mtswIt's pretty remarkable how much Elon's Twitter takeover is a textbook fascist takeover: leftists immediately purged, censorship regime imposed behind the scenes, secret police rooting out enemies, right wing terrorism supported by the state, etc and how uncannily similar the mainstream liberal response of pretending nothing is wrong is, even with *very low* costs of walking out the door and refusing to collaborate.
Not really my problem I guess but def feels like one of those "if you don't know how'd you'd react when the fascist take over, now you know" situation
Probably goes without saying but the often clownish administrative incompetence (along with that fact reassuring the liberals that the regime will therefore collapse on its own without requiring anything of them) is a pretty obvious parallel to actual fascist regimes as well
I don't want to overstate the stakes here. Ultimately, as the site gets ruined you can just... stop using it. But you actually have to, you know, do that. If you stay on, your information environment will slowly be poisoned and therefore your mind will be poisoned.
Free Speech Abolitionist@mtsw I agree with everything you’re saying, which raises the question of why you’re still on Twitter
Bea Furniss@mtsw If you don’t move, your immobility can be taken by the regime as tacit approval for what’s going on. Moreover, in an environment where engagement stats drive advertising spend on the platform…tweeting bluster about Elon on his platform is putting money in his pocket. It would appear that laziness is a more powerful motivator than social conscience for some on Twitter.
TC Won't Give In To Lies@mtsw
100℅ agree!
What's even worse is the attention paid to journalists trying to get *back on* Twitter.
Like abused spouses in a shelter who want to get back to their partner, I just don't understand how they go back.
Babs 💙🐝⌛️🦋🔻@mtsw 'If you stay on, your information environment will slowly be poisoned and therefore your mind will be poisoned.'
Agree. I'm staying on, but I'm mindful there's no real news there anymore. News is here, I think.
I thought my leftie presence there might make a difference, but I think we're all shadow-banned, so that's a no. :(
I'm watching it implode then.
haq@BabsSheKing @mtsw If you're only watching the implosion you could just scroll the bestfodyingtwit account once a day without interacting.
@BabsSheKing @mtsw Lol, I'm glad you managed to complete the cryptic crossword clue I accidentally gave you.
Lu Wilson
Andy Pearlman@mtsw I would just note there's a script which allows one to force the use of latest, zero algo, clears out all the trending topics, no ads, etc...so at least the poisoning doesn't happen.
scott f@apearlma That definitely doesn't stop the poisoning. It can't bring back the accounts he's censored for starters.
@mtsw I don't think this is quite right. Just like Fox News, I can opt not to watch, but I still live in a country where this well-funded media organ is poisoning the information environment for lots of other people, who vote.
Jennifer Gallays
Pensive™️@mtsw
I operate under the “keep your enemies closer” ideal. And no matter what crap they post , I can consider the source and discard anything I can’t prove.
I operate under the “keep your enemies closer” ideal. And no matter what crap they post , I can consider the source and discard anything I can’t prove.
Flav 🇨🇭🇨🇦🇷🇴@mtsw You don't like censorship? Make your own Twitter! When a word like fascist is being overused it diminishes its meaning.
aptlyundecided@flavc @mtsw Calling a thing fascist is no different than describing its shape. The word isn’t meant to be some reserved title for the particularly horrible things in the world. It only describes:
- nationalism
- dictatorship
- forceful removal of opposition
- social “ranking” or segmentation based on level of dedication.
I think talking about it more, would make people understand it better. Because Twitter atm checks every box above.
@aptlyndecided @mtsw Except for nationalism (which is not a bad thing to love your country), you sound like you're trying to describe the left. Remember when the leftists running Twitter before Musk censored and deplatformed their political opposition? They cheered when Jeff Bezos pulled the plug on Parler. Also "the summer of love" when American leftists torched and tore down entire cities for months. Leftists are everything they claim to stand against.
@aptlyndecided @mtsw Take whatever you want. Are you're surprised to see the Fediverse (not Mastodon network) is not just another safe space for leftists to complain about "fascists" and "Nazis"? You're right that now I can finally vent about leftists without being censored and banned, but I never used Twitter in the first place. Twitter was just an echo chamber where the leftists could tell each other what they like to hear without anybody interrupting them.
@aptlyndecided I live in Canada and for many months I was segregated and treated worse than an animal for daring to refuse a useless experimental injection forced on us by the government. Guess who the leftists sided with? The government and big pharmaceutical companies. If you know anything about technology you should know vaccine passports are the worst form of tracking and surveillance.
[REDACTED]™, Instance Migrator@mtsw I am still shocked to see how many people who moved here are still cross-posting. They can't give it up and try to hide it under some guise of "fighting back" which is just their grasping at straws to disillusion themselves that they are helping the Nazi Bar stay in business
solient@mtsw Twitter feels like it’s on a slow boil, slowly getting worse but not bad enough to cause any more mass migrations.
Demi@mtsw this is something which I have to keep reminding myself
that our minds are genuinely pretty vulnerable, and not immune to the atmosphere and conversations of the social spaces we reside in. So when our social spaces have been poisoned, we should genuinely consider seeking out other kinder communities