Jonathon Morgan Video: “Machine Learning and Information Warfare”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGgx0V1s5MM
11-20-18
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Morgan’s right in the middle of a big controversy about last year’s election in Alabama. There are so many reports on it that a smart Baker made an entire bun for it ( >>4515812, >>4515998 Consolidation of digs on jonathon morgan et al). This video isn't brand-new, but it's new enough to reveal the real person behind the name. Another anon posted it, and when i watched it....well, I thought I should "share." I took notes so you don't have to watch the whole thing if you don't want to.
Why? Because Morgan is a narrow-minded, leftwing prig who’s pretentiousness is unrelieved by the slightest trace of humor or irony. He begins by saying that we used to have gatekeepers who influenced public option, but how the Internet was supposed to change that. According to him, that’s not what happened. Instead, manipulators moved in. So now we have an iInternet we can't "trust."
Guess who he identifies as the manipulators? Neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Thinks the Net is getting taken over by them. Thinks the far-right may be radicalizing “vulnerable” people, which will lead to violence. Wants to identify these people by analyzing their language.
Starts talking about his “method,” which I think = Hamilton 86, although never names it. Says it interprets language usage based on context using some kind of computer modeling. The math is “complicated”, according to JM; that’s his excuse for not explaining how it works. One thing is clear: if you use a lot of “Nazi” words (and closely-associated words), this model will probably flag you as a Nazi.
JM doesn’t bother to explore the idea that any such tool will be based ENTIRELY on the values of the interpreter. I doubt he’s even thought about it.
Claims that in April 2016, conservatives online started getting much more "extreme" ("Nazi-ish") based on his linguistic analysis. No sauce, just this assertion. His idea is that it didn’t happen by accident but that the change was “injected.” Claims there were a lot of new accounts popping up at that time pushing this radical language. [Russian bots? He never says.] In this talk, he targets Breitbart, showing a pic of Breitbart staffers right after POTUS’ election win giving a Nazi salute. His caption: “Breitbart is not run by nice people.” [Don’t laugh, people—be afraid, be VERY afraid.]
I don’t know about this pic, but suspect these staffers are spoofing those who think they are Nazis. But Morgan has ZERO sense of humor; he wouldn’t get a real joke if it punched him in the face. (see page 2).
This guy is really hard to listen to—paranoid, obsessed and negative about anything further right than Antifa. Also very loose and unsauced in his claims. Expresses "concern” that popularity is more important than truth [mirror time, Jonathon.] Sees right-wing manipulators behind every bush. During the Q & A, says he’s worked with DARPA and on something called MEMEX, which can track sex traffickers.
Yikes! I hate to think of this guy working with DARPA on anything.
Morgan's the ultimate snowflake but dangerous to the extent he taps into the insecurities of his fellow snowflakes. Just give him a dark robe and he'll fit right into the Inquisitorial model of guys who make the sacrifice of torturing you to save your soul (or nowadays,to save the planet).