Here’s the catch: My left-following account only saw left-leaning content and my right-following account only saw right-leaning content.

I had created two echo chambers — in just minutes. An echo chamber is a place where you only find posts, videos, memes or anything that supports your beliefs. One point to make: My two test accounts created political echo chambers. But this can happen with any type of information — religious, scientific, cultural … the list goes on.

Here’s how it happened and how to avoid it.

What is an algorithm?

The posts you see on your social media feeds are fed to you via algorithms, a computer process that figures out what you may want to see or read.

An algorithm will “serve up stuff it predicts you’re going to love or clutter your feed with stuff you hate to try and provoke a reaction,” according to this article from the CBC.

The goal is that you spend more time on the site. This isn’t to say that all algorithms are bad. If you’re really into Minecraft — and so is your echo chamber — you’re going to see the most relevant posts to your interests: posts about Minecraft. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

The problem is that misinformation thrives in echo chambers. If you only see posts that you agree with, you’re less likely to be critical of false or misleading videos or memes. This is called confirmation bias. When all the posts you see reinforce your point of view, you will not encounter opposing opinions, and you may end up spreading false information.

And sometimes that can be dangerous.

Robert Stanford is one scary example. He pleaded guilty to assaulting Capitol police officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. His defense? That he got sucked into an online echo chamber of conspiracy theories that messed with his head, influencing him to join the riot.

The experiment

Let’s take a closer look at my experiment. The two brand new Twitter accounts were linked to two new emails and named test 1 and test 2. Test 1 followed a host of left-wing users such as President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi. Test 2 followed right-wing accounts such as Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene and a conservative political influencer named “Catturd.” Both followed Elon Musk as well.

When new users join Twitter, they are recommended a host of accounts to follow. It’s not uncommon for people to follow politicians they align with or accounts that seem to align with their political interests initially.

These accounts were created shortly after the Nashville school shooting, and both pages were flooded with content about that on the first day.

But each side had very different takes, with content on the left-wing account lobbying for gun restrictions and content on the right-wing account speculating about the shooter’s gender identity.

The next day, Trump’s indictment was announced and that became the subject of most tweets on both accounts.

The left-leaning account was flooded with memes celebrating the indictment, while the right-wing account was flooded with accounts supporting Trump and warning that the arrest may be a part of a larger leftist agenda.

Clearly, the tweets I was seeing on the left side of the political spectrum were completely different from those on the right. It was as if the two sides were living in totally different worlds — as if everyone on Twitter is just talking to themselves and not really listening to anyone else.

How to avoid echo chambers

So how do we avoid echo chambers?

First, diversify the types of news and entertainment sites that you follow to get a diverse range of perspectives. Follow left-leaning and right-leaning sites. Read news stories, analyses and opinion pieces.

Critical ignoring can also be a good solution. Do not interact with any posts that aim to gain traction through controversy, and the algorithm will be less likely to put them onto your feed, weakening the chances of an echo chamber.

When you encounter political, conspiratorial or scientific information, fact-check it before sharing by asking yourself these three questions:

Who is behind the information?
What is the evidence?
What do other sources say?

Finally, this Wired article has one tip that I really like: Like everything to confuse the algorithm so it cannot tailor echo chambers. This can be especially effective for new accounts.

Here’s the thing to remember: Consuming the same viewpoints or content can distort one’s perspective on reality, making critical thinking difficult. While spending time on social media, be careful not to get sucked into an echo chamber.