Pity Parler

Em Carpenter

Em was one of those argumentative children who was sarcastically encouraged to become a lawyer, so she did. She is a proud life-long West Virginian, and, paradoxically, a liberal. In addition to writing about society, politics and culture, she enjoys cooking, podcasts, reading, and pretending to be a runner. She will correct your grammar. You can find her on Twitter.

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17 Responses

  1. CJColucci says:

    Oh boy, another social media platform to ignore.Report

  2. Bryan O'Nolan says:

    It’s all bores with their hobby-horses.Report

  3. fillyjonk says:

    I’m glad you “took one for the team,” Em.Report

  4. Burt Likko says:

    Seems like it ought to be dismissable.

    But that’s kind of what I said about FOX News once: “This is just obviously not even news, it’s nonstop opinion and editorializing.” Yet FOX News has gone and created this alternative reality where (for instance) everyone from Mexico is an “illegal immigrant” slavering at massive welfare checks and committing violent crimes under the malign protection of a sinister vampiric figure that’s vaguely shaped like Nancy Pelosi, who somehow hates white American people with jobs unless they’re gay-married to box turtles. Or something like that.

    And there are people who seem to believe that shit, and who find themselves immersed in a world where they’re surrounded by other people who believe that shit and they believe it because they’re all repeating it to one another all the time with no dissenting voices. They’re subject to a Pauline Kael effect — “No one I know is in favor of banning chokeholds!” — and get an existential shock when they encounter someone who actually disagrees with them. A shock which they interpret as a threat.

    Wash, rinse, repeat across the entire internet, and soon enough, you have 2020.Report

    • Saul Degraw in reply to Burt Likko says:

      2020 just released a bunch of polls which showed Biden has huge leads in lots of purple states that went for Trump in 2016. The same polling had Biden within the margin of error in Texas, Texas. Speaking of Texas, it turns out that a pandmeic is not able to stop delusions and owning the libs so Abbot paused the reopening.

      A lot of this is because a depression, pandemic, and waves of peaceful protest does not help an already unpopular President to paraphrase LGM. But another aspect is that Trumpian and Fox News tricks do not work against an old, white guy. This part is depressing but seemingly true. On Fox, The Democrats are the party of AOC but not (((Schumer))) and (((Sciff))).

      The GOP seems to be on the way of becoming a rump party for white people (mainly white men) without a college degree and a huge amount of Eric “respect my authoritah” Cartmen in them. Now there is also ONAN which apparently makes Fox looks like the Nation.

      I suspect that even an absolute rout in November would not stop the GOP from getting crazier and crazier.Report

  5. boobs, and Trump

    But I repeat myself.Report

  6. North says:

    So something even worse than twitter? The internet never fails to provide; there is no floor.Report

  7. LeeEsq says:

    “It’s my Parler and I’ll cry if I want to.”Report

  8. Doctor Jay says:

    I’ve been thinking for quite some time that monoliths in social media aren’t really going to work. I see some people are starting to agree with me that a more balkanized collection of smaller platforms, each with its own culture and norms, is going to work better. Consider that stuff that is par for the course in some people’s homes might get them thrown out of others.

    We all know this. Parler may or may not become one of these places. It kind of reeks of money with little understanding or desire to serve behind it, but who really knows? I’m fine with that. One size does not fit all.Report

    • fillyjonk in reply to Doctor Jay says:

      The streaming-service model, except for social media.

      Problem is, if you have friends on three different media platforms (and each only on one platform), you’re gonna have to either not keep up with friends, or keep up with three platforms. Well, at least the platforms are mostly free, unlike Netflix/Hulu/Disney+/HBO Go/NBC streaming/CBS streaming/whatever started up this week to yank its content off the other platforms and charge a separate fee…Report

  9. Damon says:

    For several years I was increasingly convinced that Social Media is 100% absolute crap and a waste of time. Nothing’s changed that. Sure, I’m concerned about any large company restricting user content while at the same time “professing” free speech bromides, kinda like how the press “claims” they are politically neutral, but what seems more to the point is the obsession with self validation users use it for. How many times did I roll my eye at my last GF when the last thing she did before going to bed each night, was to post pics and comments on Social Media. The first thing she did when she woke up was to see the responses. I’m having coffee and reading the local paper. The other damn thing that annoyed me was that she consumed all her data plans checking social media and then asked me to look stuff up on google or such. “Ah, you’ve got a search engine in your hand”…”.but I’m out of data”….”then stop using Facebook on your phone all day” Maybe it’s because I stopped giving a damn about what most people thought of me. Life is too short to worry about fools and their opinions.

    I still look at social media that other folks have posted in places, just like I watch/read the news….each side of the news. There is no real similarity between the two perspectives.Report

  10. Saul Degraw says:

    This will not allow Devin Nunes to escape from the wrath of his cow

    https://www.newsweek.com/devin-nunes-cow-follows-parler-1513345Report

  11. Pinky says:

    If I had to graph total amount of information on a website by number of participants, it’d be a strong increase up to about 50 then basically level off. A graph of total content (as opposed of information) by number of participants would continually increase, meaning (information)/(content) peaks at 50. A graph of hostility by number of participants would be nearly zero through about 10, then continually increase.Report

  12. Idiocrat says:

    So it’s basically Twitter without the ADs? Cool.Report