Ask HN: What to Do about huge Waves of decentralized mobs? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What to Do about huge Waves of decentralized mobs?

5 pointsEGreg3 comments

We now have an interesting phenomenon.

Free speech memes (anti vax, election was a fraud, etc.) generate a huge snowball that big tech tries to deplatform. It threatens stability.

And now, free trade memes (short squeeze, or long-term ones like HODL to the moon) generate a huge snowball that may end short selling. It threatens stability.

This is true whether it's people organizing for Navalny against Putin, or against Lukashenko, or protesting the election, or reddit bros coordinating a short squeeze. Flash mobs organize. Stability vs Freedom. The people who enjoy stability are also blatantly profiting off their privileged position and access to the levers of power. The angry mob gets some short term wins but ultimately the loss of stability may drastically decrease overall wealth for everyone.

The question is ... how would the people who are in favor of stability even regulate or enforce the ability of flash mobs to get together, if there is no centralized organizer, just a meme or an idea? This is how revolutions occur. But often, the result (anarchy in Libya, 20M dead in Russian civil war after the revolution) is worse than the situation that came before.

So, for some in-depth thoughts on how social media, etc. impact protest movements, I suggest the book "Twitter and Teargas" (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2061997366). I won't try to summarize in a sentence; it's a complicated topic and she covers it well.

For a detailed analysis of the current troubles, I suggest the book "Ages of Discord" (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1796955228). Again, I won't try to summarize. But the author predicted big political discord and upheaval in the U.S. starting in around the year 2020. Note that none of his theories require flash mobs to happen. If it weren't flash mobs, it would still be mobs. But the first book does discuss how internet communications change the dynamics (and effectiveness) of protests.

And often the results is better than the situation that came before. Until you can accurately determine which outcome is going to result, you shouldn't be trying to forbid the process out of concern for what could happen but isn't guaranteed to happen. Your actions to stop things from happening might lead to a worse outcome than if you left things alone.

Don't worry, that's just cyclical fluctuations in human OS software, best summed up like this:

Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times.

You only see this as troublesome because your scale of perception is one human life. Look at current events as if you are reading a history book.

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