Ken Ryan
Brian KlaasIf you poison the information pipeline to voters, you can kill democracy — it relies on informed consent of the governed, built on a shared sense of reality. That shared sense is splintering in ways that are tearing apart our societies, often based on widely held delusions. Musk made it way worse.
Tom Shafer@brianklaas To be sure, it was already corrupted by Rupert Murdoch and the rest of the rightwing infotainment complex.
Patriotic Cats@brianklaas I. On. purpose
Mael Duin@brianklaas
You can tell how much trouble we're in by how impenetrable the reality is that people have built for themselves - by the volume of alternative facts they have at their disposal and the number of 'articles' and 'independent journalists' they want you to read and follow.
Alexander KarnI’ve told everyone I know that this a “must read.”
No Facts, No Truth, No Democracy.
Sorry, but this was very cool, not to mention inspirational. In conversation w 2021 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa at Colgate University (28 Oct). #protectdemocracy #holdtheline
miket330@brianklaas all this crap was started by trumplethinskin, prompted from the Putin playbook, bc he's "a useful idiot", b4 him, there was no distrust in our voting systems or our institutions...its all from the fascist playbook, if anyone cares to study history, divide & conquer....
Psittacus cafeinaYou should look up Reagan and the Fairness Doctrine he killed, and the subsequent development of right-wing talk radio, which immediately jumped off the deep end.
Incidentally, congrats to Rush Limbaugh for his two years and nine months of sobriety!
roger_the_devil_ducky@brianklaas yes, taking down twitter was a feature, not a bug
Alex Danvers@brianklaas the problem is figuring out where to go next. What is the way to stay connected and have “live updates” from real information? Feels like it’s harder to piece together a good information diet.
Nicole ParsonsMusk has help. His investors appear happy with his anti-democracy conduct. Saudis. China. Russia. Jamie Dimon.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/05/05/musk-binance-alwaleed-ellison-equity-committments-twitter-deal-bid-buyout-takeover/
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/05/larry-ellison-chips-in-a-cool-billion-towards-musks-twitter-takeover/?comments=1
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/the-elon-musk-investors-with-dreams-of-a-new-social-order
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/08/musk-thiel-zuckerberg-andreessen-alternate-autocratic-reality
The oil industry wages war on any entity that might act on climate, including democracy itself.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/11/charles-koch-what-a-mess
The purchase of Supreme Court Justices and a Speaker of the House is just part of that war.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4275210-mike-johnson-speaker-gop-pro-oil-climate-skeptical-record/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/22/clarence-thomas-koch-revelations-calls-supreme-court-reform
Graham Webster@Npars01 @brianklaas is there a “China” element here? Pretty big leap if it’s just Binance
China wants to supplant the US dollar as the global reserve currency. It's why it supports cryptocurrency & buys GOP politicians like Michael Johnson.
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/10/25/lesser-known-johnson-wins-speaker-job-as-crypto-focused-lawmakers-return-to-old-roles/
https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/confronting-the-china-challenge/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binance
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/27/binance-and-founder-changpeng-zhao-sued-by-cftc-for-allegedly-violating-trading-rules.html
Binance appears to be a CCCP entity that has lost political favor in recent months. Just like Alibaba and Evergrande have.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-26/binance-founder-cz-loses-12-billion-on-crypto-trading-slump
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/us/bitcoin-mines-china-united-states.html
@Npars01 @brianklaas there’s a lot going on there, some of which I’d dispute if I had time or motivation, but none of it supports the contention that binance (which I have no love for and generally find shady even among crypto players) is CCP-driven or -directed. Musk’s business and financial interests in China are deep through Tesla, but the idea that a Binance investment in Twitter is a Chinese gov scheme needs more support at best.
When ill-intentioned governments get involved in international business, they can threaten to use their leverage.
Example 2
https://thedispatch.com/article/elon-musks-ccp-pressure-points/
Example 3
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-66816507
Example 4
https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/elon-musk-is-beijings-ideal-foreign-investor-2023-05-31/
Example 5
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-musks-business-ties-china-draw-scrutiny-twitter-purchase-rcna26057
https://www.thedailybeast.com/congress-should-investigate-elon-musks-business-ties-with-china
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/musk-stopped-ukraine-attack-russian-fleet-starlink-rcna104019
Example 7
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ftx-estate-sends-funds-binance-051155971.html
Kid Mania
Der Motzmichel auf Sharkey@brianklaas This is oh-so-shocking news that rich people care most for themselves and not for the people who made them rich in the first place. Oh, wait, not really. After the election in 2024, America could become a huge threat to the free and democratic world.
This is something that worries me the most ...
This is something that worries me the most ...
@brianklaas
That was the point.
China gave him Tesla factories, Saudis fronted the money, Russia became the largest advertiser and paid in rubles.
They paid to stop people talking about them.
That was exactly the point.
That was the point.
China gave him Tesla factories, Saudis fronted the money, Russia became the largest advertiser and paid in rubles.
They paid to stop people talking about them.
That was exactly the point.
🍸Pooka🥕Boo🍸@brianklaas Humans are inherently tribal. They find comfort in those who think like they do. I would also submit that the majority of people believe in some variation of god(s). Believing this alone is as anti-democratic as one can be.
Catherine BerryIf a system can be damaged that badly by a single bad actor, the bad actor isn't the problem with the system.
Rhinos Worry Me has moved"The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all."
-John F. Kennedy
Mark Hughes@brianklaas Democracy was poisoned by introducing voting.
It was sound when using sortition (similar to jury selection) but once you introduce voting the result is full of vulnerabilities: career politicians, patronage, lobbying, campaign misinformation etc.
JJ Peterson@brianklaas The Free Press self-poisoned the information pipeline with laziness, both sides bs, and making polls, opinions and gossip journalism, while deciding fact checking and providing context were the responsibility of their subscribers, not themselves. Musk understands better than most the narcissistic beautiful people who dominate today’s media. The Afghanistan withdrawal, Hunter Biden, all of Biden’s accomplishments, the implosion of the gop, now Hamas. All media fails.
Sandhu@brianklaas as someone already mentioned in this thread, it’s not just Musk. Fox News and talk radio has been at it for decades. People should listen to some local talk radio, it’s a completely alternative universe from our own echo chamber in places like this.
ferricoxide@brianklaas
Alternatively, by ensuring that Twitter is completely untrustworthy, he's reducing the damage that comes from that pipeline?
Alternatively, by ensuring that Twitter is completely untrustworthy, he's reducing the damage that comes from that pipeline?
surfie@brianklaas
Akin to this Guardian article about the Big Lie
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2023/oct/29/you-cant-fight-the-republican-partys-big-lie-with-facts-alone
Akin to this Guardian article about the Big Lie
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2023/oct/29/you-cant-fight-the-republican-partys-big-lie-with-facts-alone
Fish HeadIf you were Vlad Putin, head of re-emerging KGB in re-emerging USSR, with a billion dollar budget to undermine Western democracies, what would you do?
Pour gasoline on every fire, regardless of right or left or pro or anti. Pour hate into social media so that USA, EU, Canada, UK… tear themselves to pieces.
Justlee@brianklaas Not to mention the conservative extreme right...not to mention names