I do not think we should get too much into politics. It turns off people that are on the other side of the speaker. And, there is no more tolerance any longer.
Used to be that you can agree to disagree. Now - It’s destroy anyone with a differing opinion. And, I didn’t join this forum to discuss politics…
Social media also seems to spur “outrage” among people - too many people get offended by anything and everything. They tend to say and act in ways online that they would never do in real life. If we start having those kinds of discussions here on the forum, it will degenerate very fast IMHO.
It does seem to more often than most other shows. However I’ve seen this same critique pop up a bunch of times on here already. While I agree it is a valid critique for sure, I’m personally not all that bothered by it. However I will reiterate that Leo does seem to try to keep people on topic as much as possible, without devolving into arguments…
And to reiterate my point above this thread wasn’t “TWiG is too political, here are some critiques and suggestions to make things better” it’s “Jeff is not objective, what about the left”, two completely different topics with completely different objectives. Of course, in my opinion.
Late to the debate but Jeff is the reason I stopped listening to TWiG. Every example of fake news or a way he believes the internet is going is because of the far right, the left never does anything wrong. Then he interrupts over Stacey and never lets her finish.
Also this community as Leo keeps talking about it is a perfect place to debate and discuss this stuff.
It’s the same type of discussion around how terrible Greg was on TWIT
This has been an ongoing annoyance of mine. I still watch TWiG, but it’s difficult to do so. I wonder what the stats show about the popularity of this show?
I think many of these regular hosts are suffering from tech-fatigue. Consider their efforts, doing 2 to 3 hr. shows every week, talking about pretty much the same issues such as privacy and data mining.
I enjoy it when it is a civil discussion, but when it gets heated I begin to feel uncomfortable, and on several occasions I have skipped forward to get away from the stress.
Having said that many of the discussions on the politics of tech are both interesting and useful. Maybe a separate politics meets tech podcast ???
When tech was just one of many sectors in the world economy, it was possible to discuss it in isolation. But now tech companies, and the individuals that head them, are the richest companies and individuals in the world, with enormous influence. I don’t think it will ever be possible to talk about tech without including ethics and politics to some degree, because of this change.
Overall, I think that TWiT programs allow strongly-held and differing views to be discussed without descending to the sort of name-calling that’s common in the world of politics.
I was thinking more of the sort of discussion on the latest Mac Break Weekly - there were certainly some strongly held and loudly expressed opinions there, but Leo kept it all under control.
I unsubscribed from TWIG because of Jeff’s left leaning rants and so little discussion about tech. They dwell too much on the political ramifications of tech and not enough on actual tech. Leo does try to keep things from going off the rails, but he too can participate in the narrow-minded left leaning points of view.
I personally think that people who block listeners on Twitter should not talk politics. I want to hear about Google News, not listen to MSNBC talking points with no objectivity. I am neither Republican nor Democrat and it frustrates me when a journalism professor is beyond biased. My favorite episodes are when he is not there because I get tired of him tripping on his own biases.
If it was just left leaning, it would be okay. It is establishment leaning where he thinks money is speech. On the last episode, where they were talking about the algorithm, nobody had a clue that the algorithm is giving preferential treatment to to mass media because they are “advertising safe,” so now MSNBC, who had 500 views on a video tops, has more views than a guy in his garage who actually fact checks. Now the algorithm is curbing speech.
Excellent point. To take this a bit further: I always wonder about those youtubers who manage to still find unboxing new phones with minimally different features particularly interesting.
I think this may be true. I used to listen to most every TWIT podcast, but there is so much reputation, that I find I’ve limited myself to just a few shows. If the listener is getting worn out by the repetition, imagine having to talk about it on 2 or more shows a week.
