World, How Did We Get this STUPID?

It is foolish to believe that humanity has gotten worse in the field of gender equality, as that impies that the world was somehow more equal sometime in the past. I gaurantee you that gender and racial equality has progressed more in the past 100 years than the past 100000 years.

The Celts had complete gender equality 2,000 years ago. Of course, they didn’t have a patriarchal religion dictating how they should treat their women.

Probably one of the silliest and most invalid “studies” I’ve ever witnessed.

I can also find:

Men should serve women.
Men should lower their gaze.
Men are raised to hate women.
Women can vote.
Women can live without men.
Women are better than men.
Women are stronger than men.
Men should not be allowed to vote.

OMG! Gender fairness?!

People search for all sorts of terms on the internet for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes for confirmation bias. Sometimes it’s to find opposing or minority views. You cannot know for sure the person’s motivation or if the search string actually reflects the views of the person typing it in. And welcome to the internet.

@PhiNotPi I agree almost entirely. I only contend with the 100,000 years. There have been various cultures and eras through human history which have been more gender egalitarian than at other times. It hasn’t been an exactly linear progression.

You base your opinion on this video? This video is ridiculous.

You always were. You always will be.
Silly primates.

Bullshit propaganda. Similar auto-fill statements can be found about men (and just about any other group of people), and yet this video is completely focused on anti-feminist views. There are a lot of stupid people in the world – this isn’t new. People search for things for many different reasons; not necessarily because they agree with the statements they’re typing into Google.

This video was created to shock people into thinking there’s a bigger problem than there actually is. Sure, gender equality still exists, but I don’t think videos like this that turn women into poor wittle victims is the way to fix it. And Google auto-fill options are evidence of nothing.

Holy fuck. That’s the scariest video I’ve seen in a very long time.

Yeah…this thought actually occurred to me a few weeks back when I saw this.
I realize it is US-centric in view..but as an American Woman this fundamental inequality disappoints me immensely..

I think the world has gotten stupid enough to believe these google search autofills mean anything significantly scary or dangerous or bad.

@Kropotkin nailed it. These autofills are research topics. People don’t put their opinions into google, they put their inquiries in to google.

@LornaLove You’re missing the point of the video. Go to Google and type in: “Rape victims are” and see what comes up in Google autocorrect.

^ As an example: “Rape victims are….”

what? In the English language.. what could you possibly put after those first three words that would be a likely search result? And why would it be more popular of a search than what Google has indexed thus far?

“Rape victims are unfortunate people” ???
“Rape victims are deserving of millions of dollars” ??
Do these seem like likely search queries? No. Who’s going to be searching for these things.. we certainly haven’t. What do these autofill alarmists expect people to be using google for? Seems pretty ridiculous

I think that it is stupid to use Google autofill as a societal measuring stick.

@ninjacolin . . . i wish i could give you 1000 great answers for ‘autofill alarmists’. well done sir.

wimmin is a myskery
homosexuals are gay
your mother was a hamster
your father was recently prescribed an anticoagulant
men love handles
why do you want to work for chipotle
what if my poop is green
where is chuck norris
does this look like the face of mercy
zombies can’t jump

:)

@fundevogel Awesome!

@fundevogel And your father smelled of elderberries!

We’ve always been this stupid. The internet has just made it more obvious.

@PhiNotPi I take your point up to a point. As @Seek_Kolinahr points out, the change has not been linear. But you miss the point of the video if you compare it to the Dark Ages or to the Ancient Hebrews. What’s disturbing is that these are still the most prevalent searches and how few words you need to type in to bring them up.

@Kropotkin No, I cannot know why people search for something. Autofill only tells me how many do. Since you did not show how many letters you typed in to find each of the list you provided, and you edited out all but one autofill, your list is meaningless. It only serves to make you right in your rant. But let’s explore the first item in your list in a meaningful way, and see what results. I have not already done this, so whatever happens is what happens.

I can also find:

Men should serve women.

Let’s try that one word at a time, as in (without the quotes) “Men ”, “Men should ”, and “Men should serve ”; and let’s list everything that pops up. Then we’ll do the same but start with “Women ”. Fair enough? What happens. NOTE: Even if you are logged out of Google, it will key on your previous searches. For instance, Searching “Men ” gets me a long list of results regarding Purecssmenu.com and such.

Moving to 2-words and more, I get:

“Men ”, “Men should ”, and “Men should serve ”

Men should not get married
Men should always pray
Men should wear makeup
Men should pay for dates
Men should be what they seem

Men should serve **
Men should serve women
as Men should serve a cowcumber
all Men should serve women
Men think women should serve them

__________________________________
Starting with Women, I get:
Women should know their place
Women should not preach
Women should not work
Women should not be in combat
Women should not speak in church

Women should serve men
Women should serve their husband
Women should serve national service
Women should serve ns
Women should serve in the military

I am having a hard time believing your list is just unbiased search results. Of course if you type an entire long tailed search into the Chrome address bar, you can search for anything you wish to search for. Looks like you wished to search for things that would make the video wrong, but actual autofill searches prove just the opposite.

@LornaLove I base my opinion on an understanding of how autofill: works. Given that understanding, my comments on the video stand.

@ragingloli Being a human and despising them so must suck. No wonder you rage.

@livelaughlove21 Of course they can. I just compared what is ACTUALLY found. Which group seems more positive to you? I suspect you, too, don’t know how autofill: search works. Google can help with that, too.

@Rarebear At least somebody here knows how autofill: in the Chrome address bar works. Thank goodness.

@geeky_mama Your video is great gasoline to pour on the fire.

@ninjacolin My guess is there are 50 searches for reinforcement of opinions for every one looking to refute an idea. I know that is I were going to search for something to debunk the idea that “women should know their place” that’s not the search term I’d enter. It would be something like “debunk women should know their place” or “refute women should know their place”.

What could I put after “Rape victims are ”? How about “not at fault”, “entitled to justice”, “too often blamed”, or “not treated fairly”. If that’s what the search was really about, isn’t that what would have been typed in? Instead, we find:

Rape victims quotes
Rape victims picture
Rape victims aftermath
Rape victims help
Rape victims blurred lines

Rape victims are asking for it
Rape victims are sometimes to blame
Rape victims are are to blame
Rape victims are are accusers
Rape victims are are whiners

Maybe some people search for slavery when they are interested in freedom. I don’t think that’s common, though.

@Blondesjon I think that blanket statements that something is stupid without providing any reason why that’s so are stupid in the extreme. I think that tactic in debate is usually a cover for a hidden agenda.

@fundevogel Cute, but another edited list that shows only one result. Searching “Your father” I don’t even get that, so perhaps it’s reacting to some search you actually made. What I get is:

Your father the devil
Your father smelt of elderberries
Your father knows what you need
Your father was 360 quickscope

Don’t even ask what the last one’s about. I haven’t any idea.

@tinyfaery Most intelligent comment yet. I wish I could give you 1000 great answers.

@ETpro the last one is online shooter terminology. It means you turn around 360 degrees then zoom in quickly through your weapon mounted scope and shoot your target.

@ETpro . . . I would have thought that ‘Google’ and ‘societal measuring stick’ were pretty self explanatory.

Plus, I’m commenting not debating.

@ETpro Of course they can what? And which is more positive between what and what? You’re going to have to be more clear before I can give an answer.

I’d assume auto-fill options are generated by frequency of search. My answer still stands regardless.

How autocomplete works

It’s based on:

Popularity
Region
Language
Past user search history
“freshness” – that is, recent spikes in popularity will shoot a result higher.

So, FYI – attempting to search for hateful terms makes it more likely Autocomplete will suggest hateful terms to you.

@Seek_Kolinahr truely, investigation of Google autofill is the observer effect in action!

@ETpro I have no idea how that one pushed into my top three (my browser only gives me three). I’m guessing whatever vagaries led to it have passed and I won’t get it again.

@ragingloli Thanks.

@Seek_Kolinahr Thanks. That needed to be said. I should have included it in the question details.

@Blondesjon I didn’t think the words supported the claim, and I still don’t. Debate or comment, my assessment of it is the same.

@livelaughlove21 Sorry. Late at night syndrome. I should have made it clear I was referring to what autofill: actually provides when you type in a couple of words about “Men should…” or “Women should…” as noted in my response here to Kropotkin. By “Which group seems more positive to you?” I meant the one where you type in “Men…” or the one where you type in “Women…” The difference in suggested search is stark.

@fundevogel Ha! That’s your story man. Stick with it. :-)

@ETpro It really doesn’t matter which is more positive, for the reasons I (and others) have already stated. I’ve typed some crazy stuff into Google (including “God hates f*gs” because I was looking for the Westboro Baptist Church website but couldn’t think of the name), and those things do not represent how I truly feel. I think many people do this. Why would a man that hates feminists type in “feminists should die?” People like that don’t need confirmation to back up their hatred.

And as I said, autofill options are evidence of nothing. This is a bogus study that tells us next to nothing about how people really feel. If we don’t know the intent behind the search, we can’t make assumptions on it.

For what it’s worth I do like the video, I just don’t think it sould be thought of as a study. It does highlight topics that are ‘trending’ so to speak so obviously these are things that are on people’s minds, it just can’t really quantify or qualify the occurrance.

^ If you portray it as an artistic study, instead of a scientific one, I think it’s OK.

“Look at where we’ve come!” instead of “This is where we are” if that makes sense.

Agreed, it is their fault for framing as a study.

@livelaughlove21 I get that, but seriously doubt that dramatic a difference in searches beginning with “Men” and ones beginning with “Women” is due to the Westboro Baptist Church syndrome.

@ETpro a great reply as always. You’re so dependable. You said: “What could I put after “Rape victims are ”? How about “not at fault”, “entitled to justice”, “too often blamed”, or “not treated fairly”. If that’s what the search was really about, isn’t that what would have been typed in? ”

Deeper still: Consider the popular search results to those popular queries: I’m seeing debate boards and articles about that debate. I doubt it’s very different for others in other countries. It’s not like people have been clicking on this stuff to find very much of anything else. I mean you can see what gets clicked most often by what’s near the top of the search results: people are using these terms to research and participate in debate on this particular social problem. The results you’re seeing demonstrate the popularity of these search strategies when people want to access that kind of data. Google’s predicting that that’s what you’re going to be looking for too and they’re usually right. And we all know how contentious issues (and phrasings) attract the most attention, even on fluther.

Other stuff:
– Google autofill isn’t static. It will change over time to whatever’s the current semantic trend for this kind of research.
– There’s a mathematical English problem: How often could people really ever need to be searching for more desirable English expressions? To illustrate, think about the world we live in and the cultural changes we’re going through at the moment and specifically in the English speaking world. If you were to estimate it, how many years do you think it will be (if ever) that autofill will find a sentence like “Rape victims are entitled to justice?” over a sentence like “Rape victims are asking for it” ?? The English language itself is a factor.

@ninjacolin Thank you for making my point for me in your very first paragraph. Exactly!

I follow your cautions in “Other Stuff.” Still, the film is provocative and I make no apology for raising the question.

The only thing that I can relate it to would be to say that, while it looks like Ray Comfort has ~330,000 ‘likes’ /fans on facebook, I’m willing to bet at least 35–40% of them are people (like myself) who want to laugh at his insanity firsthand.

@Seek_Kolinahr This video about the Montana judge who sentenced a 54 year old teacher to 30 days in jail for raping a 14 year old student touches on what the OP video was about. And while it shows an appalling insensitivity on the part of the judge, it’s very heartening to see how many people in the community rose up to protest the injustice. So yes, there is hope. There are those of us who search for such things to study how to better the world.