Twitterbot catalogs every face in Donald Trump's crowds, looking for humanity

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/09/26/twitterbot-catalogs-every-face.html

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I’m not sure how I feel about this as it comes off as a means of pointing out and shaming individuals for no reason other than they happen to be at a Trump event.

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I’d generally agree with that sentiment under normal circumstances, but given how many of these people consider the term “deplorable” to be a compliment, I’d wonder A) if they’re capable of being shamed, and B) if they’d just consider being singled out as a badge of “honor”. Also, there’s the point where I, for one, have to wonder if they’re not worthy of being shamed by association; nobody put a gun to their heads and forced them to attend a fascist rally–they are present there of their own free will, and stripping away the anonymity and social reinforcement of the crowd might have a positive outcome (or a negative backlash; who knows?).

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The people cheering on most of what he says deserve to be shamed. The ones who don’t deserve to be shamed are pretty easy to spot.

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I get where you’re coming from. I just disagree with the focusing on the individual with no further context. What if someone is there out of curiosity, as a reporter or blogger, as a dissenter, or some other reason.

I would find it much more interesting focusing on the aggregate, like 85% of the faces showed signs of anger, or 90% of the crowd appeared to be white males.

Focusing on an individual just seems weird and icky to me.

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Wait, there’s something wrong with this reasoning…

Each of them is a human being, equipped with the same faculties for intelligence and empathy, yet they are apparently so enamoured with this man that they are blind to the hatred and lies he speaks.

Hang on…

let me take a closer look at it… oh… I see it right there… There’s your problem!

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I’m having a tough time with this myself. I believe that trump’s election would enshrine all the horrible shit people think about America, true or not, and it would certainly embolden the worst of the worst (colossal douchebag Jeffrey Lord on TV ALL DAY LONG). For Fucking Fuck’s Sake did anyone see one of the nimrod trump boys insisting that they didn’t need to have a blind trust because, literally, “trust me”. :angry: :angry: :angry:

So I tend to think poorly on people considering casting their vote for him, because I think it’s damned hard to show how he won’t utterly fuck the country up, and especially in his own interests. Just another tin-pot dictatorship.

But I really have trouble with singling out people in the crowd, especially given how easy it is for people to be recognized and then doxxed online. I see zero utility and plenty of downsides in that approach, as I always try to ask myself, “would I be comfortable having this system used against me?”

Further, I’d surmise that trump supporters are primarily white men, and that HRC supporters are women of all stripes–should conservatives use this same system to draw faces out of HRC crowds, I’m sure there’s more than one rape survivor who would be 1) infuriated at seeing their image thrown up on social media, and 2) put in jeopardy because of the visibility.

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Did it find any?

JK. heh

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I was expecting it to actually recognize & identify the people, ala Facebook. Let’s finish the job!

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Find them. Identify them. List them. 1984.

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Why is he allowed to dominate the debate?

He offers nothing but personality and blowhard. 'Tis not enough. Shut. him. down.

Yeah, and we can them send them to re-education camps and brand them on the forehead for having a difference of opinion.

Opinion A: We should do more to respect the rights of every individual.

Opinion B: Fuck y’all. Nazi fascism FTW.

That’s just a difference of opinion, right?

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That looks like a sighting of the ghost of Mel Appleby.

Supporting Trump is not an opinion, it is an action.

An action clearly aimed at destroying the rights and safety of people of colour.

It is not an ethically neutral act.

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Also, the Twitterbot was using the wrong filter.

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If there is only one context available for the emotion shame, attending Trump rallies is a solid candidate.

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Thank you!

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