Quora

[robbo203]

I joined the Quora forum a little while back. (https://www.quora.com/)

 

 

I was astonished to come across this post by the founder member and CEO , Adam D'Angelo,, in response to a question about how many people use Quora 

 

"We have about 100 million monthly unique visitors. About half are from the US and 15% are from India. But, we don't focus much on these numbers because we usually optimize for quality and that comes with a tradeoff against volume."

 

That is an incredible figure and must surely place this site at or near the top of all internet forms.

 

I know there are a two or three comrades in the SPGB who use this site but it strikes me this is something many more in the SPGB and other parties in the WSM could get actively involved in.  How about a coordinated campaign to rope in new people?  I have already come across a few contributors who are at at least sympathetic to socialist ideas….

 

Imagine the reinforcement effect of say 30 or 40 comrades

[robbo203]

An example of what I m talking about which I have just literaly come across in the last 5 minutes .  In response to the question "why would anyone supprot capitalism?" this contributer writes,,,,, Ozgur Zeren, Author at ViaPopuli.comWritten Jan 3 #1 reason is because they don't know what Capitalism is.Just like how they don't know what Socialism, Communism, Democracy, Fascism etc are.They think that going to some store and choosing a product to buy, or their mother-in-law opening up a small shop, or them being able to quit their current job and take up another job somewhere else, is 'Capitalism'.Some even go as far to equalize it with 'Freedom', or * gasp * 'Democracy'.What is Democracy ? Communism ? Do you really know ? Capitalism is Halliburton. Capitalism is Exxon. Capitalism is Koch brothers being able to buy Congressional elections:Capitalism is an economic system in which there is no limit to the amount of wealth, therefore ownership of, and power over the economic and social life by a tiny minority in a society.It's a modified version of Feudalism, in which everyone is told "You can also become a small baron if you 'work hard". Except, no one gets rich by working hard.Working Hard? Thinking You will get Rich by Hard Work? Endless praise and retelling of stories of those who 'made it' from 'rags to riches' are repeated from the media, giving a false impression to the people who watch it.Another movie about Steve Jobs is coming, this summer. What they fail to say is that, for every Jobs that succeeded, there are hundreds of thousands of very talented, very well educated and sharp people who never make it to that level, with most not making it to any level but just working under those people who 'made it'.Then think about those who were just average people. Think how much chance these people have.And people like Jobs are an exception too – most of those who dominate the social and economic life of the society do not come from inventor, scientist or creative backgrounds, having created something greatly useful for the society – look at Mitt Romney. Dick Cheney. Even, Trump. They are the majority, not people like Jobs…And people arent aware that the concentrated ownership of wealth has massive effect on their lives. These stuff, these characters like Trump, Cheney etc seem like personas in a far away place, seen mostly on TV, and have some say in some far recesses of the socioeconomic life of their country.They are not aware that a few major Telecommunications companies like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast are currently in the process of suing the Federal government to force it  to acknowledge Internet backbone in USA, as their 'own property', which will give them the right to do anything with the internet traffic that passes through it. Which means that if they want to censor a site by charging them 'fees' to let that site 'access their subscribers', they have a right to do it. Which means private censorship, but hey – if Federal government loses the court case and the internet backbone -a strategically important infrastructure of an entire country – is declared the 'property' of those who own/leased it, then it will be their 'right' to do anything with their 'private property'.At that moment the websites, blogs, small businesses of all these people who were praising capitalism without knowing it, would face the actual capitalism – being subservient to the whims of the biggest property holder. It would be funny to see how would these people cope up with entire internet backbone being privatized as such, leaving no option for anyone who wants to access ~200 million people in US but to bow down to the terms of these top dogs, but, hopefully it will never come to pass."……I can only see capitalism being beneficial to satiate greed….."You are seeing it incorrectly: Not only greed can never be satiated, but also Capitalism rewards, encourages and enforces greed:Those who stop at nothing to maximize their profit, accumulate more wealth (capital), which allows them to wield more power in their economic environment. Those who stop at any morals, ethics, laws or regulations get left behind, and are bought out, competed out, or destroyed by those who don't. And in the eventual end you end up with a sociopath socioeconomic environment in which the most ruthless of the players dominate everyone and enforce their values…………Go to YouTube and see Milton Friedman screaming "I believe in Freedom", equating Capitalism with "Freedom" in panels, interviews and debates regarding the issue. As if there could be any freedom for one's mother in law and her small shop in a rural neighborhood in US with Walmart around.But true – its about freedom – its about the freedom of the exceedingly wealthy minority do do as they please with the economy and society. Not with the freedom of anyone else in that society.Private Tyranny.  People are not aware of this. They are unaware that their choices, freedom and whatsoever they think to exist in this system actually don't exist. They are limited by their money/wealth, and will never attain the amount to be truly free. They are unaware of this, because they don't even know that they don't know, as Noam Chomsky puts it.Hence, they subscribe to things they don't even know, mirroring narratives that are sold to everyone by those who perpetuate those things for their own benefit.Just look at the spectacular examples in other answers – people who can't properly define Communism are talking  about how it "just doesn't work", people who don't know a modicum of world history talk about how 'everything else having been tried', people who don't know about alternatives to capitalism call you to come up with alternatives.People don't know Capitalism. That's why they support it.843 Views · View Upvotes

[Brian]

robbo203 wrote:

I joined the Quora forum a little while back. (https://www.quora.com/)  I was astonished to come across this post by the founder member and CEO , Adam D'Angelo,, in response to a question about how many people use Quora  "We have about 100 million monthly unique visitors. About half are from the US and 15% are from India. But, we don't focus much on these numbers because we usually optimize for quality and that comes with a tradeoff against volume." That is an incredible figure and must surely place this site at or near the top of all internet forms. I know there are a two or three comrades in the SPGB who use this site but it strikes me this is something many more in the SPGB and other parties in the WSM could get actively involved in.  How about a coordinated campaign to rope in new people?  I have already come across a few contributors who are at at least sympathetic to socialist ideas…. Imagine the reinforcement effect of say 30 or 40 comrades

I've been plugging Quora for at least 3 months and so far nobody is listening.  If just 5 or 6 more comrades were to join Quora they would be connected to a far wider audience than facebook.  For instance my present stats are 118,500 views for 754 answers and 964 upvotes which I would never attain elsewhere.

[Author]

Posts