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Comment by sol_invictus | Hacker News Reader

Good article. Would also add polarisation & political extremism is a major catalyst in converting people of good faith into people of bad faith through questionable narratives, false statistics and all the other means of propaganda available.

This is the main reason why the political forcefeeding we are experiencing right now is highly dangerous.

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Plug as a founder: We are trying to balance things out on https://polemix.co (invite code hn169, download app at both stores) Launched 6 weeks ago, we bring together people from both sides of hot questions. The format is inspired from TikTok and consists of 30-second videos in which speakers answer YES or NO to controversial questions. The app’s goal is to break echo chambers.

We are onboarding early adopters to shape the next paradigm of internet dialogue, and we have the most caring debating champion on board (defeated IBM!) https://youtu.be/qgIAEUPyGMM

If you are passionate about exchange of ideas, shoot me your thoughts to feedback@polemix.co to have your intake on social media current situation.

The problem with this "both sides have a point" ideology (arguably popularized by CNN when they intentionally became an entertainment network) is that, for many issues, one side does not have a point.

It's fascinating that you actually used one of these examples (though a milder one) on your landing page. The woman on the left says "#RecordGrowth" as a reason to miss Trump, even though:

- GDP growth was not at a record high under Trump[1] (both Bush Jr. and Obama had years with higher YoY growth[2], for example)

- Congress ultimately makes major economic decisions, not the president

- policy doesn't always impact the economy immediately

I'd actually argue that sites like yours are the actual problem. When you elevate false narratives to a "both sides have a point" level of credibility, people will just pick whichever one they like better.

That's one of the core problems with social media: you can always find thousands of vocal "people" (possibly some bots, possibly some paid actors) to agree with anything you want to believe. Instead of facing the pain that you might be wrong, you have been wrong, or the world is not what you want it to be, you are given the option to just believe everyone else is stupid.

1. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/oct/01/donald-tru...

2. https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/gdp-...

Thank you for taking the time to reach out and reading our value proposition.

Indeed, it will be a hard task for us to solve all the issues regarding baseless opinions. We believe that hearing both sides of a question and acknowledging that 2 sides can co-exist, will make you a better citizen. Even more if you engage with the other side with a respect signal. Even more if you speak out. And even more if, while you speak out, you receive respect votes :)

Assuming any issue can only have 2 viewpoints is extremely fallacious

Maybe you have two sides - most issues do - maybe there is only one. But exposure to both is helpful regardless. On most issues we haven’t considered both sides, and only have weak thoughts - listening forces us to think. In other cases you can ratify your beliefs, and is something you may change your mind. Regardless, it’s better that we have seen a wide range of opinions.

How is it a wide range of options if you forced to say either viewpoint A or B is true, when in reality any semicomplex issue will have truth in viewpoint C, D, ∃!xP etc.

Complex societal issues will not be solved within the scope of a 30 second video.

I can't see how this can affect the echo chamber issue in any way. Turning the "disklike" button into "respect, but dislike" hardly does anything to the substance of the general conversation topics. People are still socially afraid of presenting viewpoints and trying to make people do so with their own name and face will produce worse results VS twitter. Unless a monochamber is what you're shooting for.

To be fair to you, I hardly see any technological solution within humanity's current capabilities as a solution for the problem.

Hi there, thank you for taking the time to reach out.

I'm glad you've seen the respect button innovation. The meaning of that button is not "respect, but dislike". We want it to be "normally I wouldn't engage, but there is a positive signal I want to share".

Since we are alternating the YES / NO sides all the times, engaging with the other side and showing respect foster more balanced debates.

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