So many events and alignments happening right now, at a time when I’m so personally busy that I can’t fully write out the thoughts that I want to share about current goings on.
As one of the relative few who already saw through Musk, what he’s doing on the #birdsite doesn’t surprise me, but I am surprised at how quickly it’s turning.
There are important reasons I chose mastodon over other alternative “social” platforms and I hope to talk about that more soon.
That said…
/1
I am glad that so many others appear to have seen the same indicators, weighed the pros and cons, and saw the value of a more distributed model of social, as opposed to participating in yet another VC-funded app that is looking to build a brand & profit model, and then be sold.
Not that there is anything wrong with that - entrepreneurs are free to do what they like - but IMHO wallets should never vote for that again.
I’ve long said that…
/2
Social media as people know it today - platforms that seek to use algorithms to drive “engagement” in order to increase profit or revenue - will always, inevitably, amplify the voices of people who know how to manipulate other people, and trigger their basest instincts. And as a result, that model will always amplify and promote pathological behavior in our society.
In other words, a market-driven, algorithm-driven model is bad for society at large. Inevitably.
/3
We have been watching this play out for years (let’s not forget Facebook), but Musk’s recent actions are essentially a naked power grab over these mechanisms, and he doesn’t have the self control to be remotely subtle about what it is that he’s trying to do.
I’m not as shocked or depressed now as some are, because it isn’t surprising to me - but I also understand why so many are.
I still have a twitter account, and still share a bit there, but…
/4
In my opinion, since he has taken over the site, the best way to fight him is for everyone important to stop creating content there, and force the company into a no-win financial situation.
Let it devolve into the next alt-right swamp, and make him resort to taking ads from viagra and gold scams and MyPillow.
Sure, clarify the truth when it counts, but don’t create his content for him.
Let the world see what right wing platforms do.
They die.
/5
Unfortunately the site still has massive reach - which means all of the conspiratorial content it promotes will reach a lot of people. But I hope folks can now see that trying to challenge Musk with reasoned arguments is no more useful than reasoning with the former guy.
A narcissist now owns the #birdsite. The most responsible thing to do is not feed him - and let him destroy it.
The narcissism is a death knell. There’s no coming back from this. Life has taught me to keep my distance.
Mastodon is a relief to find. I don’t want my public Square accessible only at the whim of one person.
It reminds me of living in the suburbs as a kid where the closest thing we had to a town center was a shopping mall. Pretty bleak, that. Not a real public space, just the creature of the store owners’ landlords.
That’s a really good analogy
Totally agree.
You're right and there's more we can do to make that happen too.
It's telling that Musk has reversed some of the suspensions now. He recognizes he needs those Reporters. They drive the traffic.
My belief is that Musk wants to takeover a bigger slice of the internet than twitter. I'm not sure he's competent enough. I don't doubt he wants to add blockchain, crypto micropayments
We feel trapped but it's like not we can't create things too that people would like to use.
So it's exactly your point.
Musk's hold on things is a lot smaller than people envision. It's the power we give him that matters.
We can create shared spaces, communities and websites that still allow people to be informed, allow them to organize, and allow them to have healthy and fulling engagement between users and not be toxic hell holes.
The only thing is I'm not so sure Musk thinks he needs us. I think he might just want the far right to be his audience.
I can't say I know for sure what he wants but I have my ideas and what you mention could show the disconnect between what he might want to do and what he can accomplish given he's bleeding cash. I could be wrong.
I think we can learn more based on how much he's willing to pour in and if anyone else steps up to help him.
I think he definitely wants a loyal right wing base and they're the target group for pushing web3/crypto especially if they believe it "owns the libs"
You want a conspiracy myth?
When the the Reichstag in Berlin burned, Hitler blamed the communists, declared martial law and became started to formally execute his dictatorship. It will never be known who the arsonist was.
When Musk posts a random photo of a car with an non-pixelated license plate to the public with criminal allegation but does not involve the police and complains about the posting about public data of his plane 1/x
which was 1000s of miles away at the time from the location of the crime, he blames people who had previously reported critically of him as committing doxxing which is done by lots of other people with really serious consequences, and sends them into twitter's concentration camps.
Looks like somebody was just looking for enacting martial law on twitter.
If it wasn't clear to people when he used polls which he can manipulate easily in more ways than one to bring back fascists, and nazis etc then not sure what more people need to see.
The problem is we often treat people who do not act in good faith as if they're willing.
That's the behavior we need to change as a society. We can have all the spectacle in the world but when we discuss things seriously we need to penalize those who don't act or argue in good faith.
On another note about it always appealing to out baser instincts and people being able to manipulate people I don't disagree but I keep hoping people wake up to that.
They say kids are better at seeing bullshit on the internet because they grew up with it and see plenty whereas baby boomers, not so much.
I keep hoping the dynamic change and for the people to want something different. I have to hope that's the case.
Also I have some rather simple ideas that I think could be helpful for what a lot of us want and maybe just maybe might be able to help fight some of the noise.
I'll discuss it later but I don't think mastodon or post are necessarily the only answer. I think we need to organize in some other ways which can be rather easy to do.
But it would take a little cooperation. We need to limit how others control narratives. So let's help set the narrative.
@clearing_fog Thank you for recognizing the pathological narcissism of Muskrat.
@oneunderscore__'s shared an interesting message (sender unknown) from the Twitter/Musk suit recently:
"Congratulations! The above article was laying out some of the things that might happen:
Step 1: Blame the platform for its users Step 2. Coordinated pressure campaign Step 3:
Exodus of the Bluechecks Step 4: Deplatforming "But it will not be easy. It will be a war. Let the battle begin.""
https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1603555294592008192
@clearing_fog
1/ I will continue to tweet until the people whose timelines I rely on move to Mastodon. On Twitter, @nycsouthpaw [who is NOT on Mastodon] said it best--see next toot].
My biggest frustration is US nat'l MSM--they refuse [or editors don't allow them] to connect crypto [anti-fiat currency, e.g., US dollar] to GQP, #Muskrat's alignment w/GQP]--to the extent that Taibbi's Twitter Files 6 y'day was meant to enrage v FBI/deep state ala #Snowdenwald. @davetroy https://twitter.com/arapaho415/status/1603898722441515008
“@amys_here @TeresaCCarter2 @rhonda_harbison @EdHall23 @Loveon999 @HoneybadgerLA Dec 16 2022 1/ DOJ unseals⤴️ criminal complaint against Edward Kelley, 33, Maryville, TN, and Austin Carter, 26, Knoxville, TN who discussed collecting information and plans to 👉kill individual law enforcement personnel that included an attack on the FBI’s Knoxville👈. 🤐⤵️:”
ClearingTheFog 
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Olav
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Arapaho415