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The Twitter Debate


Neonmoon

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Elon, unintentionally, is another exhibit pushing the concept that "intelligence" isn't a thing. It's ostensibly a super-specific ability that doesn't translate to other fields, and like those ID'd on the spectrum, possibly detracts in those fields. Like he's an unwitting proponent of society valuing the whole of its resources and democracy. 

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Elon Musk’s metamorphosis into Mike Lindell is one of the more surprising developments of 2022.

Social media has unquestionably been a net negative on civilization, however the revelation that the rich and famous can be just as batshit as the commoners has been eye-opening. I wonder how many historically revered figures would have been viewed differently if Twitter had existed in their time.
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Fuck Chappelle too.

Dave Chappelle can't get out of the way of his own massive ego for a singular moment of self-awareness and introspection but instead chooses to pal around with a racist garbage human megalomaniac billionaire who desperately wants to be the one thing Dave already was, the one thing money can never buy: funny and well-liked.

These guys and their huge butthurt egos all because they get called out for being behind-the-times transphobes screaming at the clouds.....

Being a decent, kind person isn't that hard. 

 

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5 minutes ago, Gourmand said:

Fuck Chappelle too.

Dave Chappelle can't get out of the way of his own massive ego for a singular moment of self-awareness and introspection but instead chooses to pal around with a racist garbage human megalomaniac billionaire who desperately wants to be the one thing Dave already was, the one thing money can never buy: funny and well-liked.

These guys and their huge butthurt egos all because they get called out for being behind-the-times transphobes screaming at the clouds.....

Being a decent, kind person isn't that hard. 

 

For a solid 25-30% of our country, it seems impossible. 

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2 hours ago, TexEx15 said:

I am getting so many “promoted” tweets in my feed from right wing nut jobs it’s crazy. Musk has done nothing but supercharge the propaganda coming from that app.

I'm getting about a dozen DMs a day from bot accounts sending phishing links about possible job opportunities and some from bot accounts pretending to be hot women looking for boyfriends.  This shit is getting really annoying and is likelier to drive me off twitter than Elon doing his nazi shit.

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Musk embodies the outsider that I expected to seize the reins of the hate engine as Trump lets them slip from his hands. Trumpists don't want an insider like DeSantis. 

Musk pushes the right buttons and says the right words. Catturd characterizes this in his concise projection of right wing dogma onto people who (gasp!) may be woke to inequalities in our society and who choose to be (gasp! gasp!) social justice warriors. 

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I haven't cared enough to read about Musk over the years. I did see an article about how absurdly over-valued his car company is. Seems he's a con man who eludes discovery by the plurality that blithely embraces blindness.

He can't be president, but he can continue the process of further normalizing hate politics so that the next would-be fascist dictator will find the going easier.

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So, Elon.....what is the "woke mind virus," anyway?  Because DeSantis himself recently had to submit a legal filing defining "woke."  So, let's use the actual GQP legal definition of "woke" in your term:

“the 'belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them' mind virus."

WTF?  How is that a fucking mind virus?  It's a fucking perspective.  A fucking undeniable and accurate one, by the way.  Believing that there are systemic injustices doesn't mean any of the insane straw man shit that the MAGAs say it means (it doesn't mean you hate America, it doesn't mean that we should kill whitey, any of that shit).  It means....just what it says.

So, let's be clear.  A self-declared "Free Speech Absolutists" is characterizing....what should be a pretty non-controversial belief about our society as "a virus."  Yeah, that's super "free-speechy" (as Elon defines free speech).

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As good a place as any to drop this, speaking of books:

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I'm about 60% into it.  The book covers Facebook, Twitter,  Youtube, Whatsapp, e.t.c.  It also details the history of Silicon Valley and how many of the issues encountered are repeated due to the insularity and hubris within that group of executives and start ups.  I very highly recommend this book.  Will give you pause before continuing to even venture onto those platforms, for sure.  But will also give plenty of insight into many of the issues we complain about there.  Polarization, easily believing obvious falsehoods, e.t.c.  It is more than just "dubm people congregate."  The algorithims themselves continually drive and influence, and the end game is engagement.  Unfortunately, and this is my opinion at this point, it comes down to money.  So in the long run we'll lose.  
But it will give you insight into the history, and issues, involving how we as a society have very intentionally been re-wired.

 

NYT review.

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51 minutes ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

As good a place as any to drop this, speaking of books:

spacer.png

 

I'm about 60% into it.  The book covers Facebook, Twitter,  Youtube, Whatsapp, e.t.c.  It also details the history of Silicon Valley and how many of the issues encountered are repeated due to the insularity and hubris within that group of executives and start ups.  I very highly recommend this book.  Will give you pause before continuing to even venture onto those platforms, for sure.  But will also give plenty of insight into many of the issues we complain about there.  Polarization, easily believing obvious falsehoods, e.t.c.  It is more than just "dubm people congregate."  The algorithims themselves continually drive and influence, and the end game is engagement.  Unfortunately, and this is my opinion at this point, it comes down to money.  So in the long run we'll lose.  
But it will give you insight into the history, and issues, involving how we as a society have very intentionally been re-wired.

 

NYT review.

"The end game is engagement." "It boils down to money."  This is more dangerous than that.  The end game is power.  It boils down to influencing US elections. To controlling who appoints SC justices, who decides whether we oppose Russia's territorial expansions or leave NATO, who decides whether we tax the rich, who decides whether we erode US institutions.  Elon has clearly come out on the side of the GOP.

It might have started out just with engagement clicks and money but that isn't what is at risk now.  

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2 minutes ago, GW Hayduke said:

"The end game is engagement." "It boils down to money."  This is more dangerous than that.  The end game is power.  It boils down to influencing US elections. To controlling who appoints SC justices, who decides whether we oppose Russia's territorial expansions or leave NATO, who decides whether we tax the rich, who decides whether we erode US institutions.  Elon has clearly come out on the side of the GOP.

It might have started out just with engagement clicks and money but that isn't what is at risk now.  

True enough.  I may be a poor choice as someone to summarize the book.  But the author is an excellent writer.  There's just quite a bit to distill. 

 

Edit:  It isn't just about the US or even the intent.  You're describing the bad actors making use of the system, imo.  Musk isn't the only actor here.   As the author points out, we know Musk and Zuckerberg.  But who can without google searching tell me who the CEO of YouTube is?  I know I was not aware.

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Sorry for the multiple replies, but I should have written out more before hitting reply on my multiple edits.  My poor form.  But engagement is still the primary driver.  Even when you take the fringe conpsiracy theories out of the equation (and we shouldn't) you still come up with YouTube attempting to do all they can to keep you glued.   The alogrithims very much drive towards engagement and unfortunately engagement is more likely when highly emotional and tribal content is viewed.  This isn't to discount Musk being an asshole.

It is just the roots of this stuff are couched in such insular circle of engineering solves all hubris that it goes deeper.

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35 minutes ago, GW Hayduke said:

"The end game is engagement." "It boils down to money."  This is more dangerous than that.  The end game is power.  It boils down to influencing US elections. To controlling who appoints SC justices, who decides whether we oppose Russia's territorial expansions or leave NATO, who decides whether we tax the rich, who decides whether we erode US institutions.  Elon has clearly come out on the side of the GOP.

It might have started out just with engagement clicks and money but that isn't what is at risk now.  

I think for the companies themselves it's about engagement, which leads to revenue. However, foreign governments and other bad actors have realized the full power these platforms have to further global power goals and are using them accordingly. Zuckerberg didn't start Facebook because he was hoping to influence elections and worldwide power struggles. He started it first to meet girls and then it turned into something that made him a billionaire.

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7 minutes ago, C-Man said:

I think for the companies themselves it's about engagement, which leads to revenue. However, foreign governments and other bad actors have realized the full power these platforms have to further global power goals and are using them accordingly. Zuckerberg didn't start Facebook because he was hoping to influence elections and worldwide power struggles. He started it first to meet girls and then it turned into something that made him a billionaire.

I agree. But IMO Elon is highly likely a bad actor (and thus twitter will be if it already isn't) and I doubt he would hesitate to use twitter's algorithms to influence elections.  I doubt he would hesitate with providing user info of dissidents to authoritarian states.  He may even have an in-house Cambridge Analytica - make those services available to the highest bidder.

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6 minutes ago, GW Hayduke said:

I agree. But IMO Elon is highly likely a bad actor (and thus twitter will be if it already isn't) and I doubt he would hesitate to use twitter's algorithms to influence elections.  I doubt he would hesitate with providing user info of dissidents to authoritarian states.  He may even have an in-house Cambridge Analytica - make those services available to the highest bidder.

Very much so but he didn't create Twitter or any other social network platform.

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