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[LegendOfKage]

the press doesn’t, one person quoted from the AP does

Right as far as the word being used goes, but not the concern shown, which was my point. All sorts of articles about why Elon's government funded label is beyond the pale, but not so much reporting about how and why the government involved themselves in a privately owned social media company and took it upon themselves to decide what legally protected speech should and should not be allowed on the platform, under the threat of regulation for companies that didn't comply enough with their requests.

 

[funkygunther]

Right as far as the word being used goes, but not the concern shown, which was my point. All sorts of articles about why Elon's government funded label is beyond the pale, but not so much reporting about how and why the government involved themselves in a privately owned social media company and took it upon themselves to decide what legally protected speech should and should not be allowed on the platform, under the threat of regulation for companies that didn't comply enough with their requests.

which just goes back to your invented scenario, that has nothing to do with quoting authoritarianism (that was to do with NPR’s handle being reassigned), where you just think things aren’t being talked about enough…of course you’re not going to be able to come up with an actual objective analysis of articles and outlets talking too much, or using the right language, about one thing to contrast them talking too little, or using the wrong language, to talk about another thing

I reckon its all an emotional response where you now just assume I’m missing the bigger picture your imagination is illustrating

 

[DeepEnigma]

If only Musk was mentally stable.

Don't be an ableist.

 

[LegendOfKage]

which just goes back to your invented scenario, that has nothing to do with quoting authoritarianism (that was to do with NPR’s handle being reassigned), where you just think things aren’t being talked about enough…of course you’re not going to be able to come up with an actual objective analysis of articles and outlets talking too much, or using the right language, about one thing to contrast them talking too little, or using the wrong language, to talk about another thing

I reckon its all an emotional response where you now just assume I’m missing the bigger picture your imagination is illustrating

Let's forget about the press for a moment. What is your argument why reassigning an inactive twitter handle to a completely unrelated user, or applying a government funded label to media being funded by the goverment, is a larger concern than government intervention to silence legal speech?

Regardless, I'd say if you're trying to criticize Musk for being too controlling, his company town plans would be a better area of criticism. "Dystopian" in the video title aside, at least this video presents arguments for and against the idea of a company town, even if it does take a side on the issue. I also think this video dips a little too much into bad faith arguments towards the end, but it's still a situation worth being critical about.

 

[funkygunther]

Let's forget about the press for a moment. What is your argument why reassigning an inactive twitter handle to a completely unrelated user, or applying a government funded label to media being funded by the goverment, is a larger concern than government intervention to silence legal speech?

Regardless, I'd say if you're trying to criticize Musk for being too controlling, his company town plans would be a better area of criticism. "Dystopian" in the video title aside, at least this video presents arguments for and against the idea of a company town, even if it does take a side on the issue. I also think this video dips a little too much into bad faith arguments towards the end, but it's still a situation worth being critical about.

"Let's forget about the press for the moment" when that was the only thing I picked up on. The rest of your post is veering into a gish gallop of unrelated things with the only common link being things that Musk has done.

You're the one arguing that there's a "concern" comparison between censorship and twitter's user labels or reassigning profiles. That's all you.

Company towns can be both successful and mature into true municipalities, or utter failures that leave abandoned ghost towns. That's about the only opinion I have on the idea of a Tesla company town.

 

[BadBurger]

To even use musks name with theirs is an insult. Imagine comparing musk to newton.

I'm glad someone pointed it out. That post just made me shake my head and close my laptop when I read it.

Anyways, Bluesky is really fun. I have an invite stored up but still deciding who to send it to. It is exactly like old school, 2014-ish Twitter. I also get a kick out of how "tweeting" is referred to as "skeeting", and users are referred to as "skeeters".

Awww skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet.

 

[Vicetrailia]

Don't be an ableist.

If only musk had a brain.

 

[funkygunther]

If only musk had a brain.

 

[DeepEnigma]

If only musk had a brain.

Yeah, he's such a big dumb dumb poopy head.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

I bet he doesn’t even cuddle after coitus.

 

[AJUMP23]

Are we now saying Musk is dumb?

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

Are we now saying Musk is dumb?

The man has a history of having a good nose for business opportunities and is shrewd enough to realize them but also appears to have a massively inflated ego and delusions of superhuman mental acuity.

I would not call him dumb tho.

 

[Thaedolus]

Are we now saying Musk is dumb?

The term is “midwit”

 

[bender]

Are we now saying Musk is dumb?

Now?

 

[AJUMP23]

Now?

Tomorrow?

 

[bender]

Tomorrow?

Many, many years ago.

 

[DeepEnigma]

 

[LegendOfKage]

Let's forget about the press for a moment. What is your argument why reassigning an inactive twitter handle to a completely unrelated user, or applying a government funded label to media being funded by the goverment, is a larger concern than government intervention to silence legal speech?

"Let's forget about the press for the moment" when that was the only thing I picked up on. The rest of your post is veering into a gish gallop of unrelated things with the only common link being things that Musk has done.

You're the one arguing that there's a "concern" comparison between censorship and twitter's user labels or reassigning profiles. That's all you.

You seem to want to criticize the way I'm arguing rather than challenge the substance of the points I'm making. Several times now I've referenced my point that, if the government was doing then what they are doing now, people opposed to the Iraq war who said there were no weapons of mass destruction would been labeled conspiracy theorists pushing misinformation, and the press would gleefully watch and celebrate as those people were censored on AOL, Prodigy, or whatever passed for social media back then.

We've fallen really quite far when it comes to this sort of thing, and rather than discuss that matter, it seems you would rather avoid it. I directly asked you to forget about the press and present your own argument why this is all okay, and you went right back into the weeds about the comparisons I'm making, or that I'm being unfairly critical of the press, or that I'm making unfair generalizations about their priorities. I think I'm done with debating all of that, but let me know if you ever want to discuss the substance of government censorship.

Are we now saying Musk is dumb?

I think he likely has issues with social ques, which make it difficult for him to understand the consequences of his interactions, and some of the decisions he has made. Call it Autism or Asperger's, but I think the difficulties in social interaction that come with those conditions could explain a lot of his more questionable choices.

 

[funkygunther]

You seem to want to criticize the way I'm arguing rather than challenge the substance of the points I'm making. Several times now I've referenced my point that, if the government was doing then what they are doing now, people opposed to the Iraq war who said there were no weapons of mass destruction would been labeled conspiracy theorists pushing misinformation, and the press would gleefully watch and celebrate as those people were censored on AOL, Prodigy, or whatever passed for social media back then.

We've fallen really quite far when it comes to this sort of thing, and rather than discuss that matter, it seems you would rather avoid it. I directly asked you to forget about the press and present your own argument why this is all okay, and you went right back into the weeds about the comparisons I'm making, or that I'm being unfairly critical of the press, or that I'm making unfair generalizations about their priorities. I think I'm done with debating all of that, but let me know if you ever want to discuss the substance of government censorship.

You continue to present strawmen. "People" and "the press". It is not a serious discussion. On top of that you then you expect me to come up with an argument to your imagined justifications? I suggest you go back and see how this conversation started and note your own inability to stick on this topic.

 

[Thaedolus]

The term is “midwit”

Actually this was being too generous, he’s an idiot:

 

[EviLore]

Elon:

Follow dubious sources on Twitter ---> reply to said sources with low information conspiracy-oriented hot takes that literally everyone on the platform is forced to see --> ??? ---> profit

 

[LegendOfKage]

Musk recently quoted this post from someone with a car dealership podcast, and responded to it with "yup."

Hot take: Twitter can become the world's number-one podcast platform in LESS than 90 days. Posting [my podcast] directly on Twitter grew my active listeners by *400%* in 1 week. Why? Because people can listen without going to another platform.

Here are 5 critical upgrades that are still needed:
Picture-in-picture
Speed up/down
10-second rewind/forward
Ability to listen with the phone closed
Add a "Podcasts" tab on the Profile page next to Tweets and Replies (for discoverability)

Interesting timing, because a very popular and very polarizing political figure just announced that he's starting a new show on you tube. In keeping with the rules of the forum, I'm not about to discuss all that, and I'm sure you'll hear all about it everywhere soon enough. What I do want to discuss is Musk's plans for video on the platform. It will be interesting to see how quickly Musk can make improvements to video content on twitter and provide incentives for content creators to post there.

And here's a post from a couple of days ago:

 

[BadBurger]

Alex Jones level stuff. It's just pathetic now.

 

[LegendOfKage]

As for the conspiracy theory crap, people like Musk need to stop playing the "what if" game. It doesn't work out for them. I would have hoped he would have learned his lesson after the spouse of a political figure attacked with a hammer thing, but here we are. Actual facts and a clear statement of uncertainty are a great shield against the sort of thing, but I guess that's too much to ask.

 

[Clear]

So wait, Tucker Carlson is starting his new show on Twitter?

Like. WTF.

Seriously.

 

[Thaedolus]

As for the conspiracy theory crap, people like Musk need to stop playing the "what if" game. It doesn't work out for them.

It’s not a game. They actually wonder “what if?” and throw it out there to everyone who thinks this person is rich because they’re actually a super genius.

Musk isn’t playing a game. He’s a midwit with a huge spotlight on him because of his wealth and his stupid move of buying Twitter. That’s it. That’s the joke. There’s the master plan here. A dweeb bought a social media platform and- surprise! He doesn’t know what to do with it.

No amount of plastering anyone’s tangential beliefs onto this will fix this. Elon’s acquisition of Twitter is an unmitigated disaster.

 

[Unknown?]

Elon’s acquisition of Twitter is an unmitigated disaster.

In what way, exactly? Twitter had been a disaster since 2015.

 

[funkygunther]

In what way, exactly? Twitter had been a disaster since 2015.

What happened in 2015?

 

[ntropy]

 

[Nobody_Important]

In what way, exactly? Twitter had been a disaster since 2015.

The mass exodus of advertisers? The metric fuck ton of negative PR? Him outing himself as a gullible conspiracy nut? Him ruining the public image he had carefully crafted around himself? Him wasting billions on a company that STILL isn't able to be profitable enough to pay off its own debt?


The list goes on....and.....ON.

 

[Xenon]

Elon:

Follow dubious sources on Twitter ---> reply to said sources with low information conspiracy-oriented hot takes that literally everyone on the platform is forced to see --> ??? ---> profit

As opposed to people manipulating things behind a curtain? No thanks...

Elon says stupid shit on social media... guess that makes him a human being. We live in a world were dubious is sometimes preferred to outright deceitful and hot takes are all we have against institutionalized narratives. When people keep saying every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day that the sky is orange you can't help but reflexively disagree the few times they are right.

 

[LegendOfKage]

With latest version of app, you can DM reply to any message in the thread (not just most recent) and use any emoji reaction. Release of encrypted DMs V1.0 should happen tomorrow. This will grow in sophistication rapidly. The acid test is that I could not see your DMs even if there was a gun to my head. Coming soon will be voice and video chat from your handle to anyone on this platform, so you can talk to people anywhere in the world without giving them your phone number.

 

[EviLore]

As opposed to people manipulating things behind a curtain? No thanks...

Elon says stupid shit on social media... guess that makes him a human being.

As opposed to not saying stupid shit on Twitter every day and massively signal boosting conspiracy theories.

It doesn’t require any effort to not do it.

 

[Unknown?]

The mass exodus of advertisers? The metric fuck ton of negative PR? Him outing himself as a gullible conspiracy nut? Him ruining the public image he had carefully crafted around himself? Him wasting billions on a company that STILL isn't able to be profitable enough to pay off its own debt?


The list goes on....and.....ON.

Eh, from what I'm aware of most of those advertisers came back. Most of what you hear online about Twitter after him taking over is false being echoed by media outlets that are captured by activists, so I don't think he ruined his image except by people who watch too much TV. Most people know the negative PR is from these outlets with no credibility.

The site has been trash for a long time, he just bit off more than he could chew because it will take a lot of fixing.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Don't worry, Bluesky founded by the very people who got Twitter into the decade plus shitshow mess in the first place, will save the narratives.

 

[Thaedolus]

Don't worry, Bluesky founded by the very people who got Twitter into the decade plus shitshow mess in the first place, will save the narratives.

They probably know better than the guy who just lit $44b on fire to amplify conspiracy theorists and equate NPR to Russian propagandists.

 

[DeepEnigma]

They probably know better than the guy who just lit $44b on fire to amplify conspiracy theorists and equate NPR to Russian propagandists.

My comment wasn't about which one is better. That is more binary war programming, just on the laughable fact as if the shitshow that was twitter; which some are having amazing amnesia over (it was literally ResetEra en mass, the established approved Tumblr 2.0) is some sort of savior of all that was sane.

 

[Thaedolus]

My comment wasn't about which one is better. That is more binary war programming, just on the laughable fact as if the shitshow that was twitter; which some are having amazing amnesia over (it was literally ResetEra en mass, the established approved Tumblr 2.0) is some sort of savior of all that was sane.

Or the people that saw what didn’t work with Twitter to begin with likely know what mistakes to not repeat and will have more ability to steer it in the right direction than they had previously because their hands were tied. I don’t think anyone thinks Twitter from a couple years ago is the aim.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Or the people that saw what didn’t work with Twitter to begin with likely know what mistakes to not repeat and will have more ability to steer it in the right direction than they had previously because their hands were tied. I don’t think anyone thinks Twitter from a couple years ago is the aim.

Ok. We will revisit this in a few years if they ever get as big and influential as twitter was.

 

[EviLore]

Jack didn’t seem overly happy about the direction Twitter had gone in the late stages, but of course he didn’t do anything to change it either. He checked out of day to day operations instead and focused on other projects. Could very well be a repeat, especially with entrenched Silicon Valley culture and current hyper-partisan politics exerting constant pressure. Everything seems to end up on one dipole or the other.

 

[Unknown?]

They probably know better than the guy who just lit $44b on fire to amplify conspiracy theorists and equate NPR to Russian propagandists.

You actually think NPR is untouched by intelligence agencies? Have you ever heard of the CIA's project mockingbird?

 

[Sonik]

They probably know better than the guy who just lit $44b on fire to amplify conspiracy theorists and equate NPR to Russian propagandists.

God forbid someone labels Western government funded media as government funded. Because as we all know Western propaganda is the correct one, it's West's enemies the ones who spread misinformation. Totally not an Orwellian mindset btw

 

[Thaedolus]

God forbid someone labels Western government funded media as government funded. Because as we all know Western propaganda is the correct one, it's West's enemies the ones who spread misinformation. Totally not an Orwellian mindset btw

I’m not going to bother explaining the difference between NPR and RT if you think they’re the same thing. Bless your heart.

 

[funkygunther]

God forbid someone labels Western government funded media as government funded. Because as we all know Western propaganda is the correct one, it's West's enemies the ones who spread misinformation. Totally not an Orwellian mindset btw

except they've removed the label

 

[BadBurger]

As opposed to people manipulating things behind a curtain? No thanks...

Elon says stupid shit on social media... guess that makes him a human being. We live in a world were dubious is sometimes preferred to outright deceitful and hot takes are all we have against institutionalized narratives. When people keep saying every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day that the sky is orange you can't help but reflexively disagree the few times they are right.

So, what made up stuff are you referring to here? There's a lot of conspiracy theories floating around out there and us normal folk don't keep up. I assume you're referencing at least one of the various conspiracy theories Musk himself has boosted?

 

[DeepEnigma]

Only the mainstream approved narratives don't contain any disinformation, misdirection, or conspiracies theories.

 

[LegendOfKage]

The mass exodus of advertisers? The metric fuck ton of negative PR? Him outing himself as a gullible conspiracy nut? Him ruining the public image he had carefully crafted around himself? Him wasting billions on a company that STILL isn't able to be profitable enough to pay off its own debt?


The list goes on....and.....ON.

I still very much disagree with how Musk is doing the whole "what if" conspiracy thing, but maybe he should have just said that "this has all the earmarks" of a government psy-op. I've seen "this has all the earmarks of" and "experts say" and "appear to be linked" have worked wonders for the media when they push conspiracy theories. The media loves the "what if" game as much as gullible twits on twitter, but they never have the self-reflection to stop doing it. It seems Musk has that in common with them, ironically enough.

Everyone needs to challenge hypotheticals being pushed as likelihood or facts. It's just dumb to believe that sort of thing without proof.

 

[EviLore]

Or the platform holder could stay just out of it and post memes and spacex updates instead.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Or the platform holder could stay just out of it and post memes and spacex updates instead.

Can't argue with that. Bring on more memes and spaceships!

 

[Thaedolus]

Or the platform holder could stay just out of it and post memes and spacex updates instead.

Exactly, if he just did what he said he would do it would be one thing. The problem is he said he had certain goals in mind for the platform, but everything he does runs counter to that. It makes him look like a complete hypocrite. Granted, nobody’s perfect, but this a real tour de force of ruining whatever credibility he had.