Yes indeed this IS the Off-Topic forum.....but if you look at the top of this forum section you will see what 04rnr is referring too.....

"Announcement: Political Discussion is Prohibited
06-16-2018 ChildrenOfBodom (Moderator)"

Here's a link to the above announcement....

https://www.toyota-4runner.org/off-t...uncements.html

or to make it easier and to save anyone from having to click on the link here it is quoted...

"Political Discussion is Prohibited
There is to be no political discussion on this forum, including Off Topic subforums.

Infraction points will be issued to any and all violators. All threads are subject to closing or deletion without warning, at discretion of the moderators.

Thank you."

I didn't see it either until 04rnr posted his reply above and I did a little looking around, so now we know!!

Thai and I are talking about biased search results. The political stuff is just output.

Most people think that computers just give them results of what they are searching for but when there are people(programmers) involved that have certain motivations and can control the output of the results it makes it biased.

Say you heard about a new LG Android phone you wanted to buy and almost all of the search results were just Iphone 22 advertisements You would not be getting what you searched for.

Or a better example is you searched for a problem you were having with your 4Runner and the results kept giving you articles (from Ford but not disclosed) which were false telling you that there was not fix and the only solution was to buy a new Bronco.

I'm not suggesting any of the above is true of false but just examples of what can happen when algorithms can be manipulated and there is no accountability on who is doing it or how the results are fed out.

Many are suggesting that this is happening now. The same thing is happening at YouTube that is owned by Google. Many long time video posters are suddenly being downgraded for no special reason.

My son (11 years old) just showed me yesterday...YouTube REWIND. If you click on it now, all you see is Pride videos. I get it...last month was Pride month. But ALL of rewind is about it.

So nothing else happened?? I could swear a few big things happened.

According to Wiki, “ DescriptionYouTube Rewind is a video series produced and created by YouTube and Portal A Interactive. These videos are an overview and a recap of each year's viral videos, events, trends, memes, and music.“

Oh well, my son was confused why. I just told him about Pride month. But also explained that there were other important things last month. Media is not what it used to be. Parenting is tough today.

While I too would enjoy seeing some news outlet somewhere that is truly unbiased, I really don't think it's possible. We are who we are, our morals included. I do my best to see both sides of a thing, but I can't keep ME out of it all the time. Fact is, I believe what I believe, and have the moral value system I have, largely because I believe it's right and true. And as much as I may strongly dislike certain opposing viewpoints, I do need to look at two possibilities: either the person(s) in question really believe what they're saying, or they are simply interested in pushing an agenda that fits what they THINK they should believe because they've been told to do so by those on 'their side'.

All that said, I'm confident that I'm on the right and true side of things.

My explanation as to why there would be non-4Runner related discussion occurring in the Off-Topic section.



Yes, I'm aware. Personally I think its BS, but thats just my opinion.

This is just any other forum, they have rules, but choose who they enforce the rules on, and who gets to break the rules.

Sooooooo the person in the "change my mind" meme is Steven Crowder who is a YouTube personality / provacator. He does crazy things like calmly sit down with college students on campus with a sign similar to "guns are good for America, change my mind" and then he talks to them in front of the camera. Ooooooo scary!

Last month Google demonitized his channel because he was sarcastically making fun of a reporter's sexuality by using the same (literally) terms the reporter uses to describe himself on social media. For example the reporter refers to himself/identity as X, Steven Crowder used those same exact words in a making fun of kind of way. This led to a PC culture push back and even protests at Google's headquarters where employees were upset about Crowder being allowed to exercise free speech.

Despite Warnings, Google Workers Protested Their Employer At San Francisco's Pride Parade
Despite Warnings, Google Workers Protested Their Employer At San Francisco's Pride Parade


Google employees petition to ban the company from SF Pride
Google employees petition to ban the company from SF Pride

YouTube looks to demonetization as punishment for major creators, but it doesn’t work
Steven Crowder’s case is a perfect example
YouTube looks to demonetization as punishment for major creators, but it doesn’t work - The Verge


Here is an example of the type of videos he posts, some cause controversy


(Video) Change my mind: Hate Speech Isn't A Real Thing (in America)



"America is Superior - Change my mind"

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnVMpFjB2OU&feature=youtu.be
I'm a simple minded person so I need pretty pictures. This Weather channel segment however made me a believer of fake news. Freaking ridiculous.
I will not get into the political side of this, but the fact is, this is nothing new.
Ever since news print was invented (several hundred years ago) and someone didn't like the content, it was either discredited or banned by the government because of political or lobbyist pressure. Long before the internet.
Hell Edison electrocuted an Elephant to discredit AC power. Now it safely powers the world.
Back then rich industrialists and politicians controlled the news, now it's the left leaning tech giants. Both sides are dangerous when it comes down to the whole truth being told.
I subscribe to the old adage: "you can't believe everything you read".

Thai. I'm not sure that you understand how YouTube works. Not trying to diss you but I think you don't understand.

YouTube rewind is a # tag on YouTube where once a year the company YouTube makes a single video called rewind for X year. For example see the screenshot for 2018. This 2018 video is the only rewind 2018 video that the company YouTube published.

Now if you click the hash tag and watch the channel of videos, those videos are controlled by an algorithm and even Google itself doesn't understand the content nor manage it. All that happens is more popular videos float to the top. Also your past viewing history has a huge impact.

When you click the #YouTubeRewind channel you get videos by PewDiePie and others that are 1) not created by the company Google 2) popular because they are already popular channels.

As for LGTB stuff, the Google video I screenshot'd so far 25% in has no LGBT anything. What videos are in your list and were they even published by YouTube. You have to look at the published/posted by indicator.

Here is another example. This is PewDiePie's 2018 Rewind video and with 56 million views is probably the most highly watched video of all rewind videos. I watched 1/3 of it. Again Nooooo LGBT stuff.

---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By_Cn5ixYLg&feature=youtu.be

Perhaps you should disable history tracking use on your kids Google / YouTube permissions. You see Google does this thing where if you watch one gun video it shows you more gun videos, a lot of them. So if you watch one LGBT video then you are flooded with LGBT videos etc. Stopping YouTube from making suggestions based on your viewing history should be possible in the settings. You just need to be familiar with them.
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Things have certainly changed and not for the better.

Well, that’s the thing........we don’t watch Pride videos. Yeah, i get it that those videos may be popular.........but..........that kinda kills the point of the whole rewind thing.

Google doesn’t understand their own algorithm? Sure....LOL

But Google doesn't control the # for rewind. Just like instagram they don't control what people post under a certain hashtag.
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Yeah, Google doesn't control.......just like they don't influence SEARCH at all, right? Sorry, with what has come out about Google and internal memos, i don't trust Google and what they tell the public.

Project Veritas is just about the most fully debunked source for this kind of information. Their track record of intentionally disseminating false information is abysmal. Believe the bias if you want. This article adds zero to the conversation. FWIW, Project Veritas was funded by the Trump Foundation in 2015.

I think the main take away of this thread is everyone should go watch Steven Crowder's "change my mind" videos on Youtube.
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