Discuss The Great Hack
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Propaganda and fear...
posted by Daddie0STAFFMOD on July 26, 2019 at 3:26 AM
I viewed this documentary accidentally...well, that's not accurate exactly...it was in my "Popular on Netflix" suggestions in the #1 slot. So I went in with minimal expectations/understanding. Then the rainbow red logo appeared with the double thud that proclaims this is a Netflix product. After sitting through the entire movie I was struck by its own lack of self-awareness. The entire production is setup following around several little "Davids" trying to avoid being crushed by the big bad Goliaths of big business, big tech and big government. But in the closing moments the entire project comes into focus: it's a piece that itself is fomenting fear of the future...fears of a mega-industry of papers and journalists who previously held a monopoly on how and what data gets disseminated. And here they raise the alarm: we're going to lose our democracy! And, it's all this evil new technology! But I have to wonder: wasn't the same said at the advent of newspapers and journalists and editors themselves? And nevermind the fact that this film itself was produced by another big tech company--Netflix--who used their big bad evil data analytics and AI to push this product out to millions...including me.
Oh the irony!
Reply by Benedict
on October 31, 2019 at 9:01 PM
There is some irony, it's true, but the same attitude means nothing raising concerns about big data, or social media, or big business, should get an airing because it's using those same platforms and methods to disseminate its message.
Your take reminds me of the view of climate change activists, that unless they live a carbon neutral lifestyle or are vegan hippies living in a self-sustaining commune, they are hypocrites to raise the alarm. It's nonsensical. The whole point is to reach and inform people who are steeped in digital lives, who don't consider the trading of their own data or don't think they have any reason to require privacy from big business and governments. Unless you speak to those people on a platform they use, in a manner they respond to, they will never listen.
The idea that concern about big data is scaremongering from newspapers and old media afraid of change is also ludicrous. Carole Cadwalladr was a features writer for the Guardian. She's hardly Rupert Murdoch. What's her big stake in defending the old guard from the new? She expressly states her fear is for the very foundations of democracy, and the case she makes is pretty damn compelling it seems to me. It's not like these kinds of organisations manipulating people need to hoodwink the entire population, elections are often swung by a relatively tiny number of votes.
My biggest issue with this documentary was that it hardly scratched the surface of the issues, and focused too narrowly on a few characters.
Reply by Daddie0
on November 14, 2019 at 5:25 PM
Your point is well taken. It fair to say every generation has had their share of fear-mongering without much self-awareness. I'm not saying we ought not consider such things, but rather that we should have some self-awareness as we do.
That's just it, I'm not sure this is the "whole point" either. Perhaps it will always require the next iteration of observers to stand outside of these constructs and critique them. I just thought it was painfully lacking self-awareness about the very concerns you raise.