Controversial Opinions (For Everything Other Than DC Comics)

[Kirby101]

Social media has made manipulating people harder.

Have you not heard of Trump or Qanon?

[PCN24454]

Social media has made manipulating people easier.

Don't worry. I fixed it for you.

[ed2962]

How well off was Jack Kirby when he died? For all the work he did over his lifetime, it doesn't seem like he ever got rich from it. I don't know if this is just his bad luck or what. All the ventures he had going on with Joe Simon in the 1940s and 1950s, you would think they would have both made a fortune from all that work, but they went broke. And then his dispute at National with Jack Schiff, he lost more money. And then at Marvel, he didn't get paid his due for all the work he did there. It just seems like, for all his talent, he could never catch a break.

Well, while I don't know the details of Kirby's personal finances, I don't think he died in debt or anything ( as far as I know). Don't forget that after he left Marvel a second time in the 80's, he went to Hollywood to do designs, etc. The impression I had was that he made some decent money there for at least a few years. Plus he also did advertising/commercial art.

Having said that, comics history is littered with folks that didn't get a second break after leaving comics. For instance most recently, Dave Cockrum...he died from serious health issues a few years ago. If Marvel paid him for co-creating the X-Men he could have used those royalties from the cartoons and movies and still be with us.

[C_Miller]

Have you not heard of Trump or Qanon?

I'm not sure what the poster is trying to say, but I can kind of see where they're coming from. While I think Social Media has made it far easier for malleable people to be manipulated, I don't think it makes it easier to manipulate people who would not have been through other means. If that makes sense. Social Media is not some tool that makes it easier to get at smart people, but it is a larger megaphone to reach more people who already would be manipulated.

However, I think as a whole the internet has made a lot of people more educated than they would have been without it. I think there are people out there who are less superstitious due to access to information. I don't know, maybe I'm an optimist.

[OopsIdiditagain]

That's certainly a controversial take, with the mainstreaming of bug nuts conspiracy.....I hesitate to call them theories, as a theory is at least an educated guess. Unless it's theory as a scientist uses it, when then it's pretty much a fact, we just don't know how it works or there's some corner case exception that can't be explained yet. Is evolution "just a theory?" Well, so is gravity but those people aren't lining up to disprove it by jumping off tall buildings.

But enough of the side rant. The proliferation of conspiracy fantasies makes me think that social media has made it easier to manipulate most people, with just a few going in the opposite direction.

Conspiracy theorists are only able to pop up when people stop trusting the mainstream media/authority.

[Ragged Maw]

Don't worry. I fixed it for you.

"Made it easier for people to hole up and insulate themselves in ideological echo chambers, therefore allowing themselves to be more easily manipulated."........is what I would've gone with. That important intermediary step paints a more detailed picture.

[OopsIdiditagain]

Don't worry. I fixed it for you.

Yeah, social media made it so easy to manipulate people authoritarian states like China and Russia had to restrict it /sarcasm.

Social media is the reason citizen journalists could help movements like BLM or even the Hong Kong protest. There are so many cases of power abuse that could've been just ended with victim-blaming if it weren't for social media.

[The Darknight Detective]

The Internet has given all of us a cheap and easy way to obtain all forms of ideas and viewpoints instantly. The best thing, IMO, is that I can read all these different sources and then make up my mind as to what is factual and correct.

[babyblob]

The great thing about Social media is everyone gets a voice. The bad thing is everyone gets a voice.

But with all of the social justice movements, videos posted to social media of things that would have been ignored otherwise. i think the benefits out weight the bad. That is until Twitter becomes self away and tries to kill Sarah Conner.

[Gray Lensman]

The great thing about Social media is everyone gets a voice. The bad thing is everyone gets a voice.

But with all of the social justice movements, videos posted to social media of things that would have been ignored otherwise. i think the benefits out weight the bad. That is until Twitter becomes self away and tries to kill Sarah Conner.

Oh, it's not gonna try to kill Sarah Conner, it's gonna burn down the planet looking for McDonald's szechuan sauce.

[Kirby101]

Oh, it's not gonna try to kill Sarah Conner, it's gonna burn down the planet looking for McDonald's szechuan sauce.

Wubba, Luba, Dub Dub

[TheRay]

Controversial opinion: Grassss tastes bad.

[CSTowle]

Yeah, social media made it so easy to manipulate people authoritarian states like China and Russia had to restrict it /sarcasm.

Social media is the reason citizen journalists could help movements like BLM or even the Hong Kong protest. There are so many cases of power abuse that could've been just ended with victim-blaming if it weren't for social media.

Both things are true. Social media can be problematic to those in power and it can also easily manipulate people into believing things they might be predisposed to believe anyway.

For instance, if you're sad your Presidential candidate loses it's a lot more comforting to believe that election was stolen. If someone packages facts (or "facts") and arguments in a way that supports that viewpoint it can (and has) easily gone viral.

The old saying (probably misquoting, and not going to bother properly attributing), "a lie can travel halfway across the world while the truth is still getting its shoes on" is true. People are more prone to spreading comforting information than inconvenient truths.

Social media is a tool that can be used to educate or lie.

[TheRay]

I have to admit the plot of the Kill Bill movies didn’t really do it for me. The actual movies had some nice scenes, but the plot wasn’t that compelling. It would have been exactly the same, or it might have been even better, if “The Bride” had some sort of mob connections and somebody was trying to take her out as a revenge killing.

[babyblob]

I like Ezri Dax better then Jadzia Dax!